So I recently bought a new honor magic 5 pro. My last phone the Huawei p20 pro was around 5 years old and started to show significantly less battery life. So I want to use this phone again for 5 years. But now I wonder should I keep the battery around 50% (65-35) and charge twice as often or should I 80-20 and charge once every two days? Is there any science that proves one is better than the other? Thank you for your information and sources.

  • TurboLag@lemmings.world
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    1 year ago

    This is all anecdotal, so take it as you will. At some point in the past I used to be careful to do 80–20, or even 70–30 when possible. It was usually a pain, because I didn’t get the full benefit of the battery, and I was always worried I might go above or below my targets. I still had to replace a battery after 2 years.

    Then, with my previous phone, I decided not to worry about that and just charge whenever. The vast majority of the time I charged to 100% using fast charge, albeit not overnight. I had that phone for 4 years and it was only in the last year that I felt the battery had got worse. That last year was also after a big software update.

    With my current phone, I’m doing 80–20 again—but more often 85–35—without fast charging. A year and half in and the battery has definitely degraded. I have easy access to a charger most of the time, and I use a software feature on the phone to limit charging to 85%, so my current schedule is easy to keep to, but if it wasn’t, it probably wouldn’t be worth it for me. I’d just accept that, worst case, I have to buy a $50 battery every couple of years to not have to worry about charge levels.

    • plotting_homelab@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 year ago

      I wish it was as easy as just buy $50 battery. But with a waterproof phone I don’t think waterproofing will be ip68 when I replace the battery and being able to just dunk my phone in water or run it under the sink when it’s Dirty is so freaking easy. I do find it kinda weird that you doing 80-20 made the battery worse I think it might be just newer battery tech/software but you saying that your new phone also has the battery degrade faster than your previous phone makes me wonder if maybe manufacturers are already doing 80-20 in the software maybe and mapping 80 to 100 and 20 to 0. And that charging it more often is worse than just doing 100% and charging it less. I think I am definitely going to need to setup some experiment to figure it out. And maybe going to ask honor for advice. Thank you for sharing this information.

      • d3Xt3r@lemmy.nz
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        1 year ago

        I would take the parent poster’s experience as definitely anecdotal/coincidental. A lot of factors can cause a battery to degrade faster, beyond just faster charging or doing full charge cycles. For instance, simply using the wrong kind of case (say, something like a heavy-duty Otterbox case) could cause heat to build up and reduce battery health. It could even be caused by a cheap or non-compliant USB cable..

        If you want some real battery facts, check out the Battery University, it should have all the info you’re after.

        • TurboLag@lemmings.world
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          1 year ago

          I would take the parent poster’s experience as definitely anecdotal/coincidental. A lot of factors can cause a battery to degrade faster, beyond just faster charging or doing full charge cycles.

          Exactly, that’s what I was getting at. Personally, I’ve concluded that there are too many factors outside of my control to warrant worrying about it too much.

          I wish it was as easy as just buy $50 battery. But with a waterproof phone I don’t think waterproofing will be ip68 when I replace the battery

          @plotting_homelab@lemmy.world fair enough. I’ve never made use of the waterproofing features on any phone I’ve owned. I think my previous ones didn’t even have any to being with…