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by rtpg 1140 days ago
Is there a place that has empirical data on this stuff? Like what battery factoids are still true with the latest devices or not?

I would honestly love for phone manufacturers to outright build in some software to build in best practices if they actually exist. Don't let me charge to 100% at first or something!

8 comments

AccuBattery is an Android app that gives battery usage statistics and more detailed readouts from the OS w/r/t battery condition and charge/discharge behavior.

Their help portal has a research summary explaining their sources (the most recent of which is from 2010, so battery tech has likely improved in some respects but it's still a useful reference point): https://accubattery.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/210224725-...

Chargie is another solution for the problem and links to researches https://chargie.org/
I don't believe Apple has released empirical data, but Apple has optimized phone charging built into recent versions of iOS (Settings > Battery > Battery Health and Charging). It will stop at 80% and then resume charging to 100% about an hour before you start using your phone every day. iOS tracks your daily habits to determine the start of your day.

In the most recent iOS versions, if it can determine when "clean energy" is available near your location, it will also try to charge only during those time periods. I don't think any 3rd party has determined if it is effective.

This feature exists in Macbooks too, but it's useless to me - it never works because apparently my usage pattern doesn't convince the smart system to limit charging, and it gives me no manual control whatsoever. I think I'd have to always keep charging the laptop for it to kick in.

Just gimme a slider that lets me tell it to only charge to 80% and be done with it.

At least some Android devices have the same, it keys off your alarm if you have one set. My Pixel 6 Pro will also take advantage of chargers' ability to supply different amounts of power to not charge as quickly as it's physically capable of doing if it thinks I've put it on charge for the night.
My iPhone 12 mini spends 95% of its life on a MagSafe charger and has never charged to 80% after a year with this setting enabled. I wish Apple would add an explicit option like "Protect Battery" on Samsung devices.
Get into the quadcopter hobbyspace, you will learn more than you ever wanted about battery chemistries.
I just want to know how much of this stuff is “batteries in the fridge” stuff
One way to slow down the aging of batteries is to charge them only up to 80%, but this is not the only factor that affects their lifespan. Other factors include the temperature of the environment, the power consumption, and the quality of the battery materials and manufacturing process, which may be hard or impossible to know before buying.

https://www.nrel.gov/transportation/battery-lifespan.html

You'd be better served by leaving power save mode on all the time (No haptic touch or animated UI) and minimize brightness to extend the intervals between charging.
I’m pretty sure you should be able to find data. Only a handful of battery manufacturers used.

Phones typically are geared to use the full capacity of the battery.

The demand towards the thinnest phones possible leaves smaller tolerances towards cramming in the biggest battery possible.

I think the galaxy note 4 was the last one with a removable battery therefore something that could run a long time.

An external battery case depending on how you use it can extend the lifespan of an internal battery too.

I've seen the longevity graphs for lithium ion (don't know about other chemistries, but there's still a lot of lithium ion around). Ability to retain charge drops off faster if the battery is kept fully charged, especially in warm temperatures.

My electric car by default only charges to 80% unless you tell it you're planning a long drive in order to conserve battery life.

My Note10 has this. You can switch on battery protection and it will stop charging at 85%
The quadcopter community has dig up research on the longevity of lipo batteries under different charge levels. Note that they do push their batteries really hard. Their findings apply as long as the latest devices still set 4.2V as 100%.