I am putting this in as new topic. Not much has been discussed on this for a long time. My cell phone is not quite two years and battery drains out quickly. I read that you should not recharge overnight or do it when you are using the phone. But when else can you do it if you are using the phone quite frequently? I have tried to implement some other suggestions but looking for some advice from others. If you go try to buy a new battery they have do it for you and takes about seven working days to get phone back. That’s not good either. Any suggestions?
What phone is it?
I find some phones, like iphones, gets regular ios updates that makes it run down batteries faster the more update they get. I think this is intentional to force you to upgrade. Even an original battery replacement wouldn’t help because the update basically forces the CPU to work in overdrive at all time, causing the battery to run down faster. It seems phones are engineered to last about 2 years, about the time it takes to pay off a carrier plan.
Android/Asus brand. I actually don’t get phone through cell provider. Taiwan mobile actually didn’t encourage me to. I went directly to cell phone store to buy
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What I mean is, they engineer phones to last as long as the carrier plan so you get new phones from the carrier every 2 years and pay the same inflated cost the whole time. So beyond the 2 years the phone is designed to become slow, low battery life, or things break. I think iphones are particularly bad for this… basically turn everything on in the older phones so the battery will drain really fast no matter what state it’s in.
Did you really think they’d just let you keep a phone for 5 years and save money?
But Taiwanese providers are weird, they really don’t like providing phones via carrier plans here.
Two years might already be really old for a battery when used daily. Especially if you’re also using your phone in high heat (outside in the sun, mounted in a car / motorcycle, …).
Can you get the battery replaced? Should mostly be cheaper than a new phone if everything else still works fine.
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Qwert already said it but 2 years it is now at about 500 cycles so maybe time for a new one
One tip I used and it saves my battery, is at night when I don’t need fast charging, I use an old Apple 5 Watt 1 Amp charger. It takes a long time to charge but you’re sleeping anyway and it’s ready when you wake up. It generates less heat than a fast charger and so the battery lasts longer. These 15-25w and higher chargers aren’t good long term for battery life because of the heat they generate. I even personally noticed even the 10W 2A ones hurt the battery over time too.
Another big one is to try not to let the phone go below 20%. Or above 80% charge. I only follow the first one, second one is too hard to babysit. Draining it to zero repeatedly is a great way to kill the battery.
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Make sure you’re not running background apps that drain power. Close apps you’re not using and use the system to check for other apps
Turn off things like Bluetooth and wifi if youre not using them. When these are on the phone is constantly scanning for signals
Turn the battery saving from optimum to mild power saver. You dont lose functionality in a noticeable way
Get an external battery in case you need to top up during the day
I’m using a 4 year old samsung that i charge overnight, no fancy charging tricks. As a general rule i try to run batteries down before charging, but i always throw the ohone on the charger whenever the battery is before bed
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Some of the above things I’ve tried. Not going below 20 percent is easier than not going over 80,. I am trying to stop certain apps running. Turn off wifi when not in use is something to try but not easy if you’re always using phone to look up things on internet or replying to Line messaging
Buy another battery? But you have to leave with the repair people for at least seven days. Or is there a way around that?
Last time I had a battery replaced in Taiwan it took about 2hrs at a nearby repair shop. Is there no such shop nearby.
Sounds like you just use your phone a lot. You can buy a battery bank as a temporary measure to keep you going.
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Wait this contradicts what Dan just said.
I follow the TT method, waiting until my battery is around 10% or less before recharging. Is this a mistake?
Guy
I have an unlimited data plan, never use the wifi
Keeping it between 80 and 20 is the often quoted rule for lion batts. I’m extremely doubtful it makes a particularly significant difference. Once you’re hitting 500 cycles you’re usually going to start seeing some degradation.
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How come phones don’t have an option to mark 80% as 100% and 20% as 0%? I know some electric cars do this. They stop charging when it reaches 80%.
Well on the plus side I recharge around once a week! So that would be—in an ideal world—just under ten years of use. 
Guy
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Are you saying using your mobile data uses less battery than wifi at home? I have unlimited data as well.
I have android phone. I went to place near gwan hua market that said have to wait seven days. That was two years ago with previous phone which had battery completely go out. Where can I go to get battery replaced for Android phone in two hours?
There are many phone repair places that will change the battery in front of you.
Mine says percentage on it. You can just unplug it then. Pretty sure it’s an option in android.
Although I don’t actually follow those rules.
Someone else can pipe in but there were loads of places in Taipei. Let people know where you are based.
1 system running uses less power than 2. As long as your mobile signal is strong enough, turning on wifi just uses electricity for no benefit
And WiFi is more efficient than cellular data in terms of power use.