Just like anything electronic, your phone needs to be charged when the battery gets low. There’s nothing worse than your phone dying when you need it the most. There are too many horror movies with that trope. This is why people carry around chargers in their cars. Usually, people will charge it up to a full one hundred percent. But does it really need to be at full battery? Despite what you believe, the answer is no. Why is that? Wouldn’t it be a good idea to have your phone at full battery? Are you really doing more damage to your phone than you realize? The answers would surprise you. Let me explain.
You Could be Killing Your Battery Life Without Even Knowing it
On the surface, it would be a good thing to have your phone at 100 percent. You don’t have to worry about charging it for at least a day or two. You can do more on your phone when the battery is high. So it would make sense to charge your phone one hundred percent. But that might be good for the battery. You could end up killing it in the long run. When that happens, you might need to buy another phone. And those don’t come cheap. The key is in the type of battery that is inside your phone. Most batteries are lithium-ion. This is what powers most smartphones these days. According to the New York Times, “The ions move in one direction when charging and in the other when discharging.” Because of this, they apparently don’t like to be charged all the way. Charging up to 100% can put stress on your poor battery. To further explain in the same New York Times, Hans de Vries, senior scientist at Signify, is quoted as saying, “The lithium-ion needs some space in the electrodes and the electrode has to make this space, because of the stress. The electrodes will gradually degrade and that is also then a loss of capacity in the battery.” This will lead to your phone having a poor performance. Your phone could end up going slow with its response, not charge properly, or just freeze to the point that you have to restart your phone.
However, it is not a good idea to let your phone battery get too low. Please don’t let your phone drop to zero percent. That can also put stress on your battery as well. This could lead you to charge your phone more than you need to. Most of the time, you can really afford one smartphone for months at a time. When the battery goes, you are either going to have to replace it or get a new phone. Depending on your situation, you might not be able to afford a new phone or a battery right away. However, if you have an iPhone with an iOS 13 or higher, you are fine. These have a special feature that reduces damage to the battery when you charge it. It probably won’t be long before more phones are like this. Until then, you have to learn how to take better care of charging your phone battery before you end up causing lasting damage to it.
What Can I Do Better?
If you aren’t supposed to be charging your phone to a hundred percent, where is a good place to unplug your phone? Experts suggest that you have your phone between twenty and eighty percent. Sure, you won’t have the battery at full percentage, but it is worth it to have a long battery life. Now, you can’t always do that, but you will have to try. Sure, some habits are hard to change, but you will need to do it for your phone. What if you are too busy when your phone is charging? You can take a couple of seconds to look and check the screen. Another thing that you have to keep in mind is not to leave your phone charging all the time. That will kill the battery too.
You might be doing damage to your battery without even knowing it. If you aren’t dropping it or holding it in a tight pocket, you are shortening the battery life of your phone. You have to learn how to change your charging habits to save your battery life. Unless you are rich, it will take you a long time to try and replace or repair your phone. So please take care of it before you have to upgrade.
