Battery trickle | What the Tech?

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (WHAT THE TECH?) — If you’ve noticed your phone battery isn’t lasting as long as it used to, you may want to adjust when and how you charge it.

For example, if you charge your phone while you sleep, it can affect your battery over time. Here’s why.

Most battery lifespans are counted in charging cycles. The iPhone has about 500 charging cycles before you start noticing a big difference.

However, Apple counts charges not by the number of times you put it on charge, but by the number of times it totals a full charge. It’s basically true for other phones because they all use the same battery technology.

If it’s on charge at night, the phone stops charging at 100%. Although, when it hits 100%, it drops back to 99% and then charges to 100 again. That’s ‘battery trickle’ and it’ll do this throughout the night.

Over time, that 1% drop will total a full charge.

Newer iPhones have a feature where it learns when you go to sleep and adjusts how it charges.

A graph shows how it charged to 80% about an hour after putting it on charge at bedtime. Then, between 4 and 5 a.m., just before waking up, it finished the charge to 100%.

You should check to make sure it’s turned on in the battery settings.

Android phones don’t have this particular feature but it does have battery optimization which closes programs you’re not using.

All that said, what’s the best way to charge a phone? Optimally, charge it to 80-85% before bed and turn on the battery saver.

When you go to bed, leave it off the charger while you sleep. When you wake up, plug it in.

If you typically upgrade your phone every year or so, you won’t notice a huge difference, so charge it any way you want.

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