There is no shortage of
myths floating about in regards to how to care for the batteries on your smartphone and other gadgets. From the myth of needing to let the batteries drain completely, to battery ‘memory’ or even myths about cheap chargers. But, by far the one that I hear the most is related to charging batteries overnight.The myth states that if you leave your smartphone constantly plugged in you will overcharge the battery and reduce the life significantly. But, I can tell you with absolutely certainty that this myth is completely false, both from personal experience and some
research from people smarter than me.
I use my cell phone alarm to wake up every morning, and therefore I generally will leave it plugged in next to my bed every night. I can tell you from personal experience that such a thing has yet to effect my battery life, and all of my smartphones have experienced the usual rate of battery decay—not the exaggeratedly shortened life that this old wives tale suggests.
Why is this? Simply put, your phone is smarter than you think. If you’re using a well-made charger–meaning the charger made by your manufacturer or a big name off-brand—then the charger will essentially communicate with the phone and once the device is fully charged, it will stop the charging process and instead only power the phone. This means that your smartphone is not charging for the entire time that you are asleep.
There is catch to this though: You can’t be using a knockoff charger. As this excellent
tear down article shows, knockoffs tend to have far less safety standards and are less high-tech in general. Big off-brand companies are probably safe, as is the charger that came with your device. Shy away from the shady ones at the gas station though, unless you fancy your device overheating, short circuiting or even worse, exploding.
It is worth noting that all batteries do have a limited number of charge cycles (or the number of times the battery can go from zero to 100 without losing any capacity) and most cell phone batteries will start to see a decline after two to five years. You can check out some of our
tips for increasing battery life for other ideas to make your phone last all day.
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It’s certainly overblown but there is a basis to the myth. A good charger will stop charging at 100% but, unless the phone is turned off, it will continue to use power. If the phone draws power from the USB when plugged in, no problem. If it draws power from the battery, at some point during the night the battery will drop to a trigger level and start recharging again. This can contribute to the battery’s inevitable degradation.