I’ve followed this topic for years: When and how often to charge your smartphone’s battery. What to do and not — in order to prolong the usable life of that battery (and so not worry about replacing the battery before you’re ready to get a new smartphone, eh).<\/p>\n
For many of us, charging the battery on our smartphones is a daily ritual. Sometimes more than once a day, as we do more and more on our smartphones that we used to do on desktop\/notebook computers. One basic question is whether to use your smartphone until the battery charge level is so low that your device shuts off automatically (or at least until you get a warning).<\/p>\n
While there remains some debate about charging practices (versus battery chemistry per se), I found this recent Lifehacker.com article a good summary: “Stop Letting Your Smartphone’s Battery Die Before You Charge It<\/a>” (August 17, 2018).<\/p>\n You can charge your smartphone whenever you want. Your device\u2019s lithium-ion battery doesn\u2019t care if it\u2019s at 10% or 80% capacity; it will charge just fine without destroying your device\u2019s longevity.<\/p>\n It\u2019s true that a lithium-ion battery\u00a0will\u00a0diminish over time, … the capacity of a lithium-ion battery<\/strong><\/a> \u201cdiminishes slightly with each complete charge cycle<\/strong>.\u201dSo, if you\u2019ve overusing your smartphone because you think you\u2019re better-maintaining its battery by doing so, you\u2019re actually doing yourself a disservice. Stop adding unnecessary charge cycles by draining the battery.<\/strong> Just charge it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n In particular, the article references a YouTube video\u00a0from the American Chemical Society<\/a> with tips on making your smartphone battery last longer.<\/p>\n As for all the other battery myths out there, everyone seems to have a different take on what you should do with your device\u2014when to charge it, when not to charge it, what battery level to charge to, et cetera. … the general recommendation is that you keep your smartphone\u2019s battery around 50 percent if you aren\u2019t using it for a long time (as in, months) …<\/p><\/blockquote>\n How Can You Make Your Smartphone Battery Last Longer?<\/a><\/p>\n