You’re Probably Charging Your Phone Wrong

Smartphones have become a vital part of our everyday lives, even though many of us probably only know a little bit about their maintenance. When it comes to looking after your favorite portable gadget, the topic of battery care—and specifically, how to extend the life of the one in your phone—can also be pretty confusing.

Below, check out a breakdown of how phone batteries tend to degrade and common misconceptions you might have about your device, like whether leaving it to charge overnight is really as bad as some tech experts suggest. You’ll also get a few tips on how to keep your phone’s battery at peak performance and more.

1. How Do Phone Batteries Work?
2. How to Improve Your Phone’s Battery Life
3. Other Common Misconceptions About Phone Batteries

How Do Phone Batteries Work?

The lithium-ion batteries found inside smartphones work by moving an electrical charge via lithium ions from one electrode (conductor) to another. Charging moves the ions in one direction, discharging the other and powering the electrical current. Any movement of these ions places stress on a battery, meaning that they naturally degrade over time. However, you could be hastening this otherwise gradual decline and adding unnecessary stress to your phone’s battery if you’re not following the right charging techniques.

How to Improve Your Phone’s Battery Life

According to Wirecutter, you may want to think of your phone’s battery as a sponge and its charge as water. Saturating a dry sponge with water might initially seem simple but getting it to absorb the last few drops requires pressure and can likely result in surface pooling. The cumulative effect of that pressure plus the surface pooling results in wear and tear on the sponge, same as a battery can absorb damage but end up seeming worse for wear. Degraded batteries usually require more frequent charging and may take longer to charge overall.

Research shows that the life cycle of lithium-ion batteries can be increased in inverse proportion to the depth of discharge, i.e., the battery percentage that has been discharged relative to the maximum capacity of the battery. It’s also true that discharging from a lower initial state results in less strain on the battery.

So, simply put, draining it down to zero is generally not a wise strategy if you’re looking to prolong its life. To get the maximum performance out of your phone’s battery, you should aim to follow the 20/80 rule, meaning you start to charge it as soon as the battery life hits 20 percent—effectively treating 20 percent like it actually means zero.

Then, once it hits 80 percent charged, just unplug everything and call it a day. Draining a battery from 80 percent of its charge means less wear and tear and is better than starting from 100 percent.

Other Common Misconceptions About Phone Batteries

Charging your phone overnight isn’t safe.

Leaving your phone plugged in overnight (or all day) might seem like a big no-no in terms of battery maintenance. However, this is one of the biggest phone battery myths worth debunking, as newer phones (or virtually anything operating on Apple since iOS 13) have an Optimized Battery Charging feature. With this functionality, you can set your device so it doesn’t charge past 80 percent when it’s connected to a charger for extended periods.

Most modern devices also have built-in protection to prevent overloading. However, they can still generate a significant amount of heat. To be on the safe side, don’t leave your phone charging next to any combustible material. Experts also suggest taking phones out of their cases at night (to further prevent overheating) and keeping the gadget free of other items, meaning you shouldn’t keep it under your pillow overnight.

Phones charge faster in airplane mode.

Technically speaking, the less your phone is doing, the faster it will charge. Doing so means that features like Wi-Fi, GPS tracking, and Bluetooth—all of which consume battery power even when you’re not actively using them—are also fully turned off. Though putting your phone in airplane mode might help speed up the time it takes to recharge, in practice, the difference it makes is probably minimal.

Charging phones through a computer causes problems.

This one is a bit tricky, as some tech experts claim that it could lead to overheating. While the potential for damage to your device stemming from excessive heat exposure is significant, charging phones via computers isn’t inherently a terrible call. If anything, the lower charging voltages from laptops compared to wall chargers could be beneficial, placing less overall stress on your phone’s battery because it takes longer for devices to power up.

Using a cheap, off-brand charger won't hurt the battery.

In a pinch and need something to charge your phone? You may be tempted to pop into a gas station and grab the first charger you see, but it would be prudent to hold off. Chargers from brands you don’t know might end up frying the phone’s battery before long. Branded chargers are explicitly tailored to an individual phone’s requirements. Not all chargers will prove detrimental, but as a good rule of thumb, it is best to stick to officially licensed products.

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