Cell Phone Batteries ??

Lots of opinions on when to charge and how long to charge a cell phone battery. Apple says to charge it to 80% and let it drain to 20%. IMO I really don't think it matters, batteries are disposable wear items, when battery performance declines either replace the battery or the phone.......

Apple doesn't really make any recommendation other than don't let it get into a "deep discharge" state, which is well below the programmed "0%" state. It would require allowing it to self-discharge after it will no longer power up a device. They have something called "Optimized Charging" for iPhones that tries to figure out a user's charging pattern, and then charges only up to 80% until a typical morning waking time when it completes the charge to 100%. That's on the premise that reducing the time it's close to 100% will have an effect on the battery.


I personally think life's too short to worry about it. There are marginal benefits to this or that, but it gets insane trying to do it manually. Some laptop computers (and EVs) can be programmed to stop charging at certain levels. But it's really a PITA to try to do that manually.

I generally wouldn't worry about it for any well-designed charging system. I do whatever I feel like whether is charging it to 100% or even letting it shut off automatically when the battery gets down to 0%.

As far as battery swelling goes, that's caused by several things including charging errors (charging is inside a phone) or possibly battery manufacturing defects. Maybe damage to the battery from shock. And it can be random. I've had that happen exactly once to me in a laptop computer, but one where the battery mounted on the outside through an exposed hatch. Kind of the old fashioned type where there's a latch and it pops out the bottom and isn't buried inside. It damaged the battery housing, but that wasn't too bad since it swelled outward but didn't otherwise damage the computer.
 
I'm a relatively new cellphone user, and recently I heard that batteries shouldn't be charged past 80-90% or so. Decided to look into that and came across this site:


I no longer charge to 100%, and am trying to follow the other suggestions on the site.
I'm still on the original battery on my nearly 5 year old LG K20 phone. I typical chatge it when the battery hits 15-20% charge, and always charge to 100%. It's probably been charged about 1500 times and the battery isn't yet needing to be replaced. It might be slightly weaker, but it can still go hours of use on a charge.
 
Just about any battery is replaceable if you have the tools, and for older folks, eyesight and steady hand to do it.
I can swap the battery on my LG in literally 1 minute with no tools required. Pop the back off, and pop out the old and pop in the new battery. And plently of batteries available on Amazon for it. Another reason I like this phone.
 
Apple doesn't really make any recommendation other than don't let it get into a "deep discharge" state, which is well below the programmed "0%" state. It would require allowing it to self-discharge after it will no longer power up a device. They have something called "Optimized Charging" for iPhones that tries to figure out a user's charging pattern, and then charges only up to 80% until a typical morning waking time when it completes the charge to 100%. That's on the premise that reducing the time it's close to 100% will have an effect on the battery.


I personally think life's too short to worry about it. There are marginal benefits to this or that, but it gets insane trying to do it manually. Some laptop computers (and EVs) can be programmed to stop charging at certain levels. But it's really a PITA to try to do that manually.

I generally wouldn't worry about it for any well-designed charging system. I do whatever I feel like whether is charging it to 100% or even letting it shut off automatically when the battery gets down to 0%.

As far as battery swelling goes, that's caused by several things including charging errors (charging is inside a phone) or possibly battery manufacturing defects. Maybe damage to the battery from shock. And it can be random. I've had that happen exactly once to me in a laptop computer, but one where the battery mounted on the outside through an exposed hatch. Kind of the old fashioned type where there's a latch and it pops out the bottom and isn't buried inside. It damaged the battery housing, but that wasn't too bad since it swelled outward but didn't otherwise damage the computer.
It depends on what articles you read. I've read they recommend between 20-80% is best. I read charge it to 100%, I read frequently charging them in small increments thorough the day is best. Use optimized charging with location services disabled, etc. Their tech support once told me 20-80% is best, another tech said charge it to 100% and don't let it go to 0. My point is there are a lot of conflicting opinions, sort of like the thick vs. thin oil wars here. LOL Bottom line with smart phones is use the phone, charge it when it needs charging, and when you have a problem either repair or replace the phone. JMO
 
