Charging our battery is not a simple art. Not worrying at all about how to charge it is the optimal solution, but if we want to preserve its lifespan as much as possible, it is advisable to follow a simple rule: 20/80. This is something we’ve been talking about for years, and it’s a practice that manufacturers themselves recommend to minimize our battery degradation.

We will tell you what exactly the 20/80 rule is, whether it really makes sense to charge the battery using it, and what solutions manufacturers have implemented so that we can more easily implement this rule.

Voltage fields. With the advent of lithium-ion batteries, the famous memory effect, which caused us to first have to charge the battery to 100% and be advised to do full cycles, has disappeared.

However, new batteries have two regions that are considered voltage. Scientific evidence points in this direction not only in mobile phones but also in electric car batteries. Especially the areas between 0% and 20% and 80% and 100% are the most critical during charging.

Research shows that charging in these areas accelerates battery degradation, making it less efficient, requiring more energy, and producing more heat.

Manufacturers who confirm this data. Leading mobile phone manufacturers have been implementing comprehensive measures for some time to manage charging more effectively. And these measures involve something very simple: preventing the phone from continuing to charge when it reaches 80%, or optimizing the charging as much as possible once we reach this figure.

In fact, by default, the iPhone activates optimized charging when we reach 80%. By analyzing the time we wake up, the phone minimizes the time the phone spends charging from 80% to 100%. Other phones such as Samsung, Huawei, Realme/OPPO or Sony allow the charge to be blocked when it reaches 80%.

While all that glitters is not gold, it is clear evidence that preventing the phone from going to 100% is beneficial for the battery.

Living with 60% is not realistic. The main problem with the 20/80 rule is that it’s almost impossible to follow unless we have a phone with a battery that lasts almost two days. Leaving the house 80% of the time, using the phone extensively, and reaching 20% ​​is something very few phones can afford, especially as time passes and battery capacity decreases.

Likewise, this rule can have the opposite effect: We become obsessed with doing microcycles and constantly charging the phone. My advice? If possible, don’t let the phone go below 20% (which is more than possible if the phone isn’t dead at the end of the day) and don’t get too obsessed with not charging the phone to 100%.

Image | Bing Image Creator + Photoshop Generative AI

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