Is it true what people always say about a battery? Are you really supposed to let it die completely before charging it in order to prolong the battery's life? Or is that just a myth? Is topping it up now and then dangerous or totally harmless?
It's all a myth, at least for lithium batteries. Old nickel batteries used to require a complete discharge, and you won't cause damage to current batteries by charging them on and off. For the best battery life, you're supposed to keep the device charged between 30% and 80% without letting it discharge completely at any point. You're not going to notice a huge difference in life with a complete discharge here and there. However, regular 0% discharges will kill the battery and cause it to hold less and less of a charge. Lithium batteries are quite efficient these days, nonetheless.
Thank you, it is nice to finally have that cleared up, I have been wondering for ages and letting it die completely hen I could have been topping up! Thanks again.
This was true for old NiCd batteries that had the 'memory effect'. You had to let them drain out to prevent the problem. Teamxxlp is 100% correct. Draining lithium batteries is the best way to kill the battery! I find it difficult to keep the battery charged in the optimal amount on cell phones so I don't worry about it much. Now for other devices, like my DSLR that I'll keep for a decade +, yes I pay attention!
To be fair, that 30-80% range can be difficult to maintain while you're busy. It's far easier to top the phone off at 100% and then let it drain to 30% or lower. That won't make a huge difference in battery life, but it still matters. I've had my device on about 15% battery for a few days because of daily tasks, and it's just now at a full charge once again!
Just to add my 2 cents here. I've had my S4 for over 3 years now, and I regularly leave it charging overnight (yes I know it's probably overcharged and bad for my battery) but it's only recently that I started noticing a decline in battery. After MORE THAN 3 YEARS. I have no doubt that charging it intermittently and not letting it get fully depleted is better, but I wouldn't say it's THAT noticeable.
I think that's a myth, but I know that if you let phone's run on the charger all day without unplugging it you can mess up your battery. One time I was in a Sprint store and the salesman showed me a blackberry that had a bulge on the back off it that turned out to be the battery. The battery had been overcharged and the phone no longer worked.
Unless the battery is some cheap knockoff, you can't over charge modern lithium batteries unless something fails. They automatically stop charging when the battery is full. Leaving it charged in can create more heat in the phone and shorten the life if it's excessive. But that's the worst you can do.
It has to be a myth letting the phone not be charged and the let it run until the battery life is low and turns off, as you would have to charge it up till it is charged enough so you can use it if making a call or playing games or using videos than needs full charge sometimes. I think it could be with different phones and some could work that way, the one I have if it is low will not be able to do a lot like can text but making calls or watching a video will cause it lose battery life. I usually fully charge the phone so it is ready to use and also, can do more on it and I don't think you can damage the phone by overcharging it as I have done it many times and no damage has occured on my phone.
What really drains a device's battery is screen-on time. Most smartphones with small to midsize batteries will only last for two to three hours of screen-on time with the brightness passed 50%. On the other hand, devices with 3,000 mAh batteries and above can sometimes manage four-plus hours of screen-on time no matter the brightness setting. A lot of video streaming, game playing, or other intensive tasks will increase the drainage of the battery, too, though.
It's A LOT longer than that, mate. My galaxy S4 still does about 4 hours of screen time with wifi on and some moderate gaming and that's after 3 years of use (I didn't take meticulous care either). I think the battery on the S6 should last at least 6-7 hours when it's new.
As what's already been posted, it's a total myth these days. New batteries are made now to be able to take a top up charge as much as you want and it won't have any detrimental effect on the life spam. While a phones battery will decrease in power over a period of use, usually 2 years and over, that is solely to do with the age and use of the battery And not your charging habits.
I think letting it die out completely may harm your phone's battery and even your OS, which is the software and not related to the hardware. I'd recommend you to let it get up to 5% and then charge it so that it's not fully dead. To extend your battery's life you need to make sure that it never turns off by it emptying completely, and if it did empty it's okay. Just charge it back normally without using it. I would really hope that you all take care of your battery well, and not listen to myths out there. It's just a simple concept, a phone needs a battery to run because it needs electricity, the charger's job is to fill your battery with the material that can provide electricity to all your phone in order to run through the circuits and run the software that you see on the screen.
While the battery is obviously a key part of your phone (obviously) the modern day battery is significantly more advanced than what they used to be and top up charging is ok. As for letting your phone completely die then I'm not too sure if this can affect the software. I'm sure others on the forum may be able to comment further on this?
Don't see how a low battery could effect the operating system. The operating system usually shuts the phone off when the battery package says it's critically low on power.
It might affect the coordination of the battery percentage. The software can change in terms of the battery detection and would have a wrong estimation of how much power the battery actually has. For example, if it says 5% on your phone, it could turn off any moment because it's not really 5%, because it has been calibrated and detecting wrongly, due to a faulty battery that has been ruined by letting the phone die out and then charge it. Hope that makes sense.
That's pretty much how I was thinking, it's not like you suddenly pull the power, like if you would do that on a PC then that may cause damage, on the smartphone though, it's the OS that decides to shut down, I'd imagine that's to prevent any damage from occurring.
The percentage figure of the battery you see on the phone, as far as I'm aware, has never really been an accurate representation of how much battery you have left anyway. I think it's there just as a rough guide only.
I think it's a very close estimation as I've said. It's not completely accurate and truly can't be, but it's a very close estimation. But it matters a lot because as I've said, it affects the estimation of the percentage through the software, which will in fact affect your phone turning off at times when it shouldn't be. It also could say that you have 1% battery when you actually have something like 18%, and then people would start experiencing that their phone turns off and turns on again with a different percentage and they're surprised and how it increased, when in reality it didn't increase, it just was messed up to begin with.
what is wrong with the phone if it gets really hot while charging and and still remains hot/warm off the charger? and the battery life is less that 2 hrs and it is not in use?