Ilaria Rosella Pagliaro How fast charging your smartphone affects power consumption and battery life, and how to use it responsibly to minimize damage
@Pixabay
Since the Ericsson 380 ushered in the era of smartphones in 2000, progress has been tremendous. Twenty-four years later, INSEE reports that 94% of young people aged 15 to 29 own a smartphone, while even 36% of those over 80 have adopted one. Such devices obviously need to be regularly recharged-many via wall sockets. As people’s lives have sped up, so have fast chargers, which can provide full 100% charges in as little as 30 minutes. But this convenience has some its lesser-known trade-offs, too : high energy consumption, and wear on the phone’s battery. Here’s a look at the pros and cons of fast chargers.
Fast chargers slurp more power but save time
It is not a surprise that a fast charger uses more power than does a normal one-much like a luxury car consumes more fuel than a city car. While a regular charger would use about 5 watts, a typical fast charger uses anywhere between 15-30 watts. This, of course, is a higher consumption but becomes a real problem when left plugged in with no device attached. Although fast chargers actually use more power, they decrease the time needed for charging, hence balancing the amount of total power used if unplugged on time after charging.
Fast charging and battery longevity
What is often overlooked in the marketing of fast chargers is one critical element: how it would affect the health of the battery. Unlike the ordinary charger that infuses a balanced amount of power into a battery, fast chargers “overload” batteries, generating more heat and accelerating wear. This can be especially problematic with older phones not designed for high-voltage charging. Newer, high-end models are generally compatible with fast charging. Whereas some modern devices can handle high power with ease, fast charging regularly will continue to put additional stress on the battery cells that could impact its performance over the longer term.
How to reduce battery wear
Save yourself some damage by reserving fast charging for urgent situations only. For overnight charging, a standard charger is better: six hours is more than enough to reach full power by morning. Another useful habit is unplugging the charger when it’s not in use to save energy. The use of fast chargers also needs to be moderated to help preserve battery health.
Fast chargers: practical but best used in moderation
Undeniably, fast chargers are quite helpful to those people who are always in a hurry or tend to forget charging their phones quite often. Of course, the best is striking a balance between convenience and maintaining the device for optimal performance over an extended period.
