Cell phone batteries have evolved so much in recent years. As a result, some helpful tips for extending battery life have become out of date. Sometimes sticking with them may even end up having the opposite of the desired effect. Here I’ll go through some of these myths to reveal the truths hidden behind them.
It’s bad to leave your cell phone recharging all night.
This myth stopped being true ages ago. In the past, yes, if you left your battery charging for a long time, it could overheat and even explode in extreme cases. Hence the belief was born that it’s bad to recharge your cell phone all night long.
If I close my apps, I’ll definitely improve battery life.
This seems to make sense. If we’ve got lots of apps open at the same time, it’s logical to think that if we close them, we’ll help our battery because we’re taking away its “workload.” If that works with our computers, it should work with cell phones, right?
If you leave an app open, it doesn’t do anything and it doesn’t use up resources. So if you close an app, you won’t save battery because there’s nothing to save. Exactly the opposite.
Use only official chargers for your cell phone.
Never use your cell phone while it’s charging.
You always hear people guaranteeing that if you use your cell phone while it charges, it will explode, catch fire or even electrocute you. But for now there’s no proof of this. Don’t worry. Use your cell phone. Nothing will happen to you.
You should let your battery fully drain before charging it.
This myth comes from the age of nickel-zinc batteries. These batteries “forgot” their maximum capacity if they weren’t fully run down. But with lithium-ion batteries, things have changed. If you start charging a battery when it’s at 60%, it knows that it’s at 60%, don’t worry.
However, many tech experts recommend that, from time to time, you let your battery fully drain to “calibrate it.” Battery life declines with age; with each charge capacity is reduced. If every two or three months, you let your cell phone run down to 0%, you’ll help the Operating System know exactly how much current capacity the battery has.
If you disable Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and Location services, you’ll save a ton of battery.
Again, we encounter a myth that was accurate in the past. Previously, both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth used up lots of battery. But that doesn’t really happen anymore.
For Location services (Google Maps, for example), just make sure they’re activated when you open these apps, instead of using location data in the background. It’s constant use that could kill the lifetime of your battery prematurely.
If you store your battery in a refrigerator, it will last longer.
Putting your battery in a refrigerator isn’t just bad for the battery, it also may be super dangerous. Remember that a battery is always an amalgam of chemical products that store energy!