Explained | The science behind the common phone charging myths

There are a lot of smartphone battery myths that have been around for a while. Let's take a look at some of them.

We have all been there, accidentally leaving our smartphones on charge through the night only to worry about the health of our batteries come morning. These worries are a result of phone charging myths that have been passed down from person to another, almost like an unspoken word of law when it comes to the dos and don’ts of charging your phone.

In this article, we will look at some of the most prevalent ones and tell you whether you need to worry about them or not. Let us start with the obvious one first.

I have heard that leaving phone on charge through the night is bad for your battery

This one has been around for ages and probably picked up even more steam when Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7s were exploding in people’s faces. The thing unless there are some severe shortcomings with the design of the phone, you really do not need to worry about this one.

Most smartphones these days come with a smart chip that can detect when the phone’s battery is close to one hundred percent and switch to trickle charge. Trickle charge slows the rate of the charging down and uses some energy to get your phone back to one hundred every time it falls to ninety-nine.

One thing you should be aware of is that trickle charging generates heat since your charger is constantly pulling power to keep your phone charged. The best thing to do is to unplug your phone once it is charged but on the off chance you do forget about it and leave it on charge overnight, you do not need to worry about it too much.

Always drain your battery to zero and then charge it back up again to increase the battery’s lifespan

In one word: Nope! The best thing to do here is to charge your phone when you see a notification to enter low-power mode. As a rule, plug your phone into charge when the battery is around twenty to thirty percent and then charge it to eighty percent before pulling the plug. Keep your percentage levels between thirty and eighty to increase the batteries lifespan.

Don’t use your phone while it’s on charge

Unless you are using a phone with some serious manufacturing defects, modern smartphone batteries do not blow up or cause you harm when you are using the phone while it is charging. This myth was true of the older smartphone batteries but does not apply to newer lithium-ion batteries that are used in phone’s these days.

Over a prolonged period of usage, the worst that might happen is that the charge travels across the battery unevenly causing inefficient charging but batteries age anyway and there is nothing you can do about that.

Use only the charger provided with the smartphone

This is partially correct, if only because the manufacturers distribute chargers rated according to the batteries inside of the phone. This does not mean you cannot use any other charger when in a pickle or you find yourself at a place where there is no other option. Any charger that is rated 5V or between 1A or 2A can be used to charge your phone.

It is highly recommended, however, to use the charger that comes bundled with the smartphone.

Switch off Bluetooth and GPS to save battery life

On older phones with outdated operating systems, this used to be a problem. Newer phones however, come with enough smarts to turn off the radios automatically when not in use. They will automatically cycle through the radios and only stress the battery when the signals are needed. You can pretty much keep WiFi, NFC, Location and Bluetooth turned on and they will have a minimal impact on the phone’s battery life.

Charge your new phone to one hundred percent before using it

These days phone’s ship with the battery half charged out of the box and are good to go from the onset. Lithium-Ion batteries work best when cycling between forty to eighty percent. That is what your goal should be, plug in the phone when its below forty and then remove it once it trickles over eighty percent for maximum battery life.