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  • You've probably heard people say that you shouldn't leave your phone plugged in overnight.

  • Doing so, depreciates your battery life and makes it age faster.

  • You're killing your battery!

  • I always charge my phone overnight, and I always let it reach a full 100 percent charge.

  • Am I really killing my battery?

  • Am I a murderer?

  • I can't live with this guilt, so I called up some battery experts to find the truth.

  • Daniel Steingart, Associate Professor at Princeton University told me that, actually ...

  • The easiest thing to do is just keep it plugged in all the time or as much as you can.

  • Did you hear that?

  • I'll say it again, "as much as you can."

  • The way he sees it is that we all need our phones ready and charged, so we might as well keep them fully charged forever.

  • Your phone is pretty smart, and its software recognizes when it reaches full charge, so you can't technically overcharge your battery.

  • Problem solved!

  • But not really.

  • I also called Venkat Srinivasan, the director of the Argonne Collaborative Center for Energy Storage Science, and he told me ...

  • Don't charge the battery all the way to 100 percent.

  • Get it up to 90 percent and then stop it.

  • He never lets his phone reach a full charge, what?

  • He says we should keep our phones between 30 percent and 80 percent charged because once they reach 100%, certain reactions occur that degrade the electrolytes and depreciate our batteries.

  • So this is probably where that overcharging myth comes from.

  • Alright, so I went back to Dan, and I asked him to clarify.

  • Like, Venkat says you're wrong.

  • And Dan told me that both of them are actually right.

  • So, awesome, you do damage your battery when you charge it to 100 percent.

  • But if you're going for the full charge already, keeping it there doesn't harm it.

  • Basically, if you are a normal human who just needs their phone out all the time, feel free to go to 100 percent and keep it plugged in forever.

  • But if you care a lot about your battery's life, like, a lot, a lot, or you don't use your phone that much, go Venkat's route and try to keep it in a narrow charging range.

  • I admire your discipline, and maybe you'll extend your battery's lifespan.

  • Ultimately, though, batteries are meant to be used, and phones are meant to be used too.

  • You don't do any damage by leaving it at 100.

  • You'll probably replace your phone before your battery totally dies.

  • Or in a worst case scenario, you replace the battery.

  • That's not so bad.

  • Okay, glad we settled this.

  • Go live your truth, keep it 100, goodbye.

You've probably heard people say that you shouldn't leave your phone plugged in overnight.

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