Less than a month ago, I got my first “battery deterioration/reduction in performance” notification on my four-year-old Samsung Galaxy S21, followed by a vague prompt to visit a Samsung store for assistance. I’ve long known my phone’s battery is past its peak, but that notification scared the bejeesus out of me. In the past, I had an iPhone battery swell on me, twice. Needless to say, it was traumatic, and I’ve stayed vigilant of my phone battery ever since. So when I got that notification I immediately sprung into action to determine what it was about and if my battery was in danger. I was determined to find out more and discover the right steps to take.
Starting with basics, the age of phone batteries — usually lithium-ion — is measured in cycles, which is when the battery gets charged from zero to 100. Generally, batteries should retain at least 80 per cent of their capacity after 500 cycles, after which they start to degrade. Battery degradation is normal and it happens to every battery after the first charge. They are dispensable and it’s natural for them to degrade to an extent. However, degradation is not necessarily synonymous with swelling. If you notice your battery swelling (as it happened to me years ago), power down your phone and replace the battery IMMEDIATELY. It means that your battery is chemically decomposing and creating gas as a result, and this also makes it a fire hazard. This doesn’t only happen to old, abused batteries, it too can happen to new batteries if they are defective.
So, now you may be wondering how to avoid this and what is the best way to care for your phone’s battery. That makes you and me both! Here are the best tips I could find as a certified swollen battery fearer:
- ~Charge percentage.~ I like to think of it as a 20 per cent cushion on both sides, because lithium-ion batteries operate at their healthiest when not charging above 80 per cent or draining below 20 per cent. This avoids putting too much stress on your battery’s cells and can extend their lifetime.
- ~No extreme temperatures.~ You shouldn’t use or charge your phone if it’s below 0 degrees Celcius or above 35 degrees Celcius. So next time you’re outside in the biting winter cold, consider shielding your phone from the extreme temperature. When it’s summer, avoid using your phone in the sun, it can heat up quickly!
- ~Avoid overnight charging.~ I know, this one sucks, but it is what it is. Batteries don’t like to be overcharged and especially not for long periods of time, so if you can charge your phone before going to bed instead of after, your battery will thank you.
- ~Reduce background processes.~ Your phone might be chugging battery to keep up with all the background tasks it’s running. If you limit the quantity of background tasks your phone is executing, you can save your battery a lot of stress. I find limiting my phone’s GPS and Bluetooth to operate only when I need them instead of all the time has made a bigger difference than what I expected.
- ~Handle with care.~ Dropping your phone or damaging it in any way can compromise the structural well-being of your battery, and unfortunately yes, there is a non-zero chance that the damage can lead to swelling. Best to avoid any harsh treatment.
After researching more about the notification and the current state of my battery, I came to realize that, in my case, it was more of a gentle prompt encouraging me to replace my battery for optimum performance rather than an unnerving alert about my battery’s health. As it turns out, there are plenty of factors that can reduce a battery’s performance other than age and usage. These factors include power demanding software updates, the display’s brightness, background processing tasks, and even how full your storage is.
Bottom line, my phone is a bit old and it might be a good time to replace the battery, but in my case, it should not pose a risk. Still, I will tenderly and diligently care for it until I hopefully manage to replace it in the next few months.
