What is the best way to charge your phone: up to 100 or up to 80%?
How to keep your Android smartphone's battery in good condition.
Plugging in your phone before bed and letting it charge overnight is a nightly ritual for many of us. But are we doing it right? Which is better: 100 percent or 80 percent? It turns out that for the health of your battery, it’s better to avoid 100 percent every time you charge it. With that in mind, phone manufacturers have started adding technologies that more carefully manage battery charging.
In the case of Android phones, this means the ability to receive custom notifications at certain charge levels, such as 80 percent. You have a few options, depending on the make and model of your phone. MigNews will focus on Google Pixel and Samsung Galaxy phones, but if you have a different type of phone, you can certainly do something similar.
Which is better to charge your phone: to 100% or to 80%?
It is generally recommended to charge your mobile phone to 60-80% to extend the overall battery life, Source: unsplash.com
Keeping your phone 100% charged every time you plug in the charger is perfectly safe – you won't break it or cause it to explode. But due to the way lithium-ion batteries work, from a long-term health perspective, a charge level of around 80-85 percent is optimal when it comes to getting the most out of them.
Essentially, it's just a chemical aging process. And that's what Samsung, Apple, and other companies are talking about when it comes to their gadgets. If you keep charging your phone when its battery is already dead, it's like pouring water on an already soaked sponge, and therefore the battery will wear out faster.
The role of a battery is to store electrical energy in the form of chemical energy until it is ready to be used again as electrical energy. Modern gadgets use rechargeable batteries that can be used repeatedly (imagine having to change the battery on your smartphone every time it dies). However, over time, the ability to recharge gradually deteriorates.
The transfer of energy from the battery to the smartphone and back is mostly done using electrons, and not letting your phone charge (or discharge) too regularly will reduce the load on the electrons. Ultimately, this means that more of the energy stored in the battery is delivered to the phone.
Over the years, lithium-ion batteries and the phones they connect to have gotten better at handling this stress and limiting its effects. However, there are steps you can take to keep your phone's battery healthy for longer periods of time, and limiting full charges is one such step.
How to set up charging on Android phones correctly
Let your phone alert you when you reach 80 percent, Source: Google
If you have a Pixel phone, open Settings and select Battery & adaptive charging. Turning this feature on means your phone will learn from your habits and only fully charge your battery when you really need it. For example, on days when you typically go a full day or more without charging.
On Galaxy phones, if you go to Settings, tap Battery, then Battery Saver, and you'll see the same Adaptive option. You can also choose Maximum, which means your phone will never charge above 80 percent. Keep that in mind when deciding when to switch to this mode.
Another option for Galaxy phones is to continue charging your phone normally and then receive a notification when it reaches 80 percent so you can decide whether to continue charging. To get started, open Settings, then select Modes & Directions. Tap the + (plus) button in the top right corner to create a new mode.
Select battery level as the trigger and set the mode to activate when the level reaches 80 percent or higher. Select Notification and Show custom message as the action. You can create your own alert that will sound when your phone reaches 80 percent. You can also simply turn on the ringer via Sounds & Vibration.
What should owners of other manufacturers' phones do?
This option to set a mode is only available for Samsung Galaxy phones. If you have another Android phone, you can try an app like the free Battery Guru from the Play Store.
Select “Battery Info” from the home screen, then “Battery Level Alert” and you can get notifications when your phone reaches a certain charge level.
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