Does Fast Charging ACTUALLY Ruin Your Battery?

Summary

This video explores the rapid evolution of smartphone charging technology, addressing concerns about fast charging's impact on battery health. It explains how batteries work, the concept of charging curves, and the industry's efforts to minimize heat generation during charging. The script debunks myths about fast charging damaging batteries, citing companies' innovations like power management in chargers, parallel charging, and improved cooling systems. It concludes that with proper technology and usage, fast charging does not necessarily ruin battery life, emphasizing the importance of keeping phones cool for optimal battery health.

Takeaways

• 🔌 Smartphone charging speeds have rapidly evolved, with Xiaomi 12 Pro introducing a 120-watt charger capable of a full charge in 17 minutes.
• 📈 Charging technology has advanced from 5-watt chargers to 240-watt theoretical chargers that can charge a phone in just nine minutes.
• 🔥 Public concern about fast charging often revolves around the potential for overheating and battery damage.
• 🔋 All smartphones currently use lithium-ion or lithium-polymer batteries, which degrade over time due to charge cycles and heat.
• 🌡️ Batteries are most efficient at absorbing energy when they are least full, with inefficiency leading to excess heat as they approach full charge.
• 📊 Fast charging technologies do not maintain a constant high wattage but peak at high rates initially and then taper off to prevent overheating.
• 🔬 Companies are developing methods to manage heat during charging, such as moving power management to the charger brick or using parallel charging with multiple battery cells.
• 🛠️ Modern smartphones have built-in sensors and software features to monitor temperature and regulate charging to maintain battery health.
• 📉 The primary factor accelerating battery degradation is heat, which can crystallize electrolytes and impede ion flow, reducing battery capacity.
• 🔄 Industry standards aim for 80% battery health to be maintained after 800 charge cycles, which most modern fast-charging technologies are designed to meet or exceed.
• 🛑 To preserve battery health, it's crucial to avoid exposing smartphones to extreme heat, such as leaving them in a hot car or gaming while charging.

Q & A

What was the standard charging power for flagship smartphones years ago?

Years ago, the standard charging power for flagship smartphones was around 5 watts, which would take about two-and-a-half hours to charge a phone from zero to 100%.

What charging power did the Pixel 1 introduce, and how did it compare to the iPhone at that time?

The Pixel 1 introduced super fast charging at 18 watts, which was a significant upgrade compared to the 5 watts of the flagship iPhone at that time. Soon after, the iPhone increased its charging power to 20 watts.

Which company held the record for the fastest charging technology for a couple of years?

OnePlus held the record for the fastest charging technology for a couple of years with their 30-watt charging capability.

What is the charging capability of the Xiaomi 12 Pro, and how long does it take to charge from zero to 100%?

The Xiaomi 12 Pro comes with a 120-watt charger and can charge the phone from zero to 100% in just 17 minutes.

What charging power did OPPO demonstrate, and what is its theoretical charging time from zero to 100%?

OPPO demonstrated a theoretical 240-watt charging power, which could charge a phone from zero to 100% in just nine minutes.

What is the common concern among people regarding fast charging for smartphones?

The common concern among people regarding fast charging is that it might overheat the phone, potentially leading to damage or even explosion of the battery.

What type of batteries do most smartphones currently use, and how do they work?

Most smartphones currently use lithium-ion or lithium-polymer batteries. They work by having lithium ions flow from the negative to the positive side through a liquid electrolyte solution, releasing energy into the circuit as they flow.

How does the charging process of a battery resemble the absorption of a sponge?

The charging process of a battery resembles a sponge in that it absorbs the most energy when it has the least amount of charge. As the battery gets closer to being full, it can't absorb energy as efficiently, leading to some excess energy being lost as heat.

What is the industry standard for battery health after a certain number of charge cycles?

The industry standard for battery health is to maintain 80% of the original capacity after 800 charge cycles.

What is the primary factor that damages batteries and degrades them faster than normal?

