Smartphones reduce the battery for the sake of fast charging. What % is lost

Fast battery charging in mobile devices has always been a stumbling block. On the one hand, the opportunity not to spend an hour and a half (or even more) to replenish energy is very attractive. On the other hand, everyone on the Internet is sure that too powerful charging harms the battery and shortens its life cycle.

But regarding fast charging, there is another non-obvious problem – for the sake of it, manufacturers reduce the capacity of batteries. The GSMArena portal drew attention to this and even sent questions to the companies, but they evaded answering. As a result, the journalists decided to conduct their own small study and find out how many percent of the battery manufacturers sacrifice for the sake of fast charging.

For the study, it was necessary to find related models

In order for the comparisons to be as correct as possible, it was necessary to select the most approximate devices:

• from one manufacturer (sub-brands are suitable);
• released around the same time;
• with the same dimensions, up to a tenth of a millimeter.

This is the only way to weed out any other variables that can affect the result. For example, smartphones from different manufacturers could use different technologies, and models from different release times could encounter different generations of components.

Since fast chargers are often equipped with improved modifications, comparisons often come across pairs from base models and Pro versions.

Fact # 1: up to 15% of capacity is sacrificed for ultra-fast charges

Perhaps now it is possible to call ultra-fast charging, the power of which is at least 50 watts. If we evaluate smartphones with support for just such chargers, then in them the battery capacity is reduced by up to 15% in order to maintain very high power.

Fact number 2: conventional charging does not require a decrease in capacity

A power of 30W or so has become pretty standard by now – remarkably, it doesn’t force manufacturers to downsize batteries (if you round up a slight difference of 15-20mAh).

Fact #3: Really big batteries are not affected by heavy duty charging.

Compared to smartphones, tablets have large batteries (about a double difference) – as practice shows, high-capacity batteries are not affected by the introduction of super-powerful charging. True, for suitable research conditions, only one pair of models was found.

Is the sacrifice of capacity justified for the sake of charging speed

As you can see, manufacturers really reduce the capacity due to the introduction of fast charges, but this only applies to super-powerful technologies (by 50 W and above), in such cases they sacrifice an average of 12% of the battery capacity. Somewhere in the range of 30-33 W there is a conditional limit, to which it is possible to increase the charging power without reducing the capacity, and then only due to the size of the battery.

It remains to answer the main question: is such a decision of manufacturers justified, or is it just marketing and it would be better to equip smartphones with larger batteries.

In some cases, it is especially difficult to determine if the increased speed is worth it. For example, Realme 7 (30W) charges in 1 hour 5 minutes and Realme Narzo 20 Pro (65W) in 45 minutes; Mi 10 (30W) charges in 1 hour 12 minutes and Mi 10 Pro (50W) in 50 minutes. In both of these cases, the difference in charging speed was only 20 minutes, but at the same time, the capacity decreased not very significantly – by 6%. It can be concluded that the replacement is approximately equivalent. But do not forget that ultra-fast charges replenish energy unevenly, they are most powerful when the battery is completely discharged and slow down when approaching 100%.

But if we consider record-breaking fast charges, then the difference is obvious. Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge (120 W) charges up to 100% in just 15 minutes, while the regular Xiaomi 11i (67 W, which is also a lot) is replenished in 13 minutes by “only” 50%. In other words, the difference in charging speed is almost twice, and the difference between the capacities is only 15%.

However, it is highly likely that these 15% may not be enough for a smartphone to survive the remaining hour and a half to a home outlet after the whole working day. It seems that monsters of 100 watts and above are designed for users who do not have a hard time carrying a power supply with them, but who are not ready to wait for a 45-minute charge in the morning or at night.

Source: Trash Box

Donald Westbrook

Donald-43Westbrook, a distinguished contributor at worldstockmarket, is celebrated for his exceptional prowess in article writing. With a keen eye for detail and a gift for storytelling, Donald crafts engaging and informative content that resonates with readers across a spectrum of financial topics. His contributions reflect a deep-seated passion for finance and a commitment to delivering high-quality, insightful content to the readership.