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Modern batteries, with modern chargers really don’t care how you use them. The differences are negligible between methods of charging. There are several vids, I think a couple were even posted here that are doing deep dives into charging and they all come to the same conclusion, it really doesn’t matter any more.
The only difference is if you leave a device plugged in, capping it at 80% or less will minimize wear and tear over the long haul.
Charging limit features exist for a reason and not just in phones. EVs have the same problem with charging over night. The best thing to do is not to drain it too low or charge it too high. The orange line (65-75) is probably not realistically doable, but the purple (45-75) should be doable for most people that arent constantly hanging on their phones.
As you can see going low is not as bad as going high because 25-75 is much better than 50-100 even tho the difference is 50% in both cases.
https://www.ifixit.com/News/90983/why-charging-your-gadgets-over-80-is-such-a-bad-idea
https://www.roulonselectrique.ca/en/toutes-les-actualites/recharger-son-vehicule-electrique-a-80-ou-a-100/
https://batteryuniversity.com/article/bu-808-how-to-prolong-lithium-based-batteries
So if an average phone user charges his phone daily for 3 years, he’ll reach 1000 cycles or so. Doing 100-25% as the worst possible daily every time, that battery would have 90% of its original capacity. So 5 Years should be something like 1800 cycles, which should be 85% capacity on a 5 year old phone. I’d probably use those 15% up within 2 hours, and my phone can do about 1,5 days on average on a 100% charge. 5 years is IMHO good enough for a daily phone.
I think I can live with charge whenever however long. But I keep an eye on keeping it cool during charging, which I think is more important for battery life.
These are lab conditions, so in reality the degradation is probably quite a bit worse. In practice your battery will reach temperatures ranging from 10-50°C (or much more if you leave it in the sun) for example. High heat especially can cause battery aging to progress at 2-3 times the normal rate. Its also not evident from this graph if these cycles were going from 25-100 and then immediately back down to 25% or if the charge was stuck to 100% for 6h like it is on a real phone that gets charged over night.
5 years is IMHO good enough for a daily phone.
Its better than the current situation, but fundamentally phone hardware hasnt really changed in the last 10 years. There isnt really any reason to not use one phone even longer than that. The Fairphone 6 is promising 8 years of software updates for example.
I’m currently writing this on a phone that’s 7 or 8 years old. I’ve had it long enough that it’s bent a little from the tension of being in my pocket. The battery has held up pretty well given my absolute abuse of it. I’ve certainly gotten my $200 worth but I’m not looking forward to having to get a new one.
Fairphone also lets you change out the battery very easily, so it’s not that big of a deal if it degrades. You might save the world 20% of a battery’s worth of e-waste by micromanaging your charging, which won’t really make a difference.
Spot on, batteries are supposed to be consumables that are easily swapped out, but manufacturers are keen on sealing the battery inside so that the whole device becomes a consumable from the perspective of an average consumer.
“Bad” is relative, but it does reduce the long-term lifespan of your battery. Ideally you should charge to 80%, but if you actually need the 100%, I wouldn’t worry about it either.
That’s conventional wisdom for lithium ion batteries. Keeping it between 20 and 80 percent will extend its life. But that doesn’t mean charging or discharging it fully will be bad immediately; the effects are small but cumulative. And while battery tech improves, this guideline will probably be less important.
My phone has a option in battery settings for setting max charge % to 80%.
This is what I do. I allow it to go to 100% for traveling. I don’t need 100% charge when I’m around the house or at work with access to a charger.
I sorta assume software takes care of this type of thing at this point but maybe im wrong.
Yes. 74% is the “average” point of diminishing returns to preserve the battery, according to Accubattery’s data. It tracks charging cycles and battery wear across many thousands of smartphones.
In fact, the reason many phones/gadgets don’t offer this feature (and that Apple sometimes charges to 100% in spite of the toggle) is likely planned obsolescence.
…To add to this, the actual charging threshold of the battery is a bit arbitrary and set by the manufacturer, as a tradeoff of capacity vs life. Fast charging is the same; charging quickly is hard on the battery, and the limits at different charge levels are configured as a “balance” between convenience and life.
…And sometimes they get those thresholds wrong.
Like Samsung rather infamously did for the exploding Galaxy Notes. Google did for the Nexus 6P. They pushed the batteries too hard and borked the phones.
Yes.
Yes.
Simplified and probably inaccurate explanation: 100% & 0% wears at the "membrane’ that keeps the two energy compounds apart. Charges afterwards don’t reach 100% as easily, or not at all. Charging to 80% puts less strain on the membrane as it keeps the two energy rich compounds apart. 50% is best, especially if device is always plugged in. At 50% the membrane is under the least amount of stress.
*Molten batteries *are the only ones I know that solve the problem, but they’re the size of a house and meant to power cities.
Also we’re finally starting to see devices acknowledge this issue. Phones now only charge to 80% overnight then go to 100% shortly before your alarm goes off. And always plugged in laptops can be set to 60% charge to preserve the lifespan of the battery.
I’ll just link this video: Is Fast Charging Killing the Battery? A 2-Year Test on 40 Phones
Though obviously limited by ressources it’s going, in my opinion, a great direction.
After I replaced the battery, the tech told me that charging it over night is what’s bad.
Don’t put it on charge and let it sit at 100% for hours.
That’s why modern phone operating systems will charge your battery to 80-90% at the beginning of the night and then charge the last bit just in time to be done when you wake up, based either on when your alarm is set or on past usage statistics.
My phone is so old it has a rotary dial
Then you don’t need to worry. Battery degradation isn’t much of a problem for those.
Short answer No….
Long answer no….
Longest answer no….
All the talk about battery life is silly. You will get rid of that phone long before the battery dies.
If you are wasteful idiot yes.
Well, not necessarily. I’ve had my phone for almost five years now. The battery is at 78% of it’s original capacity and still gets me through the day without problems, even on heavy use. The only times I need to charge during the day is when I’m on a long distance train and listen to podcasts or audio books for hours.
Chances are that something else will fail long before the battery. And even if not, the local phone repair shop offers a battery replacement for about 50€ which is more than reasonable for something that will get me another couple of years.
Sure there are phones that have enough capacity overhead to still be usable despite a 20% reduction, but thats not most phones.
Also they just stated “No” in response to a question to which the answer is unequivocally “Yes” and that pissed me off.
You will get rid of that phone long before the battery dies.
Why? There was a time where smartphone tech was improving fast enough that there was a large benefit to a new phone every 2-3 years, but that time is in the past for most use cases.
