Over the years, smartphones have gradually become more and more important in people’s everyday lives, a process that has been accelerated over the last few years. Today, smartphones are far from just communication or even media devices for most people. Smartphones can act as a person’s GPS, mobile home security center, or even as a wallet. With smartphones playing such a huge role in our lives, it’s important that everyone knows how to properly take care of their phone so that it lasts as long as possible, particularly with smartphones being released at increasingly exorbitant prices.
One of the most important parts of the smartphone is unfortunately also the most fragile: the battery. While battery technology has come a long way over the past decade, with modern lithium-ion batteries far out-performing older nickel-based counterparts, lithium-ion batteries still retain some significant issues. The process of charging and discharging your phone’s battery causes wear and tear on the battery every cycle, giving each lithium-ion battery a set lifespan, usually between 300-500 charge cycles. For people who drain their phone’s batteries and charge them every day, that amounts to only a year or two of use before your phone’s battery dies!
Fortunately, there are some easy tips that you can follow in order to vastly extend your phone’s battery health and lifespan, potentially allowing your smartphone to work for years longer than it otherwise would. Here are three fantastic tips to help your smartphone’s battery last longer, so that you can continue using your expensive new smartphone for years to come.
Stay Mindful When Charging
One of the main ways your phone’s battery sustains natural wear and tear through regular use is the simple act of charging and discharging. Your phone’s battery works by storing electrical energy in the form of charged ions of lithium, hence the name “lithium-ion battery.” These lithium ions move from one end of the battery to the other during charging, and flow back when discharging, resulting in the storage and release of energy. Over time, however, the charging and discharging potential of the battery decreases as the chemical structure of the battery wears down and lithium ions end up getting trapped or are lost. Your phone’s battery degrades this way every time you charge or use your phone.
Fortunately, not all charging and discharging affect the health of a battery in the same way. Charging from 20% to 80% causes the battery to sustain significantly less wear compared to charging your battery from 0%-100%. In fact, by keeping your phone battery between 20% and 80%, never letting it fall below or rise above those thresholds, you could potentially keep your battery working for five times as long compared to if you discharged your battery to 0% and charged it to 100% every day.
Pay Attention To Temperatures
Another common source of battery wear is extreme temperatures. This is particularly true of low temperatures, as battery capacity actually decreases when exposed to near-freezing temperatures, common during the winter. However, prolonged exposure to both very warm and cool temperatures can affect the overall lifespan of a battery, particularly when charging. Ideally, you should try to keep your phone out of extreme temperatures, and only charge your phone when the temperature of the phone and environment is between 15 and 35 degrees Celsius, or 59 and 95 degrees Fahrenheit.
Watch Your Apps
Finally, certain apps can cause software issues in your phone, leading to abnormal battery drain. If you find that your phone is suddenly losing battery more quickly than normal, a misbehaving app is likely the cause. You should attempt to boot the phone into safe mode to see if the problem persists. Safe mode disables most of the apps on your phone, ensuring that any problem causing apps don’t interfere with the phone.
If the phone operates normally during safe mode, there’s a good chance that an app is causing the excess battery drain. Uninstall any recently installed apps to prevent your battery from degrading faster than necessary. By doing so, you can ensure your phone lasts you all day, and several years afterward, as well!
