5 Things You Should Know About Your Mobile and Laptop Batteries

Battery Type

They are Lithium-ion batteries. Lithium-ion batteries are rechargeable batteries commonly used in consumer electronics such as laptops and mobile phones. Lithium-ion batteries can pose a safety hazard under certain conditions since they contain a flammable electrolyte and are kept pressurized. Do not confuse Lithium-ion batteries (which as rechargeable) with Lithium batteries (which are disposable).

Safety

Devices using Lithium-ion batteries should only be used at the temperature they are designed for. Room temperature (20°C / 72°F) is always good, but most devices can go as low as 10°C / -13°F.

Charging and Discharging

A key characteristic of Lithium-ion batteries compared to older batteries used in mobile devices are that you can recharge the battery whenever convenient, without requiring a full charge or discharge cycle (remember you were told to fully discharge your mobile phones before fully charging them back when candy bar feature phones were the rage?). This is known as the memory effect in Nickel–cadmium or Nickel–metal hydride batteries. This can sometimes be confused with recommendations to fully charge and discharge your Lithium-ion batteries once a month. Note that this is to make sure the software running your devices can calibrate your battery capacity correctly. You do not, and should not deliberately fully discharge and charge your Lithium-ion batteries during your daily use.

Cycle Count

Each time you discharge and charge 100% of your battery, it is counted as 1 cycle count. A scenario to illustrate this: you use half of your battery, charge it till 100% and then use half of it again and charge it till 100%. This counts as 1 cycle.

If you bought a MacBook after 2009, it should have a maximum cycle count of 1000. iPad also have a maximum cycle count of 1000. iPhone have a maximum cycle count of 500.

Once you hit the maximum cycle count, it doesn't mean your battery will stop working completely. But you should expect it to have significantly reduced capacity.

Storage

If you are not going to use your device for a long time, keep them stored with their batteries charge to 40-50%, rather than fully depleted or fully charged.