Having to charge your phone on a regular basis isn’t the most pleasant thing in the world, especially when out and about and you don’t have access to a charger. This is why features like Low-power mode exist; however, can leaving this feature constantly have a negative impact on your phone’s battery health?
Leaving your phone on Low-Power mode will not affect your phone’s battery health whatsoever. Low-power mode is simply a tool that sacrifices short-term performance for short-term battery life &, therefore, will have no impact on battery health degradation. Low-Power mode will simply reduce the performance of the following tasks Email fetch, background app refresh, visual effects, temporarily pause iCloud Photos and reduce 5 capabilities (except for video streaming).
Let’s now take a look at what actually happens once you turn on low-power mode and what happens to your battery in the long term, as well as what you need to avoid to prolong your phone’s battery life. Let’s dive in!
Is it Bad to Always be in Low-Power Mode?
Keeping your phone in low-power mode will not have any effect on battery degradation. Low-power mode simply reduces the number of tasks your Phone performs to extend your current battery life. This means that your phone’s performance will go down when this is on to reduce power consumption. However, this is only the case when low-power mode is on. Simply turning it off will allow your phone to perform at its full potential.
Here are a few features that are affected when Low-Power mode is on:
- Automatic downloads
- Email fetch
- Visual effects
- Background app refresh
- Auto-Lock (defaults to 30 seconds)
- iCloud Photos will be temporarily paused
- 5G will be affected (except for video streaming)
Keeping Low-power mode on simply reduces the performance of a few features to prolong battery life for the short term. However, this doesn’t affect long-term battery health whatsoever, even when always turned on.
So if leaving your phone on Low-Power mode won’t degrade your battery health, what will?
There are two things you will need to avoid in order to maintain proper battery health. These are exposure to extreme temperatures & continuously discharging your phone.
Your phone’s battery doesn’t work well when it comes to extreme temperatures, especially when it comes to heat. Leaving your phone in a hot environment for an extended period of time will degrade your phone’s battery performance for both the short term and long term as well as result in irreversible damage.
Ideally, you want to store your phone at −20 °C ~ 60 °C. Anything above or below this range can have a negative impact on your phone’s battery health and life span.
Additionally, completely discharging your phone will cause your phone battery to degrade at a faster rate. This is because the majority of phones use Lithium-Ion batteries, which work in charge cycles. . every time your battery goes below 20%, that’s one charge cycle consumed. Lithium-Ion batteries have around 300-500 charge cycles. Each charge cycle degrades battery life.
At what percentage should I charge my phone?
Since Lithium-Ion batteries consume one charge cycle, once the battery drops below 20%, you never want to drop below 20% charge.
Additionally, if you want to prolong your phone’s battery life span, you want to maintain a 30 to 80% range. Charging from 80% to 100% can put additional strain on your battery, especially if you’re using a fast charger. This is why some devices such as the Airpods feature trickle-down charging, which slows the charging process from 80% to 100% to maintain proper battery health.
How many times should you charge your phone a day?
Times have changed, and new batteries work completely differently than they did even just a couple of years ago. Batteries don’t need to be completely discharged like in the past. In fact, if you constantly let your battery drop to under 20%, you’re unknowingly degrading battery life even quicker. Instead, you want to maintain a battery percentage of 30% to 80%, as unrealistic as that sounds, that is the true way to prolong battery life. This means charging as much as possible in order to keep your battery percentage in the mid-range, not going below 20% but also not passing 80%.
Is it OK to use Your Phone While Charging?
Yes, as soon as you use your phone while it’s plugged in, the majority of the external power source will be used to run your phone while being used, while the remaining power will charge your phone. So the charging rate will go down in order to better manage power consumption.
Do phones charge faster when turned off?
Yes, turning off your phone will reduce its total power consumption, thus powering your phone at a faster rate. Even when you’re not using your phone, it will continue to draw a battery in order to maintain a connection from Bluetooth or Wifi, or if you have several applications running in the background, it will cause your phone to draw additional power slowing the charging rate.
Is it bad to charge your phone all night?
No, Lithium-Ion batteries are designed with a battery management system that stops charging once your battery reaches 100%, so your phone will not be at risk of being overcharged.
Final Thoughts
There you have it, keeping your Phone on low-power mode will not affect your battery health whatsoever. Low-power mode simply reduces the number of tasks your phone performs in the background & will have no impact on battery degradation. If you want to prolong your phone’s battery health, then simply reducing the number of charge cycles your phone consumes regularly & avoiding exposure to extreme temperatures will prolong your phone’s battery’s lifespan.
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