What is optimized battery charging?

Optimized Battery Charging: Extending Battery Life

Optimized battery charging is a smart feature found in many modern devices, especially smartphones and laptops, designed to prolong the overall lifespan of your battery. It primarily works by reducing the time your battery spends at 100% charge, which is a state that contributes to faster battery degradation.

Here's a breakdown of how it works and key considerations:

• How it Works: The system learns your charging habits. For example, if you typically plug in your phone overnight and unplug it around 7 AM, optimized charging will slow down the charging process after it reaches a certain percentage (usually 80%) during the night. It then waits to finish charging to 100% just before your usual unplug time. This reduces the amount of time the battery spends at full charge.

• Benefits of Optimized Battery Charging:

  • Extended Battery Lifespan: Reducing the time spent at 100% charge helps to minimize battery degradation over time. This means your battery will maintain its capacity for a longer period, resulting in less frequent battery replacements. This is linked with battery%20health
  • Reduced Heat Generation: Charging generates heat, and keeping a battery at 100% charge can exacerbate this. Optimized charging helps to control heat levels, contributing to overall device health. Heat%20management is very important for the lithium-ion battery.

• Considerations and Settings:

  • Learning Period: It takes time for the system to learn your usage patterns. Be patient during the first few weeks of using the feature, as its effectiveness will improve as it gathers data.
  • Adjustments to Charging Habits: If your charging routine is irregular, the system may have difficulty accurately predicting when to slow down charging. It's best if you have a relatively consistent charging schedule.
  • Turning it Off: You can usually disable optimized charging in your device's settings if you need to charge your device to 100% quickly for immediate use. Look for the setting under battery or power management options. For example on iOS it can be found in Battery > Battery Health > Optimized Battery Charging.
  • Impact on Charging Speed: While optimized charging ultimately benefits battery health, it can slightly increase the overall charging time, especially during the period when it slows down charging.
  • Adaptive Charging: Adaptive%20charging is another related term. This focuses more on adjusting voltage and current during the whole charging cycle to minimize heat and stress.