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Yes You Can… Use the charger your phone came with or an “off-brand” charger
You Really Shouldn’t… Use cheap, “knockoff” chargers
The Explanation: While it’s perfectly acceptable to use an “off-brand” charger to charge your phone, using a cheaply made “knock-off” brand can kill your battery. A charger doesn’t have to be expensive to work well but it does need to be made by a reliable retailer such as Belkin or KMS.
In this detailed experiment, off brand and knockoff chargers were compared against official brand name chargers and the results showed that knockoffs barely charge your phone battery at all.
Yes You Can… Use your phone while it charges
You Really Shouldn’t… Use your phone while using a knock off charger
The Explanation: Many people believe that the phone can explode or burst into flames if someone is using their phone while it charges. Some accounts say that the phone can even electrocute the user.
According to the reports of the incident, the flight attendant was using a knock-off charger, not the original Apple charger, when the phone electrocuted them.
As long as you are using a legitimate charger you can use your phone while it’s charging without much risk.
Yes You Can… Charge your phone overnight or for extended periods of time.
You Really Shouldn’t…Charge your phone all night every night.
The Explanation: The keyword these days is “Smart” phone. Your phone is smart enough to know when it’s done charging. It won’t just keep charging if it’s full, it’ll stop when the capacity has been reached on its own, no human intervention necessary.
However, that doesn’t mean you should charge your phone all night every night of the week. Studies show that your phone battery will last a lot longer if you keep it charged somewhere between 40% and 80%.
Yes You Can… Restart your phone often to maximize battery life
You Really Shouldn’t…Keep your phone on 24/7 and never restart it.
The Explanation: While your phone can stay on for extended periods of time without over-heating or causing issues, it’s still recommended that you restart your phone at least once a week to give it a break and a chance to refresh the operating system.
Experts at Apple recommend you turn off your phone from time to time, like when you go to bed at night to prolong battery life. This goes for Android devices as well.
Yes You Can… Recharge your phone on a daily basis to extend battery life
You Really Shouldn’t…Wait until it’s completely dead and do a “deep charge”
The Explanation: Most phones use Lithium-ion batteries, which fare better when they are charged. If you have a habit of constantly letting your phone drain to 0% and then doing a “deep charge” to bring it all the way back to full, your battery can start to become unstable.
Every battery has a finite number of charge cycles before they eventually die and fail to hold a charge. Waiting for a deep charge every now and then uses up those cycles faster than it would if you charge your phone (between 40% and 80%) every day.
BATTERY FACTS BONUS ROUND!
- Extreme hot and cold weather can have a negative impact on your battery life. Lithium-ion batteries heat themselves and get hotter while they are being charged. A cold battery will die faster than usual when in lower temperature ranges.
- There are two stages of battery charging. The first stage, the fast charge, is when the voltage drastically rises. It shows full but in actuality, is only about 70%. The second stage, the trickle charge, takes much longer. It’s when the voltage peaks, and the remaining battery is slowly charged from 70% to 100%.
- Lithium Ion Batteries cannot absorb overcharge. Once fully charged, the charge current must be cut off. But not to worry because the cell phone charger will take care of that. It’s called IC or integrated circuitry, a feature in legitimate phone chargers.
- When storing a battery, be sure to partially charge it. Even a phone in a sleeping state uses battery.