It turns out you’re really divided over the 80% rule for charging your phone

Paul Jones / Android Authority

Battery health is a key consideration for smartphones if you want your device to last several years. One frequent suggestion is to charge your phone to 80%, which helps reduce the amount of charging cycles on your device’s battery.

Now, it turns out that polled Android Authority readers are deeply split over the practice of charging their phones to 80% capacity.

Over 10,000 votes were tallied in this poll, and a slim majority of respondents (53.38%) said they charged their phones to 80%. This is a sensible move as it means your phone’s battery won’t degrade as quickly as a full charge. In fact, colleague Rob Triggs noted in his explainer that this practice could delay the need for a battery replacement by a year or more.

Meanwhile, 46.62% of polled readers said they didn’t follow the 80% rule, preferring to fully charge their phone instead. We actually got a lot more comments from readers who voted like this.

“I rarely keep a phone for 18 months, so I both accept the value of the 80% charge process and totally ignore it,” said reader Dick B.

“I refuse to babysit any of my gadgets. If my phone or laptop battery dies, I’ll replace the battery or the whole thing, whatever floats my boat at the time,” adds reader grokker.

Reader Tyler Hardeman also raised an interesting point as he noted that he usually doesn’t charge over 80% but will conduct a full charge for occasions like a trip (where battery life is a priority). So we’re curious to see how many people change their charging habits based on the situation.

In any event, you can’t go wrong with charging your phone to 80% in a bid to maximize battery health. But we’re also glad to see manufacturers like OnePlus, OPPO, Xiaomi, and others offering batteries with up to 1,600 charging cycles nowadays, delivering a major boost to battery health over time.

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