This is an archived article and the information in the story may be outdated. Please check the time stamp on the story to see when it was updated last.
There are countless things that you SHOULDN’T do when charging your Android, and we’ve covered many of them here: overcharging your phone, charge it phone overnight or using a wireless charger that’s not compatible. Let us expand your knowledge of the best smart phone charging behaviors today by teaching you one more: you should never use fast charger only for charging your device, experts say.
Using A Fast Charger All The Time
Let's start with this: what is a fast charger? A fast charger is one that is capable of charging your phone from 0 to 60% (most cases) in just 30 mins. Some companies ship a fast charger with the phone, and if not, you can purchase one separately for cheap. But the long term affects of using one could be way more costly, our expert says.
"Using a fast charger all the time to charge your Android is harmful to your phone's battery," Somdip Dey, Embedded AI scientist at the University of Essex, UK and researcher of Machine Learning on mobile platforms at Samsung R&D Institute UK warns.
Yes, they're convenient, "But all of this comes with a heavy price in the long run," he warns.
Why? "Using a fast charger means that you are charging your phone at a higher voltage which does not just disrupts the normal flow of ions in your battery and hence affecting charging capacity in the long run but at the same time gives rise to the temperature of the device by 10 to 25 degree centigrades based on the device according to research. Research has also found that a rise in operating temperature of the device by 10 to 15 degree centigrades leads to reduced lifespan by 2 times on an average. Thus, every time you use a fast charger you are hurting your Android's reliability over time by more than 2 times at the least." Yikes!
So, what should you do? Somdip advises on using mainly your So, in general, it is preferable to invest in a regular charger if you haven't already had one if you want to keep using your Android for more than 2 to 3 years and only use the fast charger for those emergencies where you have to rush to somewhere and have to charge your phone as quickly as possible before that.
