Is your smartphone battery draining out rather fast? Well, here is how to preserve phone battery lifespan and what you should never do while charging your smartphone.
As smartphones grow in size and adoption, so do their batteries. With the consumption of social media, video content and gaming going through the roof, the importance of smartphone batteries has assumed greater proportions. A recent survey by MediaTek revealed consumers consider battery life as the most important aspect of their smartphones.
Indeed, the longevity of smartphone batteries depends on the manufactures. However, the lifespan of your smartphone largely depends on your day-to-day usage as well as its maintenance. For optimal longevity of your smartphone battery, make sure to follow these battery charging tips for android phones.
Never Use Your Handset While It’s Connected to Power Bank
Can I use my phone while charging on the power bank? Well, not at all.
Using your mobile handset while it’s charging via power bank, can lead to an increase in internal temperatures. As a result, the lifespan of your battery goes drastically down. Always make it a point to disconnect the charger before using the handset.
Never Use a Random Charger/Adaptor
- It’s quite common to find people charging their mobile handsets with any random charger as long as it fits the USB charging port. However, if you want to ensure the safety and longevity of your battery, always use the original charger as far as possible.
- If you’re going for a replacement charger, make sure the output voltage(V), as well as the current(Ampere) rating, is as per the handset manufacturer’s instructions. In case, you’re using an iPhone, be sure to buy a replacement charger/adaptor that’s approved by Apple.
- Unlike notebooks, mobile handsets and smartphones usually feature a universal charging interface such as Micro USB or USB Type C Port. This gives many the impression that they could use any charging cable or adaptor with their handset.
- However, using an incompatible charging cable/adaptor can gradually ruin the battery life and performance. Decreasing battery life means your phone will be less capable to store charge. If this sounds familiar, you may want to ditch that incompatible charger and invest in a charger/adaptor as recommended by your device’s manufacturer.
Never Use Cheap Charger from Unknown Manufacturers
As explained previously, using a cheap charger can not only ruin your battery but pose a grave danger to your handset when it overheats. Cheap chargers or adaptors rarely follow safety mechanisms and they’re not usually built to protect against current fluctuation or overcharging. In fact, if the adaptor is flawed, it can damage the battery permanently.
Remove the Protective Case While Charging Your Phone
More often than not, we see people charging their mobile handsets with the protective case still on. This can also affect battery life gradually. Smartphone batteries are designed to dissipate heat while they’re on charging mode.
The mobile protective cases act a barrier by not letting the charging battery breath easy. Not only should you take the protective cover off while charging your handset, but you should also flip the phone over and plate it on a soft cloth if you want to protect the display.
Avoid Fast Charging as Far as Possible
- Fasting charging seems to be the latest fad these days. Many mobile phone manufacturers proudly introduce this feature to make their handset appealing. While fast charging is a great feature to benefit from, it can actually damage your battery when overdone. In fact, fast charging may not be quite healthy for your cellphone’s battery.
- Technically, fast charging means sending higher voltage to your phone’s battery, which can boost its temperature rapidly. Therefore, when you rely on fast charging frequently, you actually expose your battery to unwanted to wear and tear, thereby causing its life to shorten gradually.
- Experts recommend that you should opt for a normal charging cycle in your settings in order to keep your battery remain healthy and last long.
- It’s common for your phone’s battery to become very hot during fast charging. In such a scenario, you should always switch off the phone to prevent it from any potential damage. To switch off, simply keep the power button pressed for a few seconds and let the display switch off. Let the device to return to room temperature before switching it back on.
Don’t Let the Phone Charging Overnight
Many of us tend to leave our phone charging overnight, especially when the battery is too low and we hit the bed. Even if you’re using a device that’s designed to auto disconnect after charging fully, it’s a good idea to unplug your phone to prevent it from overcharging. As a matter of fact, overcharging can be detrimental to your battery’s health in the long run.
So, at what percentage to charge the phone, you ask? According to Sciencing.com, even as your phone disconnects after a full charge cycle, the power still trickles in to keep it fully charged until you unplug it. Moreover, most smartphone batteries have a fixed cycle, meaning they can go 0-100 only a fixed number of times. Therefore, to ensure optimal battery life, never let your phone charge beyond 100%. In fact, it’s a good idea to keep charge between 10% to 90%.
Be Careful about Third-party Apps
Third-party apps, especially the ones that run in the background are primarily responsible for draining your battery out. According to a survey by Avast, Google Maps, Samsung AllShare, Quick Search Box (Google), Netflix, Snapchat, Clean Master and ES File Explorer are among the top battery-draining Android apps.
Experts caution against installing any potentially unscrupulous third-party app that you see on browser ads. More often than not, these apps take over your lock screen to load ads or constantly run in the background, causing quick battery drainage.
Optimize Your Charging Cycles
How you manage the charging cycles affects the longevity of your battery. According to Android Authority, charging your phone between 30 to 80 percent range ensures the optimal health of your battery. This essentially means you should never let the battery fall below 30 percent or go above 80 percent while charging. Moreover, small regular top-ups are better for your battery’s health than full charge cycles.
Invest in a Decent Power Bank
Apart from using the recommended chargers and adaptors, you also need to consider the quality of your power bank. Cheap power banks aren’t usually designed to protect your battery against voltage surge, short circuit, over-current or overcharging. Here are a few tips on buying the right power bank for your phone.
#1 – VOLTAGE: Never buy a power bank whose voltage is higher than that of the battery of your mobile phone. The same goes for your adaptor as well. Charging your battery from a higher power source may potentially cause your battery to swell or worse explode.
#2 – CURRENT: Also mind the current rating of your power bank or adaptor. It should be typically equal to or higher than the specifications of your handset. Power banks with lower current ratings mean your battery will take much longer to charge.
Apart from these two, you should also check some other factors such as marking capacity, real capacity, conversion rate, phone battery health and phone battery capacity.