Smartphones have become a vital part of our everyday lives, even though many people only know a little bit about their maintenance. When it comes to charging your phone, it can be pretty confusing. You could actually be hastening the gradual decline of your batter without really realizing it. Think of your battery as a sponge and its charge as water. Saturating a dry sponge with water works well initially, but if you over-saturate it, you will wind up with surface pooling that can result in wear and tear on the sponge. It’s the same thing with batteries. It’s great to charge them, but leaving them plugged in too long can actually degrade them, and degraded batteries require more frequent charging that may take longer overall. Just as you don’t want to over-charge your battery, you never want to drain it to zero. To get the maximum performance out of your phone’s battery, you should aim for the 20/80 rule — start to charge it when it hits 20%, and once it hits 80% charged, unplug it and call it a day. Draining a battery from 80% of its charge means less wear and tear and is better than starting from 100%. Another thing to remember is that leaving your phone plugged in overnight might seem like a big no-no, but it’s a myth. You do, however, have to set your device so it doesn’t charge past 80% when it’s connected to a charger overnight.
