Is hitting full charge really bad for your phone?

Apple and various Android smartphone makers have been including options for manually limiting a phone’s maximum charging capacity for a while now. All batteries degrade with time and use, after all, and purportedly, the option is present to help increase the lifespan of the battery. The theory is that setting a max charge of 80% or 90% and charging the phone from 20% puts less strain on the battery, slowing the degradation process.

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While not exactly an old wives tale, there seems to be some merit to these claims only to the extent that especially long-term use of these devices can benefit from such charging practices. Tests have shown that while the battery does degrade over time and that limiting the charging capacity does help, the benefit is minuscule when compared to the average life of a product.

The benefit of being stingy with charging appears to only be about 5% over several years, while limiting charging capacity is at best an inconvenience, and often forces you to give up on several hours of run-time for gains that will have no meaning to most.

The best example of this research can be found at Youtube channel HTX Studio, where they charged and discharged 40+ phones in various modes over two years and collated the data. They also compared fast charging and slow charging to verify if it made any difference, and essentially found that the difference in degradation is minimal at best and thus not worth worrying about.

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Battery technology has evolved significantly since the days when charging over 80% causes additional degradation. Batteries today use newer materials and charging algorithms to ensure optimal charge cycles and usage over time. On top of that, most modern phones, especially Android ones, come with massive batteries. 5% of a 6,000 mAh battery isn’t going to impact day-to-day performance, and you’ll likely replace your phone before the battery degrades enough to warrant a replacement..

The bottom line is just this: Use yozur phone as you see fit and stop worrying about battery life and wear and tear. Modern phones and battery tech is designed to withstand a lot of abuse. The 5% less wear over a period of years does little to offset the fact that you’re forced to wait hours while charging your phone slowly or using only 60% of its rated capacity.