Don’t use phone while charging... and other myths

Seems like every time technology evolves and blows our minds, some naysayer comes along to warn about an innovation’s dangers. Many