Twenty years ago, forgetting one’s wallet or keys might have been the most nightmarish scenario imaginable. Now, it’s realizing that you forgot to charge your phone ahead of a long work day or dull commute.
It’s no secret that, as phones have gotten slimmer, faster and more versatile, scrollers and texters of all ages have become dependent on their mobile devices, which are growing more powerful by the year.
Though mobile devices are not as finicky and volatile as they used to be, there are a few best practices that experts recommend to keep your battery long-lasting, safe and full for as long as possible.
Should you let your battery run all the way down to zero?
The adage of letting your phone run down to completely empty before charging is largely a remnant of a technological past, says Daniel Wigdor, a Professor of Computer Science at the University of Toronto.
Batteries of years past were mostly of the nickel-cadmium (or “NiCad”) variety, which had a sort of battery “memory.” As a result, the bottom part of the range to which it was charged became its de-facto empty state, he said.
“Whatever the range that you charge it, that you let it go and charge, that will become the range of the battery,” Wigdor said. “So, you’d want to run it all the way down and all the way back up, and that was true of that battery chemistry.”
Today, most phones use lithium-ion batteries that don’t allow users to run them down to absolutely zero, so the idea of letting your battery run all the way down — out of the box or otherwise — shouldn’t be a consideration for most modern devices.
Should I let my phone charge overnight?
Though there’ve been horror stories of phones overheating and even catching fire while charging overnight, they’re most likely caused by faulty, third-party power bricks and poor charging cables, says Patrick O’Rourke, the editor-in-chief of the tech website Pocket-lint.
“Realistically, if you do that, it’s really not gonna mess with your battery health that much,” O’Rourke said, adding that he charges his phone overnight regularly.
Still, it’s useful to try to limit the extent to which your phone is plugged in and charging while full if you’re in the habit of leaving it charging overnight.
Apple’s iPhones, for instance, have settings that slowly charge the battery so that it gradually fills up and doesn’t stay plugged in at 100 per cent for too long. Many Android devices — such as the Samsung Galaxy and Google Pixel lines — also have similar settings to optimize and protect battery charging. (Samsung explicitly says that there’s no risk of overcharging if you leave your phone plugged in overnight.)
How long should you expect your battery to last?
It’s reasonable to expect your phone battery to last several years, says Marc Saltzman, a consumer technology expert and commentator who previously wrote about tech for the Star.
Owing to the fact that modern screens “sip rather than gulp” electricity and processors are more efficient, users no longer need to upgrade their devices yearly to keep their charge consistent.
“You’re starting to see battery performance improve over time,” Saltzman told the Star.
In September, Apple agreed to pay out up to $14.4 million to owners of certain iPhones after customers claimed that downloading a certain version of its operating system caused the devices to slow down dramatically, ostensibly encouraging them to buy a newer phone.
What range should you shoot for?
The sweet spot for most batteries is somewhere between 50 and 80 per cent full, Wigdor says, while Saltzman suggests that anywhere between 20 and 80 per cent is ideal.
While it’s not necessarily dangerous to charge your phone right up to 100 per cent, keeping your battery within this range can ensure that the internal components don’t age or degrade as fast and prevent undue stress on the battery itself.
“If you can keep your battery always in that range, that is the thing you can do to keep it the longest life, and that’s just about the battery chemistry,” Wigdor said. “The wrong metaphor is to think of it as like an empty glass that you’re pouring water into. That’s not what’s happening. It’s a substance that is always there, and you’re changing its chemistry from one state to another.”
It’s not just phones that should be kept within the 50-to-80 per cent range; the same thing applies to tablets and laptops, Wigdor says, since most varieties likewise use the same type of battery in most phones, just with larger capacities.
Is wireless charging bad for your phone’s battery?
Wireless charging — whether it be on a pad, a stand or a dock — isn’t inherently harmful to your battery’s health, O’Rourke says, but it can heat up your battery, which itself isn’t great.
“It’s slow, it’s relatively slow, so I don’t think there’s a lot of potential for battery damage,” O’Rourke said. “But it can sometimes make your device pretty hot, which isn’t great for battery longevity.”
To that end, Wigdor says that the two “adversaries” to keep in mind when discussing batteries are heat and charge amount, and wireless charging is bad for the former.
As a result, he calls wireless charging a mixed bag.
“The adversary it hurts us with is heat,” Wigdor said. “It heats up your battery, it’s not a great thing.”