It depends on what articles you read. I've read they recommend between 20-80% is best. I read charge it to 100%, I read frequently charging them in small increments thorough the day is best. Use optimized charging with location services disabled, etc. Their tech support once told me 20-80% is best, another tech said charge it to 100% and don't let it go to 0. My point is there are a lot of conflicting opinions, sort of like the thick vs. thin oil wars here. LOL Bottom line with smart phones is use the phone, charge it when it needs charging, and when you have a problem either repair or replace the phone. JMO


Maybe when the phone displays 100% the battery could be at 80% and programmed not to fully charge the battery to extend battery life? I'm sure techs could figure out if they haven't already. Basically extra capacity and not wear out the battery and display 100% for the consumer.
 
Maybe when the phone displays 100% the battery could be at 80% and programmed not to fully charge the battery to extend battery life? I'm sure techs could figure out if they haven't already. Basically extra capacity and not wear out the battery and display 100% for the consumer.
You got me on that, I doubt it, but maybe, I really don't know. Then would that mean charging it to 80% would give less than 80%? My point is there are a lot of schools of thought on this topic.
 
It depends on what articles you read. I've read they recommend between 20-80% is best. I read charge it to 100%, I read frequently charging them in small increments thorough the day is best. Use optimized charging with location services disabled, etc. Their tech support once told me 20-80% is best, another tech said charge it to 100% and don't let it go to 0. My point is there are a lot of conflicting opinions, sort of like the thick vs. thin oil wars here. LOL Bottom line with smart phones is use the phone, charge it when it needs charging, and when you have a problem either repair or replace the phone. JMO

Sure. I was just saying that they have no official recommendations other than "deep discharge" is bad. And yes I've heard of individuals work for or on behalf of Apple or other companies giving that sort of advice. My parents just got an iPhone SE (2nd edition, and cheap) from a reseller, and were told that they should only use the type of Lightning cable that came with it (USB-C to Lightning) with a USB-C power adapter, and that using an older USB-A to Lightning cable would "damage" it. That's the stupidest thing I've heard of.

And yes I've heard of the 40-80 url or 20-80 rule. Those do have a point to them, which is that reducing the time being in the extremes of the charge range can extend the ultimate longevity of a lithium-ion or NiMH battery. Hybrid car batteries are programmed to keep the charge within a limited range and can last hundreds of thousands of miles on the same battery. I've heard of Prius taxis that lasted 500K miles on the original battery. But that's easy if it can be automated, like a Tesla being programmed to stop charging at 80% or 90%. They also have some advantages such as active cooling. Some laptops have a charge restriction setting to boost ultimate longevity.

Apple batteries are sized differently, and some use more of the charge range by design. Apple rates iPhone batteries for 500 full charge-discharge cycles to reach 80% original battery capacity. But they rate Macs and iPads for 1000 cycles. It's not really that hard to understand. Those are larger devices with larger batteries. So they shave a little bit of the usable charge range off the top and bottom, and thus rate them for longer life. But with a cell phone battery, it's already rather small and making it bigger just to increase ultimate longevity isn't a great marketing move. It's also relatively inexpensive to replace. But the opposite could be done. I've heard that it might be possible to maybe double the charge range on most lithium-ion batteries if the user will accept that it might last about 25-50 charge-discharge cycles.
 
I would not trust to leave those phones charging constantly if same maker/battery. They are a fire hazard.

But they don't charge constantly. The way nearly all lithium-ion batteries in reasonably designed consumer electronics are charged is that they stop charging at a certain point, and wait until the charge drops before topping off. That's pretty similar to vehicle battery maintainers.

 
100% on the screen is not 100% of the actual battery capacity. They build in some wiggle room there with the software.

Personally I charge the phone (iPhone 13) overnight to 100% and that lasts me 2-3 days. I’ll recharge anywhere from 10-50% remaining just depends on what I was doing that day.
 
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100% on the screen is not 100% of the actual battery capacity. They build in some wiggle room there with the software.

Personally I charge the phone (iPhone 13) overnight to 100% and that lasts me 2-3 days. I’ll recharge anywhere from 10-50% remaining just depends on what I was doing that day.

