Month: December 2022

In this race for autonomy, who is the best? “On consumption in use, Apple and its iPhones are ahead with six devices in our Top 10”, points out Olivier Simon. Apple masters both the hardware design and the operating system, so it’s easier for this computer giant to optimize battery usage. “With a smaller battery, Apple does as well as an Android terminal with a higher battery capacity,” adds the DxOMark expert.

As often, the marketing figures displayed by brands do not make much sense. Thus, indicating the capacity of a battery is limited information that only gives a vague overview of the autonomy that can be expected from a smartphone. “It’s as if you indicated the volume of a car’s tank without taking into account the characteristics of consumption”, laughs Olivier Simon. Our autonomy tests therefore still have a bright future ahead of them.

However, the iOS and Android operating systems manage search and battery usage better and better. A few years ago, Sony took into account the morning alarm to adapt the recharge to 100% a few minutes before. A strategy widely adopted by other manufacturers. Google has greatly improved its operating system, especially since version 9 Pie.

In the past, the various manufacturers offered techniques to kill apps in the background in order to limit consumption, but this era is now over. We now know that relaunching a service ultimately requires a lot of energy. With embedded machine learning, which goes by the sweet name of Auto Awesome Battery, Android is now able to analyze the use made of applications to optimize their use. “No need to kill WhatsApp in the background if it is used every 5 min”, details our interlocutor. Another example, Android is able to know, by interrogating the gyroscopes of the mobile, if there has been a physical movement or not and to “prohibit in the latter case a request for geolocation costly in energy made by a running application” .

On how to recharge your batteries, the results are more in line with our expectations. Thus, you are 60% to recharge your mobile as soon as the battery is less than 20%, which is a good reflex to limit wear. Indeed, as Olivier Simon explains, batteries degrade more quickly when the voltage is very high (charge level above 90%) or very low (below 20%). It is therefore preferable to multiply short charging cycles rather than letting your smartphone discharge completely.

Conversely, leaving your mobile plugged into a power outlet when it is at 100% battery will gradually degrade your battery. In question, “small overvoltages applied by the charger to the battery, which is already at its maximum voltage to maintain the level”, specifies Olivier Simon. These overvoltages affect the quality of the battery, whether you charge your smartphone in wired mode or by induction. Also note that it is better to charge a cold battery and, on the contrary, to use your smartphone at the right temperature.

Everything for autonomy!

According to our survey, you are a huge majority — 92%! — to prefer good battery life to fast charging of your smartphone. A more than clear-cut opinion which, let’s face it, surprises us a little. Indeed, a few years ago, batteries had a ridiculous autonomy and fast charging was just wishful thinking. Today, the situation has clearly changed. The autonomy of a smartphone is generally more than correct and the fast charge very effective in saving time. We thought (wrongly therefore) that fast charging would be a more important criterion for you. It may suffer from a bad reputation, that of weakening the health of accumulators.

Beyond the power of the chargers, it is the voltage that must be taken into account. “The higher the voltage of a charger, the more complicated it is for the battery to manage, underlines Olivier Simon. Today, manufacturers try to apply the highest amperage with the lowest voltage, and thus increase the durability of the batteries”. For the moment, no study comes to corroborate these statements.

DxOMark is currently working on the subject and the case will be followed up in 2022. However, to benefit from efficient fast charging, it is advisable to use the charger offered by the manufacturer, because beyond the power delivered, the chargers communicate with smartphones to optimize charging. Communication that can be complicated, if not impossible, with a “classic” charger. A smartphone that accepts fast charging up to 66 W can thus very well limit the power to 10 W with the latter. “It’s often for security reasons, explains Olivier Simon. The faster the charge, the more the phone will ask to know what it is using for charging. Sometimes, it will have to be able to recognize the charger, but also the cable to be sure to pass a high amperage without taking any risks.”

No matter what your charge indicator says, your device will never actually be 100% charged or completely discharged. It is the software integrated into the phone that manages these problems. The most useful advice to preserve your battery is therefore to charge your phone on long fixed beaches in order to avoid small deleterious recharges. If you need a little boost during the day, fast charging up to 80% with a high-performance charger (provided the phone is compatible) will not damage your device, however. This will allow you to focus on habits with more concrete results.

