Smartphone battery care 22 September 2022 at 6:22PM in Techie Stuff 6 replies 161 views

RainbowsInTheSpray

Hi again guys. From the angle of maximising useful life, I believe I've read somewhere that smartphone batteries are best kept at roughly between the 20% and 80% charge levels. Is this true?

Neil49

I have read the same and, if you have an android phone, you can set the charging limit to 85% in the battery care section of Settings. 

Heedtheadvice

That applies generally to Lithium Iron batteries but some newer ones work with a greater depth of discharge.

Without further info on the particular battery it seems like a good policy but also not to charge when not really needed as an example don't recharge at 60+% but maybe wait till 40% charge is reached. It is common practice to plug in to charge every night but that does reduce life.

Needs a bit of judgement depending upon expected use in the immediate future to optimise life vs functionality.

400ixl

Neil49 said:

I have read the same and, if you have an android phone, you can set the charging limit to 85% in the battery care section of Settings. 

That is a vendor setting not a core android setting so will depend on the phone you have.

RainbowsInTheSpray

Heedtheadvice said:

That applies generally to Lithium Iron batteries but some newer ones work with a greater depth of discharge.

Without further info on the particular battery it seems like a good policy but also not to charge when not really needed as an example don't recharge at 60+% but maybe wait till 40% charge is reached. It is common practice to plug in to charge every night but that does reduce life.

Needs a bit of judgement depending upon expected use in the immediate future to optimise life vs functionality.

All I know is that it's supposed to be "5000mAh", whatever that means!

getmore4less

5000mAh is the capacity, that's quite decent and should give a decent life more than a day or two with regular use and a day for quite heavy use


Will it matter?

How much longer will battery "care"  give it and expected life of the phone.

it's going to deteriorate anyway with use and the charge cycles.

There is also the convenience factor and how much you use in a period away from a charger.
You don't want to be running out.

Probably better for longevity is just use less battery, fewer cycles.

Screen is the biggest battery user for most people maybe use dark mode more often turn screen brightness down.

Look at the battery use for a normal day between charges to see the use by apps.
Some can be hogs in the background and are not needed.  

Another factor is the charger and the charging rate.
Maybe use a slow charger if doing overnights to reduce the trickle time.
or don't overnight and charge another time, easier with fast chargers. 

Looking at your previous iphone O2 thread.

Seen report you can change  to a new deal with O2.

Check out the various O2  threads on Hotukdeals where people are changing to good new deals.
Also if you have virgin media check "volt".
 

400ixl

Optimal is to not let it drop below 20% and not to charge it over 80%, use a slow charger and do not leave it plugged in when the 80% is reached.

Leaving it plugged in overnight is a worse scenario than using a fast charger to get it to 80% and un plugged if the choice is between the two.