Battery has always been a concern for smartphone lovers. Today we will bring out a controversial topic: Should we use up all the battery capacity before charging it?

Battery capacity: Everything has changed

There have been lots of arguments about when we should charge out smartphones. Some insist that it should be when the battery is at around 20%. Others claim that the battery should be entirely used up before it gets charged. So which is true? In the past, the battery technology like nickel-metal hydrid or nickel cadmium didn’t allow the battery itself to remember its own maximum capacity. That’s why users back then had to use up all the battery capacity before charging to make sure it doesn’t forget its maximum capacity.

However, the new lithium-ion battery which is used in most current smartphones is different. The new battery technology is not that “forgetful”. In fact, lithium-ion battery knows its maximum capacity so that users don’t have to do the step above to “remind” the battery of its capacity. At this point, some of you may argue that everytime we discharge and recharge the phone, the battery life span will decrease a bit, and as a result, it’s quite wasteful to start charging when the battery is still 20% and above!

Here’s the answer to that argument: the battery life span DOES decrease after long time use, but with the new technology, the decrease does not depend on the times we charge. In fact, it depends on the charging cycle. To be more specific, you finish a charging cycle after you have used 100% of the battery capacity. The good thing is this cycle can be separated in to smaller, discontinuous periods. For example, if you use 50% of the battery then recharge it back to 100% in one day and the next day you continue to use 50% more, you will complete one cycle!

Battery capacity: So what’s the answer?

So the conclusion is: with current smartphones, you don’t have to wait until 100% of the battery capacity is depleted to start charging it. You can charge your smartphone whenever you want to because the time you charge your phone doesn’t affect the life span of the battery. It’s the charging cycle that does! So just charge your phone whenever you feel that it is necessary. You don’t even have to charge your phone fully! Hopefully with this knowledge, you can enjoy using your phone more!