In addition, lithium-ion batteries hate high temperatures. It is therefore advisable not to leave your phone in the sun, especially in summer, or charging in cramped places, such as under a duvet… For the same reason, and also because a battery does not like to be charged and stressed at the same time, avoid using your phone when it is plugged in. A lithium-ion battery is supposed to last about 500 charge cycles before losing efficiency irreparably. By adopting these simple reflexes, it is possible to go much further.

To understand how to optimize the life of your battery, you have to have in mind, very schematically, how a lithium-ion battery works. During charging, the anode (the + pole) will receive and accumulate electrons from the lithium placed at the cathode (the – pole). The current from the recharge somehow “rips” the energy present in the lithium. When the battery is no longer connected, the electrons will want to go the other way, which will produce the electric current. The fewer electrons left at the lithium level – i.e. the closer you get to the maximum charge – the more strain the battery is subjected to.

This is why it is accepted that the optimal recharge range for a lithium-ion battery is between 20 and 80%. In theory, it is therefore recommended to keep your phone within this range. This would mean that you have to recharge your smartphone as soon as it drops below 20% and disconnect it beyond 80%. In practice, it is more complicated. It is much more harmful to repeat recharges than to carry out a complete charge. Also, manufacturers have integrated technical limitations for several years.

The increase in the definition of screens, the increased frequency of chips and memory, or even internet connectivity require increasingly high-performance batteries for smartphones. Manufacturers are well aware that this criterion is essential for all buyers today, especially at a time when high-end models flirt with the thousand euros, or even exceed it. However, the technology embedded in current accumulators has not evolved for a long time. To increase the capacity, no secret: you have to increase the size of the battery. But smartphones are also judged on their thinness and weight.

The gains in autonomy and durability are therefore to be found in the optimization of daily use. The latter is already at the heart of the concerns of engineers, who are trying to reduce the consumption of chips and the greediness of operating systems. On the user side, it is at the level of daily reflexes that we must work.

Adopt reversible charging technology.

Currently, some smartphones come with a reverse charging feature that allows the phone to transfer power to another device via cable or wireless charging technology. With this option, the user can power up their phone to let others know they are okay or to make an emergency call.

Using an external battery

An external battery or “power bank” is a very useful resource for recharging several phones when power is not available. Today there are different types of batteries, depending on the amount of energy they can store, which can also be used to charge the battery of a laptop or tablet.

Charge your phone with your car

During a power outage at home, users can use the car battery to power their smartphone by connecting the cell phone to the vehicle port with a USB cable.

Although it may take several hours for your device to charge depending on the battery capacity of your device, this is the most efficient way to ensure that your phone is 100% charged.

Here are the habits that can seriously damage the battery
Charge your phone anywhere

Some know that charging their phone on a sofa, pillow or any other place where they don’t want to “breathe” can seriously affect the battery because it heats up and causes battery life issues.

Leave your phone charging while you sleep

This is one of the habits that we often adopt. If you leave your device to charge overnight, its performance will degrade faster because it will continue to run when it reaches 100%, which drains the battery.

Frequently use the wireless charger

This charging method can save you more than one charge, but constant use can damage your phone’s battery as it charges less efficiently and uses less power.

Using the device while charging

This is one of the most common mistakes because using the phone while it is charging can cause it to overheat which can ruin the life of the phone.

Source: Pinterest Snapshot

Exposing your device to sunlight
Exposing your device to sunlight can raise its temperature to imperceptible limits, which means it gets hotter than it needs to be. Which can significantly affect your phone’s battery life.

Turning off the phone allows it to charge faster

When the laptop is discharged, it must be plugged in for the battery to recover. Depending on the model, this operation takes between 45 minutes and 1h30. So, we are always looking for tips to save a little time. One of them is to turn off the device. The advantage is that we avoid all interference that continues to use up the battery: SMS, call, wifi, searches… Hey yes, if you fill the battery up at one end, and you run it out other… the charging time is getting longer. And that’s what we want to avoid. Why ? Because it consumes more energy and the bill also increases. So, for an efficient and not too long charge, we turn off our phone.

In “airplane mode”, the phone also charges faster

If you don’t want to turn off your laptop completely, it is possible to put it on “airplane mode”. Ultimately, the effect is more or less the same: All communication with the outside world is prevented. No more calls, texts, searches and wifi that seeks the network and drains the energy of the device. Thus, the battery can fill up much faster.