Of course it's a little bit more complicated that that. There's a lot of stuff that goes on including choosing how much of the charge range is used (setting the 0% and 100% points). I noted before that it might be possible to double the charge range by setting these points differently, but it might result in 25 cycles before it's degraded. But the one thing that many smartphone power management systems do (especially Apple) is that 100% represents more of 95-100%. So if you've got it constantly connected to power, it's going to vary between 95% to 100%, discharge gradually, then top off to 100%. But most users would think there's something wrong where it's at 97% but not charging up to 100% and they complain.

There's a tool for Apple devices called coconutBattery for Mac. It actually goes under the hood and provides a lot of stuff that's not easy to find, such as the number of charge-discharge cycles recorded and a more accurate display of the charge level.
 
i sidelined my almost new MotoE 2020 a $130 phone at purchase because of bloatware + always "pushing" something + as most are NON easily replaceable battery + bought a better IMO + cheeper TCL A30 with replaceble battery + being slightly smaller is another plus for me. i am NOT a "phone person" + only use rarely as needed, so the AirVoice pay as you go plan mentioned by a BITOG member is GREAT about $10 for 90 days for 100 min @ .10 a min talk + .10 per text + .06666 per megabite for data when not on WiFi i just discovered was available on my Verizon DSL i have for years!! to each their own but i can spend my $$$$ on better things than overpriced NOT needed phone services!!
 
Service life of Li-Ion goes down substantially based on amount of time sitting above 4.1xV. Unfortunately most charge to 4.2V for that bit extra runtime. Life based on depth of discharge is not so clear cut. I wouldn't try to make it a rule to discharge down to 20% then be in situations where you are running out of power so can't use the phone, unless you have a relatively high capacity battery and know its limits vs your use cases.

Just about any battery is replaceable if you have the tools, and for older folks, eyesight and steady hand to do it.
Yes my last one was a Galaxy S4 it was a piece of cake the batteries were going got two batteries one for the wife and one for me total cost $18 and change on Amazon. The newer phones are much harder to change and it was by accident. They could make it as simple as plugging in an Sd card.
 
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Galaxy S4 was the last great one with a replaceable battery. S to S4 make a great music player for a very modest budget.
 
I have a Galaxy A50 that I bought new on Memorial Day 2021. Typically, I charge it to 100% and let it go down to 25 or 30% and then recharge. My use is very limited and I usually go 3, sometimes 4 days between charging. The 15W charger takes about 1 hr 15 min to get it done. No problems so far. YMMV. If I ever have a bulging battery, I'll get another phone. For what I paid to get the A50, a new battery wouldn't be worth it to me.
 
I have a Galaxy A50 that I bought new on Memorial Day 2021. Typically, I charge it to 100% and let it go down to 25 or 30% and then recharge. My use is very limited and I usually go 3, sometimes 4 days between charging. The 15W charger takes about 1 hr 15 min to get it done. No problems so far. YMMV. If I ever have a bulging battery, I'll get another phone. For what I paid to get the A50, a new battery wouldn't be worth it to me.

That's pretty much my position as well. About the only guarantee you get with an expensive phone, is that it will get real cheap, real fast. Just give it a year or 2.

If my batteries go bad, I'll just turn my phone into a target at the range, and buy another one. I never spend that much on a phone anyway.
 
I have a Galaxy A50 that I bought new on Memorial Day 2021. Typically, I charge it to 100% and let it go down to 25 or 30% and then recharge. My use is very limited and I usually go 3, sometimes 4 days between charging. The 15W charger takes about 1 hr 15 min to get it done. No problems so far. YMMV. If I ever have a bulging battery, I'll get another phone. For what I paid to get the A50, a new battery wouldn't be worth it to me.
Imagine if you will $200 for a $20 something battery?
 
I can swap the battery on my LG in literally 1 minute with no tools required. Pop the back off, and pop out the old and pop in the new battery. And plently of batteries available on Amazon for it. Another reason I like this phone.
That is the only type of phone I want . I replaced my battery on my phone awhile back and it was easy . Pop off the back cover and the battery was right there and pulled out and replaced. If I replace my phone ever that is what I want to be able to do.
 
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