Is keeping the battery between 20 and 80 % still a thing?

[s1ungi]

Whenever I get a new phone I try to only charge up to 80%, leave it off the charger over night and start charging again at 20%. Years ago this was "the best way to keep your battery healthy".

Is this still a thing or have phones - the Pixel 6a in my case - envolved to be more intelligent about their battery to make it okay or less damaging to just charge it every night* up to full capacity?

*I know there is a way of smart charging in combination with your alarm but Idon't use my phone's alarm so that one does not work for me

 

[Mooncatt]

It's not so much the phone, but the Li-ion battery tech itself. Battery tech hasn't changed much over the years, so the 80-20 rule (or thereabouts) is still the gold standard. There have been software changes used to mitigate the stress caused by going outside that range, but how that helps you is dependent on your uses. I.e. Smart charging isn't going to help if you don't want to use it.

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! It's one of the best ways to prolong the battery life, but that won't really matter much if you typically upgrade phones after a couple of years. If you intend to keep the phone for a lot longer, then it becomes more important.

 

[swebb]

Agree. I believe most, if not all, EV's only charge up to 80%. You have to override some setting to charge beyond that. There's a reason for that.

 

[B. Diddy]

Agree. I believe most, if not all, EV's only charge up to 80%. You have to override some setting to charge beyond that. There's a reason for that.

Teslas can charge up to 100%, but that's typically recommended only if planning for a long trip. For day-to-day driving, the recommendation is up to 90% (I typically do 80%). For the Superchargers, there are certain ones that are considered high usage, and that automatically limit the charge to 80% so as not to make others wait for too long.

 

[mustang7757]

Whenever I get a new phone I try to only charge up to 80%, leave it off the charger over night and start charging again at 20%. Years ago this was "the best way to keep your battery healthy".

Is this still a thing or have phones - the Pixel 6a in my case - envolved to be more intelligent about their battery to make it okay or less damaging to just charge it every night* up to full capacity?

*I know there is a way of smart charging in combination with your alarm but Idon't use my phone's alarm so that one does not work for me

Welcome to AC!
20 to 80 or 40 to 80 would bring upon many charge and discharge which i can imagine is not good over time , pro long extreme temperature and gaming degrade battery fast , your going get 2 to 4 years out the battery with normal charging 15/20% to 100 .. if your out to try set the record for how long your battery can last like some of those people say i got a million miles on my Toyota or Ford pickup thats a different story.

 

[joeldf]

Welcome to AC!
20 to 80 or 40 to 80 would bring upon many charge and discharge which i can imagine is not good over time , pro long extreme temperature and gaming degrade battery fast , your going get 2 to 4 years out the battery with normal charging 15/20% to 100 .. if your out to try set the record for how long your battery can last like some of those people say i got a million miles on my Toyota or Ford pickup thats a different story.

I agree. What's the real point of obsessing over letting something charge only to a certain point, or freaking out if you get below 20. In the grand scheme of daily life, who really has time to add that bit of aggravation?

I know my Samsung has a setting where you can limit the charging to go only up to 85%, but I might need that extra 15% so I don't bother with it.

I just put my phone on its wireless charging cradle at night and let it do its thing. In fact all my past phones have spent every night plugged into a charger. I typically keep a phone for 3 years, and never had the battery notably degrade within that time.

Now, I still have a BlackBerry Z10 from 2013 with its original battery, and it is very weak these days. It's not an active phone (no SIM card and mobile turned off), and only connects to Wi-Fi. I do keep it charged, and have my home email syncing (just to see how long that'll last before MS 365 shuts out the old client app). As long as I don't actively use it, it'll last about two and a half days. But if I start doing things like browsing the web, the charge drops fast within about 15 minutes. If I try to use the camera, it'll drain and shut down the phone in about 5 minutes.

I actively used that Z10 for 4 years. The battery was always underpowered from the start - being 1800 mAh. It averaged between 14 to 16 hours on a charge. Remember, this is active daily cell phone use, which it doesn't do anymore. But I still regularly topped it all the way all the time, including leaving it on the charger every night. Buy the third year, it was getting around 12 hours per charge. I only started really noticing the faster discharge rate around the last two months that I used it in those 4 years. It got to the point where it wouldn't last a full work day - I'd have to plug it into the charger just after noon as it would hit below 10% after only 5 to 6 hours.

I could have just gotten a new battery (it was removable/replaceable), but BlackBerry's time was coming to an end - at least BlackBerry 10 as they had already released their first android phone, the Priv, at the time.

