A lot has been said and written about how to get the best out of your smartphone batteries. For instance, one of the commonly followed practices to extend battery life is to charge the battery to 100% and then completely drain it before recharging it again. Technology geek Eric Limer of Gizmodo has debunked many of the theories for extending battery life as a myth. In fact, he states that a full charge is detrimental to phones. He also states that charging a new phone for 72 hours will work on nickel batteries but not on lithium-ion ones. So what should you really be doing to save your smartphone battery life? Well, here are the new guidelines.
How to Boost Your Smartphone Battery Life
Don’t Charge 100%
If you want your lithium-ion battery to last longer, don’t charge it all the way. The optimum charge for such batteries should be between 40% and 80%. Regularly draining your battery will cause more harm than good, although you can do a full drain and recharge once a month. Unplugging your Device before it hits a 100% is preferred as it will ensure a longer lifespan.
Maintain the Right Battery Temperature
If its one thing lithium-ion batteries hate, it’s the heat. If your battery gets hot, your phone is going to degrade much faster, even if its not in use. Eric states that lithium-ion batteries lose 6% capacity at zero degree Celsius annually. However at 25 degree Celsius the loss is about 20% an it shoots up to 40% at 35 degrees. Simply keeping your phone under the hot sun for a prolonged period of time or operating the laptop on a power grid is going to wear down the effective lifetime of your batteries. According to batteryuniversity.com the recommended storage temperatures for most batteries is 15 degree Celsius. So whenever you get the chance, keep your phone cool or as near room temperature as possible.
Ditch Wireless Chargers
Wireless chargers have the tendency to discharge a lot of heat, and having just said that heat is the battery’s worst enemy, you don’t want to be putting your phone in the danger zone. Simply stick to the standard plug-in chargers until wireless chargers improve the way they function.
Optimize Your Settings
Apart from the points mentioned above, you can adopt the usual optimization settings to ensure a prolonged battery life. For instance, you can turn on auto-brightness, turn off push notifications, minimize the use of GPS and other location based services, and yeah…use your phone regularly.
A lithium-ion battery generally lasts for about 3-5 years, and you’ll most probably be done with your gadget by that time anyway. So for the time that you do get to use it, keep these guidelines in mind to increase smartphone battery life and have a better user experience.
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