Five Common Misconceptions About Your Mobile Battery

Your smartphone is your lifeline. You use it for fun, to chat with family and friends, and to post photos on social media. You use it for work.

Smartphones are already part of most people’s lives nowadays and, while the devices are very helpful in managing daily activities, it is always a problem when even simple usage quickly drains the batteries. However, it is possible that users are actually killing their own batteries quicker due to wrong charging practices that can easily be corrected.

Let’s examine some of these misconceptions about the batteries that power the devices we depend upon day in and day out.

Fully charging or fully draining the battery

Nope. Not at all. People used to think that you had to “train” your battery to make sure it would take the most charge. To do that, people would drain it regularly and charge it — and they’d never plug it in when it was over 50%. The thought was that over time, the battery would develop a memory and allow for just a percentage of the charge. This is not true. If your battery is at 80%, top that baby off. Frequent charges will do no damage to your battery.

Charging your phone overnight will damage your battery

False. Most smartphones are now “smart” enough to know when a battery is at capacity and will stop charging. However, there is one thing you can do to extend the life of your battery. Instead of charging your phone all night, every night, try keeping it charged between 40% and 80% most of the time. This will ensure the longest possible life from that battery. If you can leave it unplugged overnight (every so often), do so.

You should always charge your phone to full before first using it

Many people think that the first thing they should do with a new smartphone is plug it in and charge it to 100%. This is simply a myth. Remember, smartphone batteries work best between 40% to 80%, and since most phones ship at half capacity, you should be good to go out of the box. As a side note: If you fire up your new smartphone for the first time and the battery is below 40%, you might want to consider taking it back because that battery could be very old.

Putting your battery in the freezer will extend its life

In fact, Li-Ion batteries are negatively affected by both heat and cold. Room temperature is always the best temperature for your smartphone battery. Remember, those devices already get hot, so there’s no need to expose them to extra heat — and cold is an enemy of Li-Ion batteries.

Turning off your phone can damage your battery

Nah. There isn’t even the slightest truth to this. Of course, if you leave your phone off for an extended period of time, the battery will drain (that’s the nature of batteries). But it is perfectly fine to shut that device off every once in a while. You can even shut the device off and (if applicable) remove the battery if you like. No harm will come to the battery. In fact, for some devices, a simple reboot can help to restore battery functionality. So even though that Android device runs perfectly fine day in and day out, give it a break now and then.

Smartphone batteries and smartphone usage of those energy cells get better every year. But those old-school (and some “new school”) misconceptions simply need to die off. With just the slightest consideration, your battery will last you a long time.