Sent from my SM-G781U using Tapatalk

 

[mustang7757]

I agree. What's the real point of obsessing over letting something charge only to a certain point, or freaking out if you get below 20. In the grand scheme of daily life, who really has time to add that bit of aggravation?

I know my Samsung has a setting where you can limit the charging to go only up to 85%, but I might need that extra 15% so I don't bother with it.

I just put my phone on its wireless charging cradle at night and let it do its thing. In fact all my past phones have spent every night plugged into a charger. I typically keep a phone for 3 years, and never had the battery notably degrade within that time.

Now, I still have a BlackBerry Z10 from 2013 with its original battery, and it is very weak these days. It's not an active phone (no SIM card and mobile turned off), and only connects to Wi-Fi. I do keep it charged, and have my home email syncing (just to see how long that'll last before MS 365 shuts out the old client app). As long as I don't actively use it, it'll last about two and a half days. But if I start doing things like browsing the web, the charge drops fast within about 15 minutes. If I try to use the camera, it'll drain and shut down the phone in about 5 minutes.

I actively used that Z10 for 4 years. The battery was always underpowered from the start - being 1800 mAh. It averaged between 14 to 16 hours on a charge. Remember, this is active daily cell phone use, which it doesn't do anymore. But I still regularly topped it all the way all the time, including leaving it on the charger every night. Buy the third year, it was getting around 12 hours per charge. I only started really noticing the faster discharge rate around the last two months that I used it in those 4 years. It got to the point where it wouldn't last a full work day - I'd have to plug it into the charger just after noon as it would hit below 10% after only 5 to 6 hours.

I could have just gotten a new battery (it was removable/replaceable), but BlackBerry's time was coming to an end - at least BlackBerry 10 as they had already released their first android phone, the Priv, at the time.

Sent from my SM-G781U using Tapatalk

I used the 85% in beginning on my Samsung but not worth the 15% I lose in my opinion

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to AC!
20 to 80 or 40 to 80 would bring upon many charge and discharge which i can imagine is not good over time , pro long extreme temperature and gaming degrade battery fast , your going get 2 to 4 years out the battery with normal charging 15/20% to 100 .. if your out to try set the record for how long your battery can last like some of those people say i got a million miles on my Toyota or Ford pickup thats a different story.

The folks at Battery University have noted that it's the depth of discharge that can be harmful to the battery's lifespan, and they recommend shorter, more frequent charging (i.e., what results from narrowing the charge range). Those shorter charge cycles actually don't count as full charge cycles.

By the time my old Pixel 3 XL was 2 years old, AccuBattery was reporting its battery health at about 93% (this was with my charging habit of letting it go all the way to 100% overnight, and generally not letting it drop <30%). I think you can really start to tell that a battery isn't holding as much as it used to when the health dips below 90%, so that's why I would suggest paying attention to charging habits more if you have any thought of holding onto a phone for 3 years or more.

I've been trying to be more mindful with my Pixel 6 Pro, especially since the battery life is so good for me. I'll typically charge it up to 80-90% at most, and I usually still have about 40% by the end of the day.

 

[mustang7757]

The folks at Battery University have noted that it's the depth of discharge that can be harmful to the battery's lifespan, and they recommend shorter, more frequent charging (i.e., what results from narrowing the charge range). Those shorter charge cycles actually don't count as full charge cycles.

By the time my old Pixel 3 XL was 2 years old, AccuBattery was reporting its battery health at about 93% (this was with my charging habit of letting it go all the way to 100% overnight, and generally not letting it drop <30%). I think you can really start to tell that a battery isn't holding as much as it used to when the health dips below 90%, so that's why I would suggest paying attention to charging habits more if you have any thought of holding onto a phone for 3 years or more.

I've been trying to be more mindful with my Pixel 6 Pro, especially since the battery life is so good for me. I'll typically charge it up to 80-90% at most, and I usually still have about 40% by the end of the day.

I can't comment on Battery University
Only on my own experience and I have held devices for sometimes 2 years or 3 Max , the device I had with removable battery like my s4 and s5 they were no good after year mark since they moved to sealed battery I found little more longer battery life over the years . iPhone batteries I gave had even more luck with don't know why and I tend to keep those longer.

Example I had my 11pro new it has built in battery degrading tool after 1 Year it was at 99%. I believe 2nd year drop to 97%.

Like I mentioned if someone wants try make record how long original battery last go for it but typically going last 2 to 4 years on average which to tell u the truth don't want own a phone past 2 to 3 year mark.

 

[mustang7757]

Nothing against Battery University but my experience tell me different and how I want use my device

 

[mustang7757]

Agree. I believe most, if not all, EV's only charge up to 80%. You have to override some setting to charge beyond that. There's a reason for that.

