Why is information technology that your phone's bombardment seems to get worse over time? At commencement it might have power to spare as you snuggle into bed at the end of the twenty-four hours, only as fourth dimension goes on you find your battery is merely half-full past lunchtime.

Partly it's how y'all use your phone - the apps you lot install, the junk you lot collect, the customisations you make, and the more than and more than notifications you receive - puts more strain on the battery. (Read our tips on how to extend battery life.)

Until nosotros take new-fangled technologies such as smart clothes that optimise wireless performance, nosotros must learn how to charge a battery that keeps it healthy for as long equally possible.

Phone batteries, like all batteries, do degrade over time, which ways they are increasingly incapable of holding the aforementioned amount of power. While they should take a lifespan of between three and 5 years, or between 500 and ane,000 charging cycles, a three-twelvemonth-old phone battery is never going to keep going as long every bit a brand-new bombardment.

Three things wearable out lithium-ion batteries: number of charging cycles, temperature, and age.

Notwithstanding, armed with our tips for best battery care practice, you can maintain your smartphone bombardment health much longer.

When should I charge my phone?

The golden dominion is to go along your battery topped up somewhere between 30% and 90% near of the time. Height it up when information technology drops below 50%, but unplug it before it hits 100%. For this reason, you might want to reconsider leaving it plugged in overnight.

Pushing in the final accuse from 80-100% causes a lithium-ion bombardment to historic period faster.

Perchance it's meliorate to recharge in the morning instead, at the breakfast table or on your office desk. That way, it is easier to keep an eye on the battery percentage during charging.

iOS users tin can use the Shortcuts app to set a notification when the bombardment level reaches a sure percentage. This is done nether the tab "Automation" and so "Battery Level".

Giving your phone a full recharge is not fatal for a phone battery, and it seems almost counter-intuitive not to practice so, but giving it a total recharge every time y'all charge it volition shorten its lifespan.

Likewise, at the other end of the scale, avoid allowing your telephone battery to get below 20%.

Lithium-ion batteries don't experience good most going as well far below the 20% mark. Instead, see the extra 20% "at the bottom" as a buffer for demanding days, just on weekdays start charging when the alert for Depression Battery level appears.

In curt, lithium-ion batteries thrive best in the heart. Don't get a low battery percentage, merely as well not too high.

Should I accuse my telephone battery to 100%?

No, or at least not every time you charge it. Some people recommend that you lot do a total nada to 100% battery recharge (a "accuse cycle") one time a month - as this re-calibrates the bombardment, which is a bit like restarting your computer.

Simply others disregard this every bit a myth for current lithium-ion batteries in phones.

To keep your long-term battery life in good wellness, frequent, pocket-size charges are better than full recharging.

With iOS xiii and later, Optimised Bombardment Charging (Settings>Battery> Bombardment Health) is designed to reduce the wear on your battery and meliorate its lifespan past reducing the fourth dimension your iPhone spends fully charged. When the feature is enabled, your iPhone should delay charging past fourscore% in certain situations, depending on Location Services that tell the phone when information technology is at dwelling house or work (when yous are less likely to need a total charge) compared to when you are travelling.

The deeper you lot belch a lithium battery, the more stress is inflicted on the battery. So, topping up oftentimes extends battery life.

Also see: All-time power banks

Should I charge my phone overnight?

As a rule, information technology'due south all-time to avoid, despite the convenience of waking upward with a total battery in the morning. Each total accuse counts equally a 'cycle', and your phone is only built to concluding for a ready number.

If you charge overnight, yous are guaranteed to miss when the phone exceeds the magic 80% mark that is best for extended long-term life.

While about modern smartphones have congenital-in sensors to close off charging when they hit 100%, if even so turned on they will lose a pocket-size amount of battery while idle.

What yous may become is a "trickle charge" equally the charger attempts to go on the phone at 100% every bit your telephone naturally loses on its own accuse during the night. This ways that your phone is constantly bouncing between a full charge and a little bit beneath that full charge - 99% to 100% and back again during a longer-than-required charge. It can also heat the phone up, which is as well bad for the battery.

So, charging during the solar day is ameliorate than charging overnight.

Your best policy is to take Do Non Disturb and Airplane Way switched on. Better still, you could completely switch off your phone, but that may non be possible if you rely on it as an alert or wish to exist ready to take calls at all hours.

Some devices are too set to power upwards once the cablevision is connected by default. Fifty-fifty during waking hours, it'due south best to catch your phone before it hits 100%, or at to the lowest degree not get out the charger supplying charge to an already full bombardment for too long.

If you are leaving it plugged in for a long period of time, removing the case can prevent it over-heating.

Will fast-charging damage my telephone?

The majority of mod smartphones support some form of fast-charging. However, this often requires yous to purchase an boosted accessory. The industry standard is Qualcomm's Quick Accuse, which delivers 18W of power.

However, many phone makers accept their own fast charge standard, many of which tin can deliver even faster speeds by adjusting power management code to request a higher voltage charge is sent. Samsung is at present even selling a 45W charger!

While fast-charging itself will not harm your phone's battery, which is congenital to support it, the heat generated will potentially affect its lifespan. And so it's on yous to residual the advantages of faster charging with the convenience of quickly topping upwardly your phone before you nuance out the door.

In the same way that phone batteries don't like extreme rut, they also don't like the common cold. So it goes without saying that you should avoid leaving your telephone in a hot auto, on the beach, next to the oven, out in the snow. Typically, batteries perform at their optimum somewhere between twenty and 30°C, simply brusk periods exterior of this should exist fine.