The primary factor that damages batteries and degrades them faster than normal is heat. High temperatures can cause the electrolyte to crystallize and clog the anodes and cathodes, preventing the storage of lithium ions.

How do smartphone companies manage to increase charging speeds without generating extra heat?

Smartphone companies manage to increase charging speeds without generating extra heat by using techniques such as moving power management to the charger brick, using parallel charging with multiple battery cells, and incorporating more cooling hardware into the phone design.

What are some of the trade-offs associated with fast charging technology in smartphones?

Some trade-offs associated with fast charging technology include larger power bricks, potentially thicker phones to accommodate cooling systems, and slightly smaller overall battery capacity due to the space taken up by additional hardware and battery cell separation.

What is gallium nitride technology, and how does it benefit fast charging?

Gallium nitride technology allows for the creation of smaller and more efficient chargers compared to traditional silicon chargers. A gallium nitride charger can deliver the same power at a smaller size, making it more convenient for users.

How do modern smartphones use software features to help maintain battery health?

Modern smartphones use a combination of hardware sensors to measure temperature and regulate charging, along with software features that allow users to customize battery health options. Some phones even have adaptive charging features that learn the user's charging habits to optimize battery health.

What was the actual cause of the Galaxy Note 7 battery explosion issue, and was it related to fast charging?

The Galaxy Note 7 battery explosion issue was not due to fast charging or overheating. It was caused by a manufacturing defect where the battery dimensions were incorrect, leading to bending and contact between the positive and negative sides of the battery.

Outlines

00:00

🔋 The Evolution of Fast Charging Technology

This paragraph discusses the rapid evolution of smartphone charging speeds, from the early days of 5-watt chargers to the current 120-watt chargers that can fully charge a phone in 17 minutes. The script also mentions an OPPO demo of a theoretical 240-watt charger that could charge a phone in just nine minutes. The public's skepticism about the safety and longevity of fast charging on batteries is highlighted, leading into an exploration of whether fast charging is detrimental to smartphone batteries.

05:02

🔬 Understanding Batteries and Fast Charging

The script delves into the science behind lithium-ion and lithium-polymer batteries, explaining how they function with the flow of lithium ions between the positive and negative sides through an electrolyte solution. It describes the charging process as a curve, with fast chargers reaching their peak wattage only briefly before tapering off. The importance of minimizing heat to preserve battery health is emphasized, along with various strategies companies are employing to achieve faster charging without overheating, such as power management in the charger brick, parallel charging, and enhanced cooling systems in smartphones.

10:02

🚀 Innovations in Charging and Battery Health

This paragraph focuses on the innovations in charging technology, such as gallium nitride chargers that are smaller and more efficient. It also discusses the smart features of modern batteries, including hardware and sensors in smartphones that measure temperature and regulate charging to maintain battery health. The script mentions pass-through charging in some phones that can power the device without charging the battery, and software features that learn用户的charging habits to optimize battery life. The paragraph concludes by emphasizing the importance of avoiding overheating to preserve battery health and the responsibility of smartphone companies to ensure battery safety.

Keywords

💡Fast Charging

Fast Charging refers to a technology that enables electronic devices, such as smartphones, to charge their batteries at a higher rate than conventional charging methods. In the video, it is discussed as a rapidly advancing field with companies like Xiaomi and OPPO showcasing chargers capable of extraordinarily high wattages, leading to significantly reduced charging times. The script mentions the progression from 5-watt charging in early iPhones to 120-watt and even 240-watt charging demonstrations.

💡Lithium-ion Batteries

Lithium-ion Batteries are a type of rechargeable battery that is commonly used in portable electronics due to their high energy density and low self-discharge. The video explains that all smartphones currently use lithium-ion or lithium polymer batteries, which work by moving lithium ions between the positive and negative electrodes through an electrolyte solution to store and release energy.

