Key Takeaways
- To prevent premature deterioration, make sure your phone battery does not run out of juice.
- Be careful, as extreme temperatures can damage your phone’s battery.
- To protect the health of your phone’s battery, use a reliable charger and cable.
Whenever I tell my family and friends why I bought a new phone, the number one reason they always tell me is that my old phone’s battery no longer lasts as long. It’s not that my phone is running slow, doesn’t have enough storage space, or I don’t like the way it looks. The main reason is always battery life. People naturally care about their phone’s battery and want it to last all day.
The truth is, no matter what you do, your phone battery will naturally degrade. That’s exactly how the lithium-ion batteries in most phones work. While it’s impossible to stop your battery from degrading completely, there are things you can do to mitigate or slow the process. Smartphone batteries, whether iPhone or Android, have improved a lot over the past decade.
Although mobile phone hardware and software have become more effective at improving battery life and health, there are still things you can do to improve your phone’s battery life and make it last even longer. Here are some things you should and should not do to prevent damaging your smartphone battery:
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1 Turn off your phone
However, be sure to insert it before it hits zero.
We’ve all been there, and it’s not the end of the world if your phone battery dies completely every once in a while, but the easiest way to protect your phone battery is to never let it drain all the way to zero.
Doing this too often will degrade your battery, reducing its health and charging capacity. You might be wondering why this happens.
The best way to keep your phone’s battery from getting too close to zero is to charge it when you see the low battery notification…
Fully discharging your battery on a regular basis accelerates the chemical degradation process by putting strain on the materials in the battery when the device is recharged and brought back to life. This strain on the chemicals worsens the battery’s condition and slightly increases the rate at which the battery naturally ages. The best way to keep your phone’s battery from getting too close to zero is to charge it when you see the low battery notification, which is usually when you get to 20% battery remaining. Doing this will help maintain the health of your phone’s battery.
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2 Extreme temperatures are not good
Beware of overheating and extreme cold
Extreme temperature conditions can damage your phone battery. Phones are designed and tested to operate and charge in specific temperature conditions, and your phone’s battery will be affected if exposed to extreme hot or cold temperatures.
Apple’s website states, “Avoid using or charging your device at ambient temperatures above 95° F (35° C) as this can permanently shorten battery life.” Heat accelerates chemical reactions in your phone’s lithium-ion battery, causing it to age faster. Using your phone in summer or hot weather won’t cause your battery to deteriorate, but you should be careful when charging or using it. Allow your phone to cool if it gets too hot. Most phones will let you know when it’s too hot to operate.
For example, my iPhone recently showed a notification that it had stopped charging due to heat. It was a hot day, so I had to wait until my phone cooled down before I could safely charge it without damaging the battery. This only took a few minutes, but you can see how heat can affect your battery and charging.
Cold weather also affects batteries. Extreme cold typically slows down rather than speeds up the chemical reactions in your battery. This causes your phone to use more power to keep the battery and its components warm and at their optimal operating temperature, making the battery less efficient and reducing its capacity. To protect your phone’s battery, be aware of weather conditions and make sure to let your phone recover if it gets too hot or cold.
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3 Faulty chargers and cables are the main culprits
Use the manufacturer’s charger or a trusted brand charger
Pocket Lint
Using a reliable phone charger and cable is an easy way to prevent damage to your phone’s battery. Usually, the ones that came with your phone from the manufacturer are best. However, there may be times when you don’t have the original charger and cable on hand and you need a new cable and a wall brick.
A poor quality charger can damage your phone battery and cause it to deteriorate faster if it doesn’t deliver the correct voltage, so when buying a new phone charger and cable, make sure you buy them from the manufacturer or a trusted third-party brand (such as Anker or Belkin) that can safely deliver the correct voltage and fully charge your phone battery.
Avoiding using cheap or flimsy cables to charge your phone will protect your phone and its battery.
You should also be careful with cables. For example, I once bought a cheap cable at a convenience store to charge my iPhone in the car. I didn’t know that the cable was substandard, but it caused my phone to heat up and barely charge. I simply replaced it with my regular Apple charging cable, and my phone charged perfectly fine. Avoiding charging your phone with a cheap or flimsy cable will protect your phone and its battery.
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4 You are not using Optimized Charging
Protect your smartphone battery yourself
Most mobile phones have built-in protection that automatically stops charging when the maximum capacity is reached, so overcharging your phone and destroying its battery is more myth than fact.
However, because a little bit of energy and power is cycled around to maintain a 100% charge, continually charging your phone at 100% can degrade your battery slightly.
Most phones today have an adaptive charging setting to manage and optimize charging based on usage. On iPhones, the feature is called Optimized Battery Charging. On Pixels, it’s called Adaptive Charging. On Samsung phones, it’s called Battery Protection. Though the names are different, they all have the same purpose: to optimize battery charging and extend battery life.
…No need to worry about charging your phone overnight or leaving it at 100% for extended periods of time
I use Optimized Battery Charge on my iPhone every day. When I charge my phone at night, it automatically stops charging at 80% and starts charging to 100% as I get closer to my scheduled alarm, so that by the time I wake up, my battery is fully charged.
In summary, you shouldn’t worry about leaving your phone charging overnight or at 100% for any extended period of time – the risk to your battery health is small and phones are becoming more intelligent than ever, optimizing charging and reducing the risk of trickle charging degrading your phone battery.
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5 Pay attention to the time
Old answers still hold true
Time is the most important factor that damages a battery. No matter how well you treat your phone battery, how many optimization settings you use, and how carefully you use and charge your phone, over time your battery will deteriorate. That’s its lifespan.
The lithium-ion batteries in your phone wear out and their chemicals naturally deteriorate as you charge them every day. Over time, as your battery goes through more charge cycles, it can hold less charge, shortening its lifespan.
Most phones have an option to view your phone’s battery status through a settings menu or app, allowing you to monitor the health of your battery over time. With my last two iPhones, the battery has dropped by around 10% over the course of two years, from 100% to 90%. It’s simply a matter of time.
While you can’t prevent the passage of time, you can reduce its impact on your battery by being aware of the things that can damage your phone battery, such as those mentioned in this article.
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