Re: OT: How to avoid smartphone battery damage from always being plugged in and topped off

Why would they assume that? And why would they over-charge a battery?

Also, they want maximum battery

Do you know that? I'd assume people plug in a charger for days or weeks sometimes.

My Samsung phone is right here. It's been plugged into a USB charger for about 16 hours now. It's cool.

I got some 10 foot USB cables so I can photograph nearby stuff without disconnecting it, so at work it's connected to my PC all day. I can shoot a full D-size drawing on the floor of my office, with natural light from the window.

TXD and RXD always confuse me.

I just discovered that I can say "shoot" instead of pressing the button.

echnology.com:

and if you enable it images get stored in you dropbox via wifi or cell network so you don't need a cable they are instantly in your dropbox

Sounds good. I'll have to figure out how to do that.

They are not always. And only then in the sense of not allowing them to actually catch fire. Built in obsolescence seems to kill their batteries. Way back my wife's iPhone 5s qualified for a free battery swap because many had developed a tendency to swell and lose capacity. Unclear whether it was chemistry or charging regime. Had it lasted just another three months it would have been out of warrantee.

The design assumption for a mobile phone is that the owner will carry it around with them for most of a day, perhaps brutally recharge it at lunchtime and then charge it more sensibly overnight.

I object to having one that won't last at least a couple of days. I chose my smart phone on the basis of longest available runtime.

Leaving one on charge for extended periods of time is just asking for trouble. Same also applies to laptops. I almost always destroy the batteries in mine since it runs much faster when on mains power.

Some makes are certainly better than others in terms of not abusing their batteries but the assumption for a *mobile* phone is that it will spend a fair proportion of its working lifetime being carried around in a shirt pocket or handbag. The clue is in the name "mobile phone".

What does one do to brutally charge a phone?

(My phone lasts about a week on one charge, but I connect it to a computer to unload photos, so I don't specifically charge it. It's more a camera than a phone. Charging twice a day sounds extreme.)

Do you think that laptops and phones don't have charging controllers?

Fast charge top up modes which leave the battery uncomfortably hot. eg

Dyson vacuum cleaners kill their batteries not long after the warrantee runs out. Is that a coincidence or what? Interestingly the third party replacement units come with helpful advice never to put them on charge immediately after they go flat but to leave them to cool down first.

That is unusual in a smart phone. Typically they last just over a day.

My Moto G4 would last a week when new but now 5 years down the line it fades after a couple of days. New high end phones seem to need a lot more cosseting to work for an entire day including a lunchtime top up.

They have charge controllers but the aim of the manufacturer is to have you replace your mobile phone as often as possible (ideally annually) so they have no incentive to engineer it on the conservative side.

Getting maximum runtime out of them in video playback seems to be one of the common benchmarks so obviously they play the specsmanship game.

People use their phones too much, and run too many silly apps.

It's a new addiction.

Video playback on a phone? Why?

We're breeding a billion nearsighted, attention-span-impaired kids.

What were your SAT scores?

I have absolutely no idea! I'm entirely with you on that.

I reckon the Neanderthal brow ridge is due for a come back to protect them when they walk into street furniture whilst txting.

It is a nonsense to say that trickle charging can raise the temperature of the device. What makes them get very warm is fast charging. Keeping the battery topped up at 100% continuously might however gradually lead to production of hydrogen gas sooner than it would in normal use.

Manufacturers are playing specsmanship games for maximum battery life in "normal" use - this has a deleterious effect on battery life - but not quickly enough to kill them inside the warrantee period. In an ideal world the manufacturer wants you to buy a brand new phone every year.

Keeping the battery somewhere between 30% and 80% charged is probably about the sweet spot for maximising its long term survival. You could do this with a crude mechanical clock switch provided you monitor the battery health from time to time or have an app on the phone to control a smart socket when it decides it wants charging. This site has a reasonable description of battery management for maximum longevity of the battery (as opposed to absolute maximum run time on battery power).

I know makers claim that modern chemistry batteries do not suffer memory effects but I have killed plenty of them in my time. My most recent fast laptop has a battery life measured in tens of seconds - enough to survive a short brownout but nothing more than that. I seldom use it as a portable any more. I have much smaller and lighter machines for that.

If you trust the popular press over electronics engineers you will remain confused forever.

Incidentally why use a smartphone this way? - a dumb candy bar phone would last orders of magnitude longer per battery charge.