💡Battery Degradation

Battery Degradation is the process by which a battery's capacity to hold a charge diminishes over time. The video discusses this concept, noting that batteries degrade due to factors such as being charged at 100% or 0%, going through charge cycles, and heat generation. The script provides an example of an iPhone's battery health indicator, which shows the current capacity as a percentage of its original capacity.

💡Heat Generation

Heat Generation is a critical factor in battery performance and longevity. The video emphasizes that heat is the primary cause of battery degradation, as it can cause the electrolyte to crystallize and clog the battery's electrodes, reducing their ability to store lithium ions. The script mentions that fast charging can generate more heat, but companies are developing technologies to mitigate this issue.

💡Charge Cycle

A Charge Cycle is defined as a complete discharge and subsequent recharge of a battery's energy. The video explains that batteries degrade over time as they go through charge cycles, with the lithium ions passing through the electrolyte solution repeatedly, slowly breaking it down. The industry standard for battery health is maintaining 80% capacity after 800 charge cycles, as mentioned in the script.

💡Power Management

Power Management in the context of the video refers to the technology and processes used to control the flow of electricity into a battery to optimize charging speed without generating excess heat. The script discusses how companies like OnePlus have moved power management to the charging brick to reduce heat near the battery, allowing for faster charging without damaging the battery.

💡Parallel Charging

Parallel Charging is a technique where a device's battery is split into multiple cells, and power is distributed among these cells to charge them simultaneously. The video describes this method as a way to achieve faster charging times with less heat generation, as each cell can accept a lower wattage without overheating. However, the script notes that this can result in a slightly smaller overall battery capacity.

💡Cooling Hardware

Cooling Hardware in smartphones includes components like heat shields, vapor chambers, and even fans designed to dissipate heat and keep the device's temperature in check. The video mentions that modern phones are equipped with various cooling mechanisms to prevent overheating, especially during intensive tasks like gaming or fast charging.

💡Gallium Nitride Chargers

Gallium Nitride Chargers are a newer type of charging technology that allows for smaller and more efficient power bricks compared to traditional silicon-based chargers. The video script mentions gallium nitride as a material that can enable 65-watt chargers to be half the size of their silicon counterparts, potentially improving portability and efficiency.

💡Battery Health Options

Battery Health Options refer to the various software features and settings available on smartphones to help users maintain and monitor their battery's health. The video script discusses how modern phones come with intelligent software that can learn charging habits, manage charging to 80% to preserve battery health, and provide users with tools to actively maintain their battery's longevity.

💡Smartphones

Smartphones are mobile phones with advanced computing and internet capabilities, allowing them to perform various tasks beyond traditional phone functions. The video's main theme revolves around the evolution of smartphones, particularly focusing on the advancements in charging technology and how these innovations impact battery health and the overall user experience.

Highlights

Smartphone charging speeds have rapidly evolved from 5 watts to 120 watts and even 240 watts in theoretical demonstrations.

The public generally fears that high-speed charging will damage smartphone batteries due to overheating.

Modern smartphones use lithium-ion or lithium-polymer batteries, which release energy as lithium ions flow through an electrolyte solution.

Batteries absorb energy most efficiently when they are least full, leading to excess heat as they approach full charge.

High-speed chargers like 65 watts only maintain peak power briefly and then taper off to prevent overheating.

Batteries degrade over time due to charge cycles and heat, which is the primary factor accelerating battery degradation.

Companies are developing methods to fast charge without generating extra heat, such as power management in the charger brick.

Parallel charging splits the battery into multiple cells to reduce heat generation during high-speed charging.

Adding cooling hardware to smartphones is a common method to prevent battery damage from heat during fast charging.

The industry standard for battery health is maintaining 80% capacity after 800 charges, which most modern fast-charging phones aim to meet or exceed.

Smartphones are equipped with sensors and software to regulate charging and maintain battery health automatically.

Gallium nitride chargers offer a smaller size while providing the same power output, contributing to better portability.

