We kind of are used to electricity shortages in Zimbabwe. It’s understandable, we can’t keep feigning surprise to waking up to darkness. 16 or 18-hour power cuts are nothing special anymore.
However, we have taken on some bad habits in order to deal with this situation and the batteries in our phones and computers are letting out a cry to the heavens.
It is therefore imperative – yes, I finally get to say this word – that we remind ourselves of proper battery etiquette. We will also look at a familiar battery protection mechanism that is now coming to phones.
The 20 to 80 rule
The main measure to keep in mind is the 20 to 80 rule. Don’t regularly let your battery drain below 20% and don’t charge it to over 80%. Lithium-ion batteries last longer when not fully charged.
Yes, I know it’s hard to follow this advice when you know the phone is going to have to be your work machine and entertainment hub for the whole day only to be charged as you slumber in the witches’ hours.
However, if you want your phone’s battery to last a long time, just try to keep your charge in that 20-80 range. What good is good software support, like the 7 years of major OS updates that the biggest smartphone manufacturers now offer, good for if your battery conks out in just 2 years.
Tips to keep in mind
Charging
- Unplug After Full Charge: Leaving your phone plugged in after it reaches 100% can wear down the battery over time. If you charge overnight, try using a slower charger, and unplug your phone once it’s fully charged. Some phones have optimised charging features to help with this.
- Partial Charging is Okay: Top up your battery whenever you can, even if it’s just for a few minutes. As long as you keep the charge between 20 and 80.
- Avoid Extreme Temperatures: Keep your phone between 20°C and 30°C. High heat degrades battery capacity. So, this is a double whammy – power cuts + hot weather – however, avoid charging your phone in very hot environments or under direct sunlight. Heat damages the battery.
If you take anything from this, let it be that Heat is the primary cause of battery degradation. So, if you feel that your phone is heating up, unplug it. Wait for it to cool down and then plug it back in. Some phones will help with this:
It was 30 degrees out and when I plugged in my phone to charge, it couldn’t deal. It placed charging on hold, talking about ‘Charging will resume when the phone returns to normal temperature.’
Using the phone
If you’re trying to keep your charge between 20 and 80% in this 18-hour power cut era, you have to limit how much power your phone draws during the day.
There are some settings you can tinker with to ensure your phone only sips power because out of the box, these powerful phones of ours chug it down to provide the best performance.
- Reduce screen brightness: The brighter the screen, the more power it draws from the battery.
- Shorter Timeouts: I’m with you, I hate when the screen turns off just because I didn’t interact with it for two seconds. However, if you’ve ever pulled out your phone from your pocket to realise that the screen was on, probably from the last time you placed it there, you know how a short screen time duration can be a life saver.
- Turn Off Unnecessary Features: Disable GPS, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, or mobile data when not in use. These features drain battery life, especially in areas with weak signals.
Even if you do all that, you may find yourself running out of power. Luckily, phones have built-in power saving/ battery saver modes. Some even have ultra-battery saving modes that allow the use of just a handful of apps.
These modes reduce background activity, screen brightness, and other energy-consuming features. Some of them also limit the performance of your phone’s engine (processor) and the phone may feel a little sluggish.
However, would you rather have a sluggish phone for a little bit than be disconnected from the information superhighway altogether?
Bypass charging
This one is not readily available. In fact, at this moment only one phone manufacturer that I know of offers the feature.
REDMAGIC calls it charge separation and it allows the device to draw power directly off the charger without using the battery’s stored energy.
Why is this a cool feature? See, battery degradation can also be caused by frequent charging. You may have heard people talk about charge cycles and whatnot. It’s common sense really, the more you charge and recharge your battery, the quicker it degrades.
We could have the same phone model but your battery would degrade faster if you were a power user who quickly drains the battery and tops it up. That’s especially so when you love gaming on your phone like me.
So, REDMAGIC’s charge separation allows you to run your phone directly from mains power and not the battery. This means you can have the phone plugged in as you use it without having to worry about damaging your battery by staying plugged in.
This allows you to use your phone without using up any battery power, ultimately preserving the battery for longer. They say the feature is beneficial for minimising unnecessary battery usage and maximising battery lifespan.
Now, REDMAGIC has slapped this feature in its latest gaming phone but I hope in the next few years, it trickles down to all other phones.
Now, if only all phones could bypass charging like REDMAGIC’s feature—because let’s face it, we need all the battery-saving magic we can get with these marathon power cuts.
