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8 Mistakes That Destroy Your Cell Phone Battery

Cell phone batteries have different runtimes. To increase runtime, you should avoid mistakes!
Cell phone batteries have different runtimes. To increase runtime, you should avoid mistakes! Photo: Getty Images / SimonSkafar

January 17, 2025, 9:15 am | Read time: 4 minutes

As soon as you’re on the move, your smartphone battery is almost empty – does that sound familiar? Maybe you’re making a mistake and ruining your cell phone battery. TECHBOOK explains how to use your smartphone correctly and save your battery.

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The battery is probably one of the most important components of our cell phones. It decides when we need power or even a new cell phone. If the cell phone battery is broken, a new phone is often needed because a new battery would no longer be worth the purchase price. So watch out! These tricks when charging your cell phone will help your smartphone last longer.

Do Not Fully Charge Your Cell Phone Battery

Originally invented so that we can make and receive calls and texts wirelessly, our smartphones usually end up on charge for a long time. The worry is that the battery could run out at an inopportune moment. You want to be prepared. That’s why we often tend to charge our cell phones fully.

Unfortunately, the battery is not particularly happy about this! It has been proven that batteries work best at 30 to 70 percent and then work for longer. It is, therefore, advisable to charge the battery not just once a day but several times and not fully. As many people charge their devices overnight, newer cell phones also have built-in functions that only initiate the charging process after a certain time of day.

Charging Too Late

You should only charge a battery when it is almost empty – this is a myth and wrong! Lithium-ion batteries, as used in every conventional smartphone, are susceptible to fluctuations if they are not supplied with sufficient energy. You should, therefore, try to avoid completely draining your cell phone’s battery to prevent it from breaking down in the long term. Therefore, always connect your cell phone to the power supply in good time so that it always has enough power available.

Charging Too Early

As a precautionary measure, many people often charge their cell phones too early to avoid the risk of smartphone failure. If you constantly connect your cell phone to the power supply when it is at 50 or even 70 percent, you will damage the battery, and it will fail. Our tip: Only connect your smartphone to the charging cable when the battery status is less than half.

The Perfect Temperature

Your smartphone should never get too cold or too hot, as the battery cannot cope well with extreme temperatures. At such extreme temperatures, it has to deliver more power than at normal temperatures. Apple, for example, specifies that the ideal temperature for iPhones, iPods, and iPads is between 0 and 35 degrees. The reason is that a chemical reaction takes place in the battery that produces electrons. The flow of electrons generates energy, which serves as a source of energy for the smartphone. This chemical process slows down in the cold, ultimately even causing the cell phone to switch off.

Charging Your Cell Phone in Bed

Even though charging your cell phone in bed is a daily habit for many people, you shouldn’t do it. Not only can it damage the phone’s battery, it is also very dangerous for the user. Charging a smartphone generates heat that cannot be compensated for by a pillow or comforter. Charging in bed can lead to a technical defect if the battery overheats and, in the worst case, even cause a fire.

Use a Different Charger

If the smartphone charger is no longer functional, many users opt for a charger from another manufacturer when buying a new one. This is often cheaper to buy. However, third-party chargers can damage the phone’s battery because they are not optimally adapted to the needs of the respective device. To avoid shortening the life of your battery, you should use the manufacturer’s charging cable.

Storing a Full or Empty Battery

The old smartphone is often stored in a drawer as a spare cell phone. However, to prevent the battery from breaking during storage, it is recommended that the battery be charged to about half capacity. Otherwise, the capacity of the battery can be reduced if the charge is low.

More on the topic

Continuous Use of a Battery Case

A battery case helps the cell phone to last longer. However, in the long term, this can affect the performance of the battery because both batteries give off heat, which can cause technical damage.

This article is a machine translation of the original German version of TECHBOOK and has been reviewed for accuracy and quality by a native speaker. For feedback, please contact us at info@techbook.de.

Topics #PriwattAmazon Battery Evergreener Tips and tricks
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