Looking after Battery

[Padster]

I recently got an Xperia Z1 Compact and so far, I love it and I'm very impressed with battery life - usually 2.5 days with normal use.

My previous phone's battery got so bad that I was having to charge it at least twice a day.

Can anyone advise on the best charging strategy to ensure I keep my battery as healthy for as long as possible?

At the moment I'm letting it discharge to about 14% then charging up fully to 100%.  Will it harm my battery to occasionally top up, e.g. charge from 50% to full charge, or stop charging before it reaches 100%?

I also understand that leaving the charger plugged in after it's reached 100% is not good for the battery (so charging overnight is not a good idea) - is that right?

I know I'm being a bit paranoid, but I will have this phone for 2 years and want to make sure I keep the battery as healthy as possible, for as long as possible - particularly as it's not removable.

TIA

[Hampus]

Hi and welcome to the community! Since you're new please be sure that you have checked out our Discussion guidelines.

A rechargeable battery can be charged and discharged more than a hundred times but eventually, it will wear out. When the battery reaches 100%, it will stop charge for a while and then start to charge again. Thereby, it should not harm the battery to charge it over the night or charge it fully every time.

[slipd]

Any ideas on the cost (and effectiveness of) a Sony battery replacement - as in sending it back to them to carry out.

In the early days of my having this phone I could easily manage, like the OP, 2/2.5 days of it but now I get around a day and a bit. It'll be interesting to see if Lollipop changes anything

[Hampus]

Hi slipd,

Unfortunately, I do not have any price since it may vary from market to market. Perhaps you can contact your local support team to see if they can give you an estimated price for these kind of service(s):
http://support.sonymobile.com/global-en/contactUs/

[JohnnyG2]

Hi!
As far as I understand the technology, the rechargable Li-Ion batteries do wear out more and more with every recharge cycle. Fortunatelly, there is a kind of "equilibrium" state of the battery at around 50% charge, when the battery is losing its capacity at the slowest rate (this is also the reason why manufacturers usually charge the battery to around 50% before sending it to stores). If you charge your phone to 100% every day, the full-saturation of the battery will damage it a little. Also, if you let it drop to 0%, it damages the battey, too (I'd say that 0% charge is much more damaging to the battery than 100%). I usually charge the battery to around 80% and don't let it drop below 40% and this works for me. If I need the phone to last long, I fully charge it and then it still lasts 2-3 days of normal use (I bought the phone in February, so the battery would be quite worn out already if I charged it from 0% to 100% every time), but doing this often would damage it faster. I suggest keeping the battery at 40-80% charge most of the time, if you know your battery is 40% and you won't be using the phone for next few hours before you get to charge it, it is better to turn the phone off. This should harm your battery the least.
If you want to understand more about Li-Ion battery charging and discharging, here is a handy link:
http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/charging_lithium_ion_batteries

[alex_ncfc]

I also remember being able to get 2-3 days out of the Z1C battery when I first got the phone. 

Now I get around a day, a day and a half if lucky. I'm not doing anything differently to what I was doing when I first got the phone, so do you think I've done something to impact the battery?

Thanks

[0101010101]

Lithium batterys eventually wear out form repeated charging/discharging, nothing you can really do about it other than replace the battery.

I don't use the factory quick charger it heats up the battery too much at 1500ma, instead plugging it into a 500ma computer usb port for charging, or the 1000ma port on my ups if i need the phone to charge faster. I think the quick chargers dont help battery life, i tried my samsung 2000ma charger once, it made the back of the phone very warm!

[dandy63]

It is always best to stick to using the supplied Sony Charger & Cable :smileysmileywink: