Three Science-Based Tips for Maximizing Phone Battery Life
If your smartphone’s battery doesn’t last as long as it used to, it could be because you haven’t taken good care of it. Here’s the science behind how smartphone batteries work and how to keep them running longer.
This video from the American Chemical Society’s YouTube channel ” Reactions” explains the chemical reactions that take place in your phone’s lithium-ion battery and outlines some simple ways to extend the charge. It all boils down to these three tips:
- Avoid excessive heat: Heat speeds up the chemical reactions in your phone’s battery, which means you’ll need to charge it much more often. In addition, extreme heat can cause thermal breakdown and boil liquid in the phone battery, which could damage or explode.
- Don’t Let Your Battery Run Down: Despite what you may have been told, you don’t need to let a lithium-ion battery drain completely before charging it (unlike nickel batteries). Lithium-ion batteries never “forget” their capacity, but their maximum capacity decreases over time. And you are actually accelerating battery degradation by letting it drain. If your phone is about to die, just turn it off to avoid damaging it.
- Always keep it at 50%: if you are going to move away from your phone for a short while – for example, on vacation or trying out another phone – turn it off when the battery is half full and store it in a cool place. place. This will prevent capacity degradation and permanent damage to the battery or phone.
Regardless, smartphone batteries will lose some capacity as they are used. In fact, it is estimated that between 4% and 20% of capacity is lost annually . But with these tips, you should be able to keep your battery in ship shape until you decide to upgrade it.