Can I use any phone charger?

Where possible utilize the charger that came with your phone, as it is sure to have the correct rating. Or brand sure that a third-party charger is canonical past your telephone'due south manufacturer. Inexpensive alternatives from Amazon or eBay may impairment your phone, and there have been several reported cases of inexpensive chargers actually catching on burn down.

That said, your phone should draw only the power that it needs from a USB charger.

Also see: All-time USB Chargers for your telephone and All-time Wireless Chargers.

Battery memory effect: Fact or fiction?

The battery memory issue concerns batteries that are regularly charged between 20% and 80% and suggests that the telephone might somehow 'forget' that extra 40% you routinely ignore.

Lithium batteries, which are in the majority of modern smartphones, practice non suffer the battery retention upshot, though older nickel-based (NiMH and NiCd) batteries do.

Nickel-based forget their full capacity if they aren't discharged and charged from 0 to 100%. But, habitually cycling your lithium-ion battery from 0 to 100% will adversely touch its battery life.

Avoid Parasite Loads

If you charge your phone while using it - for example, while watching a video - you can "confuse" the battery by creating mini-cycles, during which parts of the battery continually bike and deteriorate at a faster charge per unit than the residuum of the jail cell.

Ideally, you lot should plow your device off while charging. Merely, more realistically, but go out it idle while charging.

Battery Settings iPhone

Battery protection settings by phone maker

OnePlus has a battery monitor chosen "Optimized Charging" from its OxygenOS 10.0. This is activated under "Settings / Battery". The smartphone then remembers what fourth dimension you commonly climb out of bed in the morn and but completes the critical concluding step of charging from 80 to 100% shortly before you get up - that is, as belatedly equally possible.

Google likewise offers integrated battery protection for its devices from Pixel 4 onwards. You will find the "Adaptive Charging" role under "Settings / Battery / Smart battery". If y'all employ it to charge your device after 9pm and at the aforementioned time set an alarm clock between 5am and 10am, yous will have a freshly charged smartphone in your hand when you become upwardly, but the total accuse is only completed shortly before the warning clock rings.

Samsung has a battery charge part in selected tablets, such every bit the Galaxy Tab S6 or Galaxy Tab S7. "Protect Battery" can be found under "Settings / Device maintenance / Battery". When the function is activated, the device simply defines the maximum capacity of the battery to 85%.

Apple's "Optimized Battery Charging" function is primarily intended to reduce the time window in which the battery is heavily charged. Fully charging over lxxx percent is delayed or not even carried out in certain situations. It also depends on your own location, so energy gaps should be avoided when travelling or on vacation, for example.

Huawei's bombardment assistant is chosen "Smart Charge" and is bachelor from EMUI 9.1 or Magic UI 2.1. The part can be switched on under "Settings / Battery / Additional Settings", which means that charging of the device is stopped at 80% at night and only completed before yous get upwards. Here, also, usage behaviour and, if necessary, an alarm clock setting is included in the planning.

Sony's "Bombardment Intendance" function is found in the Bombardment settings for many models. The device learns when and for how long users connect the charging cable and adjusts the end of charging so that it coincides with the disconnection of the power supply. Sony devices tin too be charged with a maximum charge of 80 or ninety%.

Keep the telephone battery cool

As you lot might expect, rut is a battery'south enemy. Don't let it get too hot or as well cold - especially when charging. If a phone gets too hot, you will be damaging its bombardment, so attempt to keep information technology cool where possible.

Charging the phone from a power bank on the beach in a deckchair is a worst-case scenario for battery health. Try keeping your telephone in the shade if you need to accuse on a hot summer day. Charging by a window can also lead to backlog heat. Read how to cool down a hot iPhone.

The cold is also not good for batteries either. If you come up in from a long walk in the winter cold, let the phone attain room temperature before you plug in the cable.

Estrus and batteries exercise not vest together. Batteries are a flake like humans, at least in the narrow sense that they thrive all-time around xx-25 degrees.

Storing bombardment tips

Don't go out a lithium battery lying around besides long at 0% - if you're not using it for a while, leave information technology with around 50% accuse.

If you lot are going to put the telephone away for a long time, first accuse it to somewhere between 40-80% so turn off the phone.

Y'all'll find the battery will bleed between 5% and 10% each month, and if you permit it belch completely it might become incapable of holding a charge at all. That's probably why an old phone'due south battery life is then much worse subsequently a few months in a drawer, fifty-fifty when it hasn't been used.

More tips for longer telephone battery life

• Use the power salve manner more than often. Information technology reduces power consumption and thus reduces the number of cycles.

• Endeavor your screen's Dark Mode, equally the telephone turns off the pixels displaying black, This means you salvage battery life when the white panels go dark. Or just turn your telephone's brightness down!

• Turn off background updates for apps you recollect don't need them - it also reduces ability consumption.

• Plough off or put the phone in Plane Manner when you don't demand it, such as overnight - preferably with a reasonable battery level left.

• Don't force quit the apps. Your telephone'southward operating system is best at pausing the apps that aren't needed - it uses lower power consumption than a "common cold start" for each app again and once again.

• Avoid cheap chargers and cables. When buying charging cables and plugs, information technology's a faux economic system to purchase cheap products. Hardware should accept a accuse control rather than an inferior, cheap excursion - otherwise there is a risk of overcharging. See best phone chargers, best charging cables for iPhone, best USB-C cables, and best MicroUSB charging cables.

Additional reporting by Samuel Nyberg and Steffen Zellfelder.