Smartphones have features like pass-through charging and smart charging schedules to protect battery health.

The Galaxy Note 7 battery issue was due to manufacturing errors, not fast charging, highlighting the importance of quality control.

To preserve battery health, it's best to avoid situations that cause the phone to overheat, such as direct sunlight or prolonged gaming while charging.

Smartphone companies are continuously working on improving fast charging technology without compromising battery life.

The video concludes that fast charging does not necessarily ruin battery life if managed properly with the right technology and precautions.

Transcripts

(upbeat music)

- Okay, so it seems like every few months

a new company, someone comes out with a new,

fastest ever charging smartphone.

Years ago, the flagship iPhone was charging

at five watts, and that was fairly standard.

It would take about two-and-half hours

to charge the phone from zero to 100.

Then when the Pixel 1 came out,

that was super fast, charging at 18 watts.

Then soon the iPhone bumped up to 20.

Then you might remember OnePlus beat out everybody

for a couple years with 30 watts.

But soon we had 45, 65, 80.

Now, today, right now, this Xiaomi 12 Pro ships

with this 120 watt charger.

You can buy this right now, today.

It charges the whole phone from zero to 100 in 17 minutes.

And then just a few weeks ago, OPPO demoed this.

It's not on a real smartphone yet,

but it would charge a theoretical 240 watts,

which would go from zero to 100 in nine minutes.

That's pretty ridiculous.

And then as you may have noticed, like I have,

pretty much anytime one of these demos

gets posted somewhere, universally the comments

across the board are, "I don't want that on my phone.

That definitely is gonna overheat.

Good luck plugging that in for

more than five minutes before it explodes."

People across the board are universally convinced

that there is no way that this can be good

for your smartphone's battery.

Which got me thinking, if this is true,

then why would these companies keep doing this?

Is fast charging actually ruining your battery?

So I dove into it, I just dove straight in.

Plenty of Google searches, plenty of articles read,

plenty of people talked to,

and plenty of hot takes out there, but this is what I found.

Batteries have improved in their chemistry over time,

but right now all phones use lithium ion

or lithium polymer batteries.

And the way they work is they have a positive side

and a negative side.

And the lithium ions flow from the negative

to the positive side through a liquid electrolyte solution.

And as they flow, energy is released into the circuit.

That's what's keeping the phone powered by the battery.

When that flow is over, though,

the battery has reached 0% and is dead.

So charging the battery back up is

moving those ions back through from the positive

to the negative side through that electrolyte solution.

The first thing to know about charging a battery is

batteries are kind of like a sponge.

They absorb the most energy

when they have the least in them.

And then as they get closer and closer to full,

they can't absorb quite as efficiently

and then there is some excess lost.

With a sponge, it's just extra water passing through.

With a battery, that's just excess heat.

And so what that looks like is

charging actually happens on a curve.

Those numbers that you keep seeing

with the 100 watts and 150 watt fast charging,

that's not the constant rate of charging.

That's just the peak, the maximum that they're capable of.

But that's typically only briefly the actual rate.

So a 65 watt fast charger, for example,

will typically only hit 65 watts for the first few minutes,

pretty early on in the charge from low battery,

and then taper off and basically only trickle charge

at a lower wattage after around 80%.

And you can actually view that

if you get one of these incredibly nerdy cables

with the display on it that lets you see

exactly how much power your phone is accepting

while you're charging.

I'll link one of them below the like button.

But then the second thing to know is

batteries do degrade over time.

The iPhone, as you've probably seen,

lets you literally visualize it, shows you the percentage.

So if you go to settings and battery and battery health,

you can see your iPhone's degradation rating

as a number from one to 100.

So this 13 Pro I've been using is still good for 97%

of the capacity it had when I got it five months ago.

So why does it go down is the real question

we're trying to answer.

And turns out there are several things

that degrade batteries.

I mean these are picky little things.

They're very energy dense little storage units.

