Smart phone battery

[jenevers]

Is it best practice to flatten these batteries before recharging?

[Robbo]

36 minutes ago, jenevers said:

Is it best practice to flatten these batteries before recharging?

Not every time, only once a month to reset the charging thingy and fully charge when after.

 

Edit to add, these batteries don’t like been left on charge so don’t leave it plugged in all day or night.

Edited October 22, 2018 by Robbo

[blackrose]

I have an app called Accubattery, which amongst other things can estimate your remaining phone battery capacity against the design capacity. It looks like a very good app and it's free. Anyway the recommendations are not to fully charge your phone battery for maximum longevity, but to only charge to around 80%. They even provide an alarm in the app to help you do this.

 

https://accubattery.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/210224725-Charging-research-and-methodology

 

Edited October 22, 2018 by blackrose

[aracer]

No - like most batteries they last longer if you don't fully discharge them. I'm also unconvinced of the need to fully discharge even once a month, there shouldn't be any need to reset anything. Not that I have any experience of that, you're lucky to have the option - I suspect my usage is fairly typical in that I don't have much choice about fully discharging the battery, typically that just happens at least once or twice a week.

[nicknorman]

On 22/10/2018 at 08:30, jenevers said:

Is it best practice to flatten these batteries before recharging?

No. They are lithium batteries and don’t have a “memory” effect, unlike NiCd batteries of last century. Fully charging or fully discharging is more wearing on them than keeping them at a mid-charge level.

[Boater Sam]

If you fully flatten them, they won't fit in the phone anymore.

[aracer]

12 hours ago, nicknorman said:

No. They are lithium batteries and don’t have a “memory” effect, unlike NiCd batteries of last century.

Just to be pedantic (it's of no relevance to anybody as nobody has NiCad batteries any more) the memory effect wasn't a real thing for any normal personal use of NiCad batteries anyway. In order to create the effect you have to discharge to exactly the same amount multiple times - that's not what happens with normal battery usage where discharge is always a bit different. Effects usually attributed to the memory effect were due to some other cause of damage - ironically enough the most common being over-discharge,

 

Memory effect only really ever occurred in industrial applications where discharge and recharge is tightly controlled and repeatedly happens to the same level - reputedly it was first found with orbiting spacecraft where the discharge and recharge cycles were related to whether the sun was visible to the solar panels, a highly repeatable process.

[jenevers]

Thanks all for clarifying the current situation.

[Machpoint005]

If you have battery life issues, chuck the i-Thing away and get an Android instead. Then switch off all the battery-consuming crap that runs in the background.

[Richard10002]

8 hours ago, Machpoint005 said:

If you have battery life issues, chuck the i-Thing away and get an Android instead. Then switch off all the battery-consuming crap that runs in the background.

I had a couple of Android phones over a few years, and found that I had to switch off everything to conserve the battery so that it might just last a day. This included Wifi and mobile data, which was a real PIA.

 

Got an iPhone, left everything on - much more convenient, no PIA at all, and easily lasted a whole day. I've since bought a battery pack case which means I can get two or three days out of it.

[Momac]

On 24/10/2018 at 23:20, Richard10002 said:

I had a couple of Android phones over a few years, and found that I had to switch off everything to conserve the battery so that it might just last a day. This included Wifi and mobile data, which was a real PIA.

 

Got an iPhone, left everything on - much more convenient, no PIA at all, and easily lasted a whole day. I've since bought a battery pack case which means I can get two or three days out of it.

The battery in my  Samsung will last  several days if little used . About two days if well used.

I don't think iphones are any better .

[WotEver]

9 hours ago, MartynG said:

The battery in my  Samsung will last  several days if little used . About two days if well used.

I don't think iphones are any better .

iPhones are worse. With 84% battery health in my iPhone 7 it won’t last a day of heavy use. The new ones are better (and mine would be better with a new battery), but they’re not hugely better. 

[Psycloud]

On 31/10/2018 at 08:03, WotEver said:

iPhones are worse. With 84% battery health in my iPhone 7 it won’t last a day of heavy use. The new ones are better (and mine would be better with a new battery), but they’re not hugely better. 

Apple replaced mine at 88% for £25 on Monday.  It doesn't need to be below 80%, just say it's not lasting a day and they'll do it.  Mine seems to last forever on a charge now compared to when it had 88% capacity.

[Alan de Enfield]

2 hours ago, Psycloud said:

Apple replaced mine at 88% for £25 on Monday.  It doesn't need to be below 80%, just say it's not lasting a day and they'll do it.  Mine seems to last forever on a charge now compared to when it had 88% capacity.

Italy fines Apple $11.4M over iPhone battery slowdown controversy

 

While both Samsung and Apple were fined 5 million euro following the investigation, Apple was hit by an additional 5 million euro fine for failing to advise to customers how to properly maintain or replace their iPhone batteries.

Apple has previously apologized for making the decision to throttle iPhones with worn batteries, with the intention of preventing performance issues. Introduced with the iPhone 6, iPhone 6s and iPhone SE in 2016, Apple cited lithium-ion batteries becoming "less capable of supplying peak current demands" in cold conditions and having "a low battery charge" as they age, which can cause iPhones to unexpectedly shut down.

In response to consumer complaints, Apple reduced the cost of the out-of-warranty battery replacements from $79 to $29, then later issued an iOS software update with Battery Health options.

 

 

https://appleinsider.com/articles/18/10/24/italy-fines-apple-114m-over-iphone-battery-slowdown-controversy

[WotEver]

2 hours ago, Psycloud said:

Apple replaced mine at 88% for £25 on Monday.  It doesn't need to be below 80%, just say it's not lasting a day and they'll do it.

Yes, an Apple rep told me that a couple of months back. The Apple store is inconvenient for me but it has to be done prior to end December as the offer ends then. 

[Machpoint005]

3 hours ago, Psycloud said:

Apple replaced mine at 88% for £25 on Monday.

They'd do better to replace i-things with proper phones.

[Clodi]

I've just recently got the new Google Pixel 3 and it lasts for two days easy with all my useless apps running