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16 comments
In all fairness I don’t understand this thing about unplugging when the phone or any rechargeable battery operated device has the battery full. Things like vehicles, solar systems, alarm systems etc come to mind. Isn’t it that when the batteries are full the electronic systems automatically shut off charging without the need for us to unplug?
🤷♂️ 🤷♂️ 🤷♂️ 🤷♂️
I thought so too
It’s all about battery longevity and not to prevent immediate harm. The smart charging systems in our phones can handle that. However, we still unplug after a full charge to prevent unnecessary heat generation or battery wear over time.
So, in other words, overcharging isn’t a problem like you highlighted, but keeping a device plugged in and at 100% charge can generate a bit of extra heat, which can slightly degrade the battery over the long term.
Then there’s the fact that keeping a phone plugged in after it’s full goes against the 20 to 80 rule. We shouldn’t be charging to 100% in the first place. Lithium-ion batteries degrade faster when full charged or fully depleted regularly.
How is the heat being generated when its not charging?
Phone manufacturers know lithium batteries dont like 100-0-100 cycles, so they just make the phone charge the battery to 80 then say 100, let it discharge to 20 then say 0
If batery charge = 80 display 100% and stop charging
If baterry charge = less than 20 then say batery 0% and shut down device,
Also there is the thing about how long do you want to use the device, if you update every 6 months then you might as well not care about making the Batery last 2-3 years
That’d make the product look like it has a small battery. Bad for marketing! Plus, I think users should have the choice to manage the battery capacity however they want.
There is something called trickle charging that phones do if they are kept connected after they are full.The phone stops charging when it gets to 100% but the battery starts to be used right away by the phone and as soon as it drops a percent or 2 charging starts again.If this cycle continues for too long the battery can quickly degrade.
It appears not all phones can do that magic, if all phones could by pass, it’d be awesome. I have all the features mentioned in place but still my s21 ultra drains power more than my A21s, I’m no gammer like Leo though
Yes, the S21 Ultra’s more powerful processor (Snapdragon 888 vs Exynos 850), higher-resolution display (1440p with 120Hz refresh rate vs 720p with 60Hz), and more features running in the background like 5G and always-on display consume more power than the A21s. Even if you’re not gaming, these factors, combined with more intensive background processing, lead to faster battery drain.
AOD doesn’t consume significant power.
One UI 6.1 Android 14 came with a feature that stops charging your phone when it reaches 100%…Continuous use of the device whilst on the charger will actually deplete the battery percentage to 95% then the device will start charging again….it’s something I noticed some months ago. Not sure if all Samsung phones are doing the same
Yep, One UI 6.1 has a feature called ‘Battery Protect’. There are 3 battery protection mechanisms:
“Basic” stops charging at 100% and restarts at 95%
“Maximum” limits charging to 80% for maximum battery longevity
“Adaptive” manages charging based on your sleep patterns, using “Maximum” protection (charging to 80%) while you sleep and switching to “Basic” before you wake up
Not all Samsung phones have all these features, but it’s common on newer models.
So i bought a Nokia 1 months when it came out i think 2018, so weeks i had an accident and just last week i managed to get my car collected from the scrapyard and boom that nokia is still under my seat and battery on 0% so i. Charged it and went to 100% i switched it on and its working without no problem so now my question is like this is it normal for the battery to stay that long without being damaged
So that Nokia durability juju still exists huh? I thought it ended with the 3310.
It’s impressive that your Nokia still works after being in a scrapyard for so long. Litium-ion batteries like the one in your Nokia can survive being completely drained if they’re well-built and stored in decent conditions.
However, it’s not common for a battery to last this long without damage. So, keep an eye on the battery’s performance. It might not hold a charge as well as it used to. If you notice anything unusual, like swelling or overheating, it’s best to replace the battery.
“Now, if only all phones could bypass charging like REDMAGIC’s feature—because let’s face it, we need all the battery-saving magic we can get with these marathon power cuts.”
Just so you know there are some phones from Itel, that come standard with bypass charging. Just saying. Samsung, eat your heart out.
Mention these Itel phones.
I’m doing most of this for my laptop! It’s new enough to be capable of a truly near full workday of mixed use but it’s been getting punished by deep discharges on bad zesa days. I might need to replace the battery and sell it on to get the next gen or two up if I’m going to keep working like that. Does anyone know of any good coworking spaces in Mutare? That might be the more affordable path.