7 tips for charging your smartphone

We've listed the most important tips on charging for you.

Good for your battery:

• Keeping the battery level between 20% and 80%
• Frequently charging for a short time with a fast charger, for example
• Using the original charger or some other safe charger

Bad for your battery:

• Heat and cold
• Charging up to 100%
• Using your device during charging

Heat is very bad for your battery. A temperature between 20 and 30°C is fine. But temperatures of 35 up to 40°C cause a lot of wear. Never place your device out in the sun, under your pillow, or in some other hot place. You should especially keep this in mind during charging, since your smartphone already becomes slightly warmer when it charges. Very low temperatures aren't good for your battery either, so never place your device in the freezer to cool down.

A battery wears when it drains or charges. You can't prevent wear, but you can limit it. The most wear is caused by charging the last 20 to 30%. That means fully charging a battery up to 100% causes about 10 times more wear than charging up to 70%. In other words, your battery lasts a lot longer if you only charge up to 100% when it's absolutely necessary and keep your battery percentage between 20 and 80% the rest of the time. For example, don't charge it up to 100% in the morning before you go to work, but up to 80%. You can briefly charge your device with a fast charger at work for a little boost.

Charging up to 100% causes a lot more wear than charging up to 70 or 80%. In addition, it can harm your battery if you keep charging after the battery reaches 100%. Your smartphone won't explode, because they currently have built-in protection for this. But if your battery level drops by 1%, the charger will recharge this 1% right away. And that last 1% happens to be the part that causes the most wear. In addition, your device becomes warm, which also causes wear. That means you shouldn't charge your smartphone during the night, since the device is often connected to the charger for hours while already fully charged. You don't have to charge a new smartphone up to 100% the first time you use it either. This was necessary for old batteries, but it's been years since that type of battery has been used in smartphones.

During fast charging, your battery becomes slightly warmer than during regular charging. This disadvantage is very small compared to how much wear you avoid by charging for a short time and in a healthy way. If you wake up in the morning and your device is almost empty, your battery will be 40 to 60% charged in half an hour of fast charging. This'll last you quite some time. Without a fast charger, half an hour will get you up to about 20%. That means you basically have no other choice but to charge your device during the night, which results in extra wear.

In terms of safety, it doesn't matter if you use a charger from the same brand as your smartphone or a different charger. All of our chargers are safe and won't damage your battery. Cheap chargers from Chinese bargain websites may be bad from your battery, so always buy one from a reliable retailer. For iPhone models, it doesn't matter whether you use an original iPhone charger or not when it comes to the charging speed. The same goes for most smartphones. With the Samsung S series, OnePlus, and OPPO smartphones, you can only reach the maximum charging with an original charger. Other chargers aren't harmful, they're just slower.

It depends on what you do with your smartphone, but try to use it as little as possible while it charges. Intensive use heats up your smartphone. Charging also generates heat and all of this warmth combined causes you battery to wear extra fast. Do you want to charge your device and play some music while you cook? No problem. Do you want to play games or do other intensive things? Wait until your device is charged. Use a fast charger if you don't want to wait for too long.

Smartphones used to contain batteries that you had to 'activate' by charging them up to 100% once and then letting them run out. This type of battery hasn't been used in smartphones for years. That means this tip no longer applies. Don't fall for it and make sure you charge your device in a healthy way from the very first moment.