Casual and savvy smartphone users alike are looking for longer-lasting battery life. The lithium-ion batteries in our phones wear out over time; It’s getting harder and harder to keep battery life at its best. If you have been using the same phone for several years, you may have noticed that the battery does not last as long as when it was new. After three years, many phones are starting to struggle to last all day on a single charge.
Unfortunately, battery capacity inevitably degrades over time. However, there are things you can do to extend the life of your battery and smartphone. If you’ve ever wondered what the best way to charge your battery is, here are some scientifically proven tips to increase battery life:
Partial charging is a healthy habit
It’s a well-known battery myth to occasionally completely discharge and recharge to clear the battery memory. This is a myth from the era of lead-acid batteries, not lithium-ion batteries, and charging modern smartphones this way is undesirable.
Partial charging is fine for lithium-ion batteries and can offer several positive benefits for battery life. It is important to understand how the battery is charged. Li-on batteries draw constant current and operate at a lower voltage, which is close to exhaustion. This voltage gradually increases as the battery charges and stabilizes at about 70% charge level before the current begins to drop until capacity is full.
Especially low voltage operation is good for battery life, increasing the number of charge cycles available before you start seeing a significant reduction in capacity as well. According to Battery University, every 0.1V drop in battery voltage doubles the cycle life. Therefore, charging your phone between 30% – 80% will keep the voltage lower and may extend the life of the battery a bit. For Li-ion batteries, shorter but regular charging is much better than long full charge cycles.
Avoid idle charging
Charging overnight or during the day is a very common habit but is not recommended for several reasons (not the overcharging myth). First, continued charging of a charged battery can result in metallic lithium coatings that reduce long-term durability and can lead to rare, system-wide failures and reboots. Second, as we just mentioned, it leaves the battery at a higher voltage at 100%. Third and most important is the excessive heat generation caused by wasted power loss.
Many smartphones today disable or slow down charging when approaching full capacity. Ideally, the device should stop charging when it reaches 100% battery capacity, only reopen the charging circuit to recharge the battery occasionally, or at least reduce the charging current to very small amounts.
Some phones disable charging when full, while many continue to draw half an amp, and sometimes more, from the wall outlet. Turning off the smartphone also doesn’t make a difference in most cases. While this isn’t huge power, it stops your phone from cooling down quickly and causes a mini charge cycle.
One last point worth mentioning is parasitic payloads. This happens when the battery is charging while it’s charging, such as watching a video or playing a game while it’s charging and is also significantly discharged. Playing games or watching videos while charging disrupts charge cycles. The best way to avoid parasitic loads is to keep the workload light while the device is plugged in, and it’s best to leave it idle most of the time.
Heat is the enemy of battery life
With all of the above, temperature has an equally important effect on longevity and maximizing battery life. In fact, it is arguably the biggest killer of long-term battery health. High temperatures, such as high voltages, put stress on the battery and cause a much faster loss of capacity than if kept at low temperatures.
A battery kept between 25 and 40 degrees Celsius should retain approximately 85% to 96% of its capacity after the first year with reasonable charge cycles. Regularly raising the temperature above 40 degrees Celsius and charging to 100% causes the capacity to drop by up to 65% after the first year. The ideal temperature to maximize battery cycle life is below 40 degrees.
A fully charged battery exposed to high temperature is the worst case and the number one thing to avoid when charging your phone. Fast charging technologies are a contentious issue here as higher currents and voltages will result in a hotter device.
Fast charging is good for short-term charging. Leaving your phone on fast charge for 5 to 15 minutes will not cause overheating problems. If you plan to leave your phone plugged in overnight rather than using it on a full charge, you’re better off using a temperature sensitive fast charging solution or switching to a slower charging adapter.
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