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ssl-3 3 days ago

The charging smarts are always in the phone, and always have been. Just because a USB port has 15 or 30 or a gazillion Watts available doesn't mean that the phone is required to consume that much. Similarly, the wall outlets in your house may be able to supply a couple of thousand Watts -- but that doesn't mean that a device plugged in is required to use all of that.

And batteries can charge pretty fast these days. Modern pocket supercomputers keep track of battery temperature to keep things within defined limits during charging.

AFAIK the real problem, longevity-wise, for these batteries in normal use is the time spent at extremes of charge (<20% or >80%, ish).

That all said: Sure, some phones have options.

My Samsung phone does some man-behind-the-curtain tricks to attempt to make it reach 100% just before it predicts that I'll unplug it (eg, when I wake up). The idea is to maximize the charge on the phone while also keeping it at 100% SoC for as little time as practical. This probably works great for people with regular schedules (which is to say: people who are not like me).

This phone also lets me explicitly disable various fast-charge modes. I think there's at least two different modes that I can turn off (but I leave them all turned on).

And there's also a mode that limits the maximum charge to 85%, to promote long-term battery health. I have this mode engage automatically when using wireless charging, which is something I only do with the wireless charging cradle on my car's dashboard. (I do want the phone to be powered while I drive, but I don't normally need anything to work extra-hard to cram that last 15% into the battery when I'm on a long drive. It's a good balance, for me.)

3 days ago | parent [-]
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