They don't like being at 100% exactly.

They don't like being at 0%.

And they do naturally degrade over time

as they go through charge cycles

and the ions pass through that electrolyte solution

over and over again, slowly breaking it down.

This is totally natural and can't really be avoided

as you charge the phone more and more.

But the number one factor that damages batteries,

that degrades them faster than normal,

what ruins your battery is heat.

The ions are moving through that electrolyte a lot,

but you can think of the electrolyte basically like salts.

They can be pretty sensitive to changes in heat.

They can actually crystallize and clog up the anodes

and cathodes, which stops them

from being able to store the lithium ions.

And like I mentioned earlier, when the battery isn't

in the optimal state of charge, it's less efficient,

and that extra runoff energy manifests as heat,

and heat is no good.

So clearly the goal here is to minimize

any excess heat around that battery,

which would damage it faster than normal.

Now the thing is, generally the more wattage,

the more power you're pumping into this battery,

the more heat it's going to generate.

So it sounds like this extra fast charging is

clearly bad for your phone.

It's more heat generated and it's bad degradation.

But that's not something

these companies aren't thinking about.

Over the years a bunch of these different

smartphone companies have basically been working on trying

to figure out how to charge these phones

as fast as possible without generating any extra heat.

If you look just Xiaomi's page

for their fast charging alone,

there is tons of charts and graphs and claims about

what they're doing to get around this.

One new advancement came from OnePlus

when they dropped that Warp Charge 30T charger.

It was kind of interesting and a little confusing maybe

that we had Warp Charge 30 and Warp Charge 30T

and both were 30 watts, but 30T was faster.

But this was because with 30T,

the power management got handled in the brick

instead of in the phone, so there was more heat produced

by the brick in the wall instead of

on the phone near the battery.

So OnePlus could put the same amount of power

into the phone but for a longer period of time

without heating it up as much.

And so the charging curve could be improved like this.

So that's a nice step.

The downside there is now we're getting larger power bricks,

but that's a bit of a trade off

people are willing to make, I guess.

But then another way we've seen a bunch

of companies jump on, especially lately, is

with something called parallel charging.

Basically, instead of putting a ton of power

into a single battery, they actually split up the battery

into two cells next to each other

and then add power management hardware

to split the incoming power.

This is a simple but brilliant way

to get faster charging times without a ton of heat.

Imagine instead of trying to pump 50 watts

into a single 5,000 milliampere-hour battery,

just doing 25 watts into two batteries of half the size.

That's gonna generate way less heat,

it's only 25 watts, but combined, when you draw the curves,

you can achieve the equivalent of 50 watt charging

and you get to put 50 watts on the box

but it's with way less heat.

But again, there's a downside to this method too,

which is a slightly smaller overall battery capacity.

Because if you take the same internal volume

of two batteries instead of one,

that means there's more space taken up

by the boundary between the batteries and the housing

and that charging management hardware I mentioned.

So you'll often end up with slightly smaller

overall batteries if they're split like this.

And then of course, something we've seen in

just about every new phone coming out

which doesn't really have a downside is

just adding more cooling hardware onto the phone itself.

Sometimes that's heat shields and vapor chambers.

Sometimes it's a whole fan.

But specifically, we're trying to get the parts inside

from getting too hot.

It feels like every cell phone announcement

for the past two to three years has

some sort of section about cooling,

especially gaming phones.

You're, of course, cooling the system on a chip, too,

but the better the cooling system overall,

the more power you can put into the phone

without it getting too hot.

So the real question is, is it working?

Is it that simple?

As long as you keep the phone cool enough

you can put as much power into it as you want?

Well, there are the downsides I mentioned earlier

with the larger brick and maybe the phone's gotta

be thicker with more cooling

and has a smaller capacity battery,

but the question we're trying to ask is

what counts as ruining your battery?

That's a simple one, and it turns out

there's actually an industry standard for this.

