Charging your smartphone overnight is very convenient, but it is not recommended if you want to extend the battery life. We explain the right things to do to charge your phone optimally.
Few smartphones can go two full days without worrying about the battery level. So the reflex is to charge it every night when you go to bed to make sure you have 100% battery for the next day. This is a habit that unfortunately isn’t always good for your phone’s health.
Charging your phone at night: good or bad idea?
Like most portable electronic devices, smartphones are equipped with lithium-ion batteries. When your phone discharges, you “eat up” the ions which must then be recovered by charging the device.
Our smartphones are now equipped with integrated circuits dedicated to power management, which are located in the battery charging connector. Mobile phones that charge very quickly sometimes have a second controller directly in the charging block, in order to control the temperature, but also to control the flow of current into the battery.
These circuits intelligently control the amount of power flowing into the phone in an effort to reduce battery voltage and wear. Once your smartphone reaches 100% battery, charging stops until you unplug the device. With these built-in technologies, you can safely charge your device overnight without worrying about damaging your phone.
However, we’ll add an important note to this statement: be sure to use official chargers recommended by your smartphone manufacturer, or at least a compatible charger from brands known for their seriousness. Avoid at all costs the cheap, unknown chargers that you can find in the markets.
How to charge your smartphone without damaging the battery
If your phone stops charging on its own once to 100%, what is wrong with charging overnight? Charging your smartphone overnight can reduce battery life. One of the electronic industry consensus is that Lithium-ion batteries last longer when charged between 20-80%.
Yes, this means that you will never have the full autonomy of your smartphone, but also its battery will drain less quickly over months and years of use. Thus, a good reaction is not to wait until your smartphone is at 0 or 5% to recharge it, and not to allow it to charge until 100%.
Another good practice : avoid heat. Lithium-ion batteries get hot when charging. Ensure that your smartphone is in a cool, well-ventilated area (not under a pillow) while charging. Also note that wireless charging produces more heat than wired charging.
The faster you charge your smartphone, the more heat it produces. To address this problem, some Chinese manufacturers such as Oppo, Vivo or Xiaomi have developed smartphones with two batteries that are charged in parallel to speed up the process while limiting heating. Technology that allows today to deliver impressive charging speeds of up to 240W.
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Other brands like Apple, Samsung or Google prefer to play the safety and longevity card rather than the speed card, with smartphones not recharging at more than 45W.
Is your smartphone affected?
Brands are aware of the issues with charging their smartphones. So they started implementing a series of software improvements to automate charging. This is the case with many modern smartphones.
At Samsung, there is an option called Battery Protection that limits the maximum charge to 85% to extend its life. On Google Pixel smartphones, there is an “Adaptive Charging” option that activates based on your usage cycle.
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Same note in Apple where the Optimized Battery Charging option is active by default to hold charging over 80%, until you need to use your iPhone. Thus, these improvements are welcome, but they depend on the brand of your smartphone and the version of Android or iOS you are using. Also, make sure these improvements are enabled if you want to use them.
If you don’t take advantage of these options or prefer not to use them, just make sure you follow these best practices: Avoid plugging your smartphone in overnight and make sure to keep the battery charge level between 20 and 80%.
, Why you should stop charging your smartphone overnight
