Tips on how to handle your mobile phone battery and charger

The battery of a mobile phone is one of the most important parts of the device. According to a recent report from Counterpoint Research, over 70% of Indians get anxiety when their battery is down. Also, mobile phone batteries like other electronic gadgets lose their value when it is improperly used. So, how do we handle our mobile phone battery? This is a big question that this article attempts to answer.

Here are a few tips that could help us better handle our mobile phone battery as well as the charger.

There have been warnings that leaving the mobile phone to fully discharge and charging it every time will affect the battery life. However, this is only true for devices that use nickel-cadmium (Ni-Cd) batteries. In the early years, rechargeable batteries were mainly Ni-Cd batteries that were made of nickel hydroxide and metal cadmium. To put it simply, when the power is not exhausted or fully charged many times, the battery capacity will "remember" the power when charging and power off. It will then regard it as the maximum and minimum value of power respectively, resulting in the reduction of the battery capacity.

But now, Ni-Cd batteries are no longer used due to heavy metal pollution, high weight, and low energy density. They are now replaced by Lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries. Mobile phones mostly use Li-ion batteries. The precautions for Li-ion batteries are just the opposite of those for Ni-Cd batteries. Do not overcharge the battery and also do not deep charge and discharge every time. The life of a Li-ion battery is related to the charging cycle. Whenever the power drains from 100% to 0%, one cycle is achieved. The more cycles, the more the decline of the battery life.

What users should do is never allow the battery to drain to 0% before recharging it. This way, stop it from completing a cycle and save the battery life. According to unconfirmed reports, after 250 cycles, a Li-ion battery life will decline significantly. After 300 – 500 cycles, the battery will drop to 80% of its original capacity.

Many mobile phone users believe that there is no specific way of plugging the charger into the phone and then to a power source. Well, there is if you want to protect the battery life of your phone. Do you connect the plug to the power supply first, and then use the data cable to connect to the mobile phone? Or you connect the data cable to the mobile phone first, and then connect the plug to the power supply?

The right way is the former. Plug the charger into the power source first before inserting the cable into the phone. Here is why

The voltage used in most regions of the world is 110/120V or 220/230V. However, the voltage of mobile phone chargers is often within 5V. When charging mobile phones, the charger will convert high-voltage current into low-voltage DC through a transformer, and then send it to the cell phone.

If the charger is already connected to the mobile phone and then plugged into the power supply, the charger may lose its self-adjusting ability, thereby outputting a surge voltage. Although the time it takes for the surge to occur is only one-millionth of a second, it can cause a lot of damage to the battery of the mobile phone for a long time. When the charger is plugged in first, and then the phone is connected, this kind of situation will almost never happen, unless the current itself is not stable.

After charging, which should be unplugged first, the phone or the charger? Users have to unplug the mobile phone first because at the moment the charger is unplugged, a reverse instantaneous current will also be generated. This will accelerate the ageing of the battery.

The principle seems complex, but it is not difficult to remember the correct order of plugging and unplugging. You can try to treat the charger, the charging cable and the socket as one. When charging, the mobile phone is "attached", and when it is fully charged, the mobile phone is "discarded". This operation is much safer.

In the daily use of mobile phones, there are some charging methods that you think are correct, but they are not.

It is common practice to buy a mobile phone with a matching charging device. But in recent years, some brands no longer give away chargers in the name of environmental protection. This means that users will have to buy chargers themselves.

The price of the official charger is often too high, so many people will choose cheaper ones. Well, if the cable does not match, then it could pose a real issue for the mobile phone. After using such chargers for a short time, they may fail to charge the device.

Try to look for the regular brand when buying chargers, and don't buy counterfeit chargers for cheap. After all, the configuration inside the counterfeit chargers is really hard to say. It is very likely that the current and voltage required by the mobile phone will not match that of the charger.

Some people think that discharging and charging the battery at the same time will affect the lifespan. In fact, what really affects the lifespan of the battery is the sudden rise in temperature caused by charging while playing. Everyone will have this experience. When playing games or using fast charging, mobile phones sometimes get hot.

Charging a device alone also causes the device to get hot. This means that if you are charging and playing, you are doubling the temperature increase of the mobile phone. This will kill the battery. Beware!!!