SubscribeHow to Make Your Cell Phone Battery Last Longer
Posted on Nov 26, 2007 under Hardware Tips |You purchase your fancy new cell phone. The battery lasts forever, but after a couple of months the battery doesn’t last as long. Still the capacity it has gets you by. After a year though, the thing hardly holds a charge. What was it that you did that causes this?
Many people think that they haven’t properly cared for their battery, and that’s the reason it will no longer hold a charge. They think that if they had properly discharged their batteries before recharging them, it would’ve made a difference. While this is true for the old Ni-Cad batteries we used to use, this is not true for the lithium-ion batteries that are used in the cell phones we use today.
What does matter is the age of the battery, the temperature they are stored at, and the amount of power left in them while they are stored. The cooler the environment the battery is kept in, the less of a rate it will lose it’s capacity as long as it’s not extremely low temperatures. Another thing to note is the rate of charging and discharging the battery also reduces the capacity. With these things in mind, here are some tips to giving your cell phone battery longer life.
- Don’t charge your battery all the way full unless you really have to. Keep the charge as low as possible but with enough of a charge so that you won’t run out of power during the day.
- Keep your phone cool. Avoid leaving it in a hot car. Investing in a case to carry the phone away from your body heat may be a good idea as well.
- Avoid using quick chargers. Many car chargers rapidly charge batteries. The cheap chargers you find on eBay these days are notorious for damaging batteries. Only use a charger that charges the phone at a slower rate.
- Unplug the phone immediately once it’s finished charging. This will prevent exposure to excessive heat.
- When storing the phone or battery, discharge the battery as much as possible and place it in a cool environment.
Check out these other resources for more information on lithium-ion batteries:
Lithium-ion Battery @ Wikipedia
How to prolong lithium based batteries
Leave a comment