Three popular
battery myths debunked
Are you making these mistakes?
3 battery myths debunked
Are you making these mistakes?
There’s a lot of misinformation about phone batteries.
To separate fact from fiction, we’ve busted three popular battery myths that might be doing your phone more harm than good. Make sure you’re not making these mistakes, and you can enjoy a long happy life with your phone battery!
Myth 1: It’s bad to leave your phone plugged in overnight
Once upon a time, it was bad to “overcharge” your phone because it would shorten your battery’s lifespan, could cause your phone battery to overheat, and in extreme circumstances, even cause damage to your phone.
But phones are a lot smarter than that these days and will regulate the electrical current once they are fully charged to ensure that this doesn’t happen.
So feel free to leave your phone plugged in next to your bed overnight, or even next to your computer while you’re at work.
Myth 2: You should drain your battery before charging it
This myth is particularly harmful because charging your battery all the way from zero to 100% is actually worse for the health of your battery than shorter charge cycles.
It was born due to old-school Nickel-based rechargeable batteries, which had a “battery memory”. With these old batteries, if you didn’t drain them all the way to 0%, they would “forget” part of their charge.
But the battery in your phone is a Lithium-Ion battery, which is a lot smarter than its Nickel predecessor. The rule of thumb is to try to always keep your battery’s charge above 50%.
Myth 3: Leaving Wi-Fi on decreases battery life
In the past, Wi-Fi was very power-hungry and turning it off when you weren’t actively using it was a good idea. But now, the amount of power it uses while idling is negligible, and connecting to Wi-Fi instead of your mobile data network can actually increase your battery life.
This is because it takes processing power (and therefore, battery) for your phone to seek out a cell signal. If you’re in an area with weak reception, your phone will be constantly seeking out a better cell signal, and constantly putting a drain on your battery.
By the way, the same can be said about Bluetooth – don’t worry about turning it off when it’s not actively in use!