You get a milage dip in different weather conditions I would imagine

 

[B. Diddy]

I can't comment on Battery University
Only on my own experience and I have held devices for sometimes 2 years or 3 Max , the device I had with removable battery like my s4 and s5 they were no good after year mark since they moved to sealed battery I found little more longer battery life over the years . iPhone batteries I gave had even more luck with don't know why and I tend to keep those longer.

Example I had my 11pro new it has built in battery degrading tool after 1 Year it was at 99%. I believe 2nd year drop to 97%.

Like I mentioned if someone wants try make record how long original battery last go for it but typically going last 2 to 4 years on average which to tell u the truth don't want own a phone past 2 to 3 year mark.

Right, I agree that for the large majority of users who upgrade every 1-2 years, this whole issue doesn't really matter in real world usage. It's for those relatively few people who really want or need to hold onto a phone for upwards of 4-5 years (or even longer).

 

[swebb]

The folks at Battery University have noted that it's the depth of discharge that can be harmful to the battery's lifespan, and they recommend shorter, more frequent charging (i.e., what results from narrowing the charge range). Those shorter charge cycles actually don't count as full charge cycles.

By the time my old Pixel 3 XL was 2 years old, AccuBattery was reporting its battery health at about 93% (this was with my charging habit of letting it go all the way to 100% overnight, and generally not letting it drop <30%). I think you can really start to tell that a battery isn't holding as much as it used to when the health dips below 90%, so that's why I would suggest paying attention to charging habits more if you have any thought of holding onto a phone for 3 years or more.

It makes all kind of sense to not obsess if you change phones every year or two.

Regarding the P3XL, that phone just seemed to have a crap battery. Mine went down to 90%, according to Accubattery, in less than one year. Got a replacement from google that was only slightly better. Never had a battery that degraded that quickly. My P5 is going on two years and the battery is only now dipping into the 95-98% percent of original capacity.

 

[EnthalpiousKitten]

I usually charge to 90-100, sometimes lower if I am in a hurry or whatnot. However, I try to keep the battery about 20%. Accubattery (using an old version cause the new versions seem to only record estimates from "full charges" that are from below a really low percentage, which I rarely go down to) reports 93% on my S10 lite after a year and 2.5 months of use. To be fair though, the kernel-level cycle counter (readable through DevCheck) is registering 365 cycles which is not a small amount. Probably a lighter user's phone battery would be in way better shape but I am a power user and heavily use my phone for many hours a day. Honestly the battery is with this treatment still more durable under heavy use than this OLED screen that has visible burn-in from my dark mode keyboard and normal use of my most opened apps. I do once in a while go below 20% when I either wanna recalibrate the battery meter (it gets a tad innacurate if you never go low) or when I absolutely have no chance to charge.

Edit: mind you, this 93% health after 365 cycles is w/ at least 75% of them done with 25W super fast charging and the rest through slower charging sources when I didnt have my SFC charger on me.

Sent from my SM-G770U1 using Tapatalk

 

[B. Diddy]

Accubattery (using an old version cause the new versions seem to only record estimates from "full charges" that are from below a really low percentage, which I rarely go down to) reports 93% on my S10 lite after a year and 2.5 months of use.

I think Accubattery just needs the battery to drop below 15% and then charge up to 100% one time in order to calibrate, so that it can determine the battery health. I noticed that recently on my new Pixel 7 Pro, and it was actually kind of a pain to let the phone drop to <15% since the battery life is really good for me.

 

[Jeremy8000]

The way I figure it is that if there's a day where heavy use that will use more than about 60% of my battery before I can easily get to where I can charge it again, I'd rather have it starting at 100% to give me more leeway. I don't have any evidence to support my personal belief that it's far less damaging charging the phone from 80-100% (especially at the slow rate the system limits it to at that point) than to discharge further than 20% (not to mention the accelerated charging when it is at its lowest.

With my P6 Pro I almost never let it drop below 20%, rarely below 30%, and always charged it to 100% overnight. After a year, I noticed zero difference in actual battery life and, to whatever credibility one might ascribe to AccuBattery, it only showed about a 0.5% battery capacity degradation over that span.

 

[tony bag o donuts]

Same.
But I am still using a 20FE.
I always wondered back in the Froyo days of android if these apps drained the battery quicker.
Anyhow almost 2 years with my device and it's at 93% health.

 

[AndroidFanboy8]

I used the 85% in beginning on my Samsung but not worth the 15% I lose in my opinion

Agreed especially on the flips

 

[mustang7757]

Agreed especially on the flips