From the research I've done and the people

at these companies I've talked to,

the generally accepted target goal is 80% battery health

after 800 charges.

So let's say you charge your phone roughly once a day.

That'll pan out to about two years.

So 80% charge after two years.

This iPhone, now that I'm at 97%

after about five months, is on track

to be at roughly 85% after two years,

which that's pretty good.

That's above the industry standard

officially not being ruined.

Now, for all these super fast charges that are new,

well, it's tough, 'cause they're new.

They've just come out and we don't have long-term data.

And it sucks that the only information I can use is

just coming straight from those companies.

So I'm basically taking their word for it that, yeah,

the fast charging doesn't ruin the phone over time,

but it's the best information we have

and it is actually surprisingly impressive.

From their test results, Xiaomi on their site say

that their 120 watt charging tech is rated

to maintain 80% battery health after 800 charge cycles.

Apple on their site, they don't have the fastest charging,

but they say 80% after just 500 charges.

But like I said, it seems like they're outperforming

their own claims, hey, under promise, over deliver.

And then OPPO and OnePlus, who've announced they'll have

a 150 watt charging phone this year,

say that they've specifically stated it'll go

80% battery health after 1,600 cycles.

So that will outperform the industry standard,

which I guess means they have room to keep going up.

Now don't get me wrong, the trade offs are very real.

Not everybody wants a thicker phone or a larger power brick

or a slightly smaller capacity battery,

but from where I'm sitting and from the test results

that we can go by, basically, fast charging

does not have to ruin your battery life.

And really the best part of that is just convenience.

On top of the fact that these companies are

all actively still working on making this stuff better.

You might have heard about gallium nitride chargers.

There's a couple actually out there already in the market.

That allows the brick to actually be much smaller

than the typical silicon chargers we're all using now.

So you can do a 65 watt gallium nitride charger

half the size and still put the same power into the phone.

But really what it comes down to these days is,

it's called a smartphone for a reason.

Batteries these days are smart.

Modern phones all have tons of hardware and sensors

inside the phone to help measure temperature

and regulate charging.

So it's doing all kinds of stuff automatically.

And then the phones all will add a bunch

of software features on top to help you

actively maintain the battery to the nth degree.

Plus, phones like the ROG Phone 5

have pass-through charging.

So when you're plugged in, and gaming,

which is typically not a good idea on a regular phone,

it can just power the system

and it doesn't add charge to the battery at all.

So you're not putting extra stress and heat on the battery

and it can maintain battery health for a lot longer.

The latest iPhones and Pixels too right now have a feature

where if you plug in at night around the same time

every night, after a few days it learns when you wake up.

So instead of charging right to 100%

when you plug it in, it charges up to 80

then waits all the way until you're about to wake up,

maybe an hour before your alarm,

and then charges the rest of the way up to 100

so you wake up with a full battery but better health.

And pretty much any other phone

with this super fast charging coming up is gonna have

to have a suite of battery health options

that you can mess with in the software

to take your battery health protection to the next level.

So I don't know how fast these phones charging is

gonna get in the next couple years.

Inevitably, it's just gonna keep getting better

as the company's work on it.

But what I can tell you is the best thing we can do

for our phones is to just use them like normal

and basically don't give them any extra reason to get hot.

Leaving it in the dash of your car on a sunny day,

gaming while plugged in for long periods of time,

stuff like that.

If you can avoid your phone getting super hot,

you're doing the best thing you can for your battery.

And these smartphone companies all know

that battery problems are bad news.

So if they're all doing their jobs,

then we should all be good.

Fun fact, the famous Galaxy Note 7 battery exploding issue,

as crazy as it was, it wasn't actually due

to fast charging or overheating.

It was actually just them with their battery supplier

getting some dimensions wrong and some bending going on

of the battery with the positive

and negative sides up in the corners.

Something to think about.

Either way, now you have the answer.

Thanks for watching, catch you guys on the next one, peace.