Tech

Here’s The Main Reason Why your Smartphone Battery is Dying on You

2016-07-25 , 2:45 pm

In today’s world, there are a few constants we have to live with—everyone excited and waiting for Game of Thrones Season 7, Singaporeans getting all excited about Pokemon Go and can’t wait for it to come, rumours about Pokemon Go launching in Singapore but never coming true, and of course, the fact that our smartphone batteries are always dying on us.

You would have thought that with the improvement in technology and the numerous number of smartphones created every year, they would have come up with some way to prolong our smartphone batteries, but nope. Zilch. Nada.

Li-ion Batteries

If you’re old enough, you will have used phones before the Li-ion era. Back then, we had to charge our phone batteries for 8 hours for the first charge, and after that, the batteries have to be drained to 0% before you can charge again.

You’ll also have to stop charging your phone when it reaches 100% because it won’t stop charging by itself and causes wear and tear on your batteries. That was in the past.

Then, we were so happy when our smartphones start coming with Lithium ion batteries. These batteries are “smart”, and they can automatically kill charging the moment they reach 100%. No more hassle and longer survival for our batteries, right?

Nope. It just started dying faster and you’re forced to change phones because your smartphone can’t last you even half a day.

The main killer is heat

That’s right, heat. Running too many apps, charging your phone throughout the night, all these contribute to excessive heat which your battery really don’t like. Overheating causes damage to the battery, and you’ll find that your battery’s charge is lowered.

Here are a couple of things you can do to prolong your battery’s life.

Using too many apps at one go

Make a habit of killing any apps running in the background before opening a new app. Not only will it reduce “lag-ness”, your battery will also thank you because lesser processing memory used equals lesser heat produced. Feel like the temperature of your phone is reaching critical? Switch the entire device off and switch it back on at a later date.

Charging your phone throughout the night

Now, the battery might be smart and stops the charge the moment it’s 100%, but when it detects there’s a drop in the percentage of charge, it’ll continue charging again. Repeat the cycles a few time and you can be sure that your battery will be affected. Not to mention the heat produced in this process.

Using your phone while charging

While it’s hard, leave your phone alone while it’s charging. Continuous usage of the phone, while it’s charging, will heat it right up because your phone uses the battery and the battery is charging and discharging at the same time.

Placing your smartphone on something hot

Your battery doesn’t care where the heat is coming from, as long as its heat, it’ll kill the battery. So make sure not to leave your smartphone out in direct sunlight or near some place hot. The rule of thumb is if you think it’s too hot, chances are your battery is going to think the same thing too.

Now you know why your battery couldn’t last as long as it used to when you first bought it, right?

Here’s a bonus tip that we think most people are doing.

Letting the battery reach 0%

Lithium batteries don’t like being “hungry”, so never ever let them go under 20%. Doing so will cause the battery to work harder (when their charge is lower), resulting in increased wear-and-tear on the cells. The best range to let your battery operate within is 50% to 80%. Do note that drastic changes in battery charge will adversely affect your battery lifespan too.

Top Image: stuff.tv

This article was first published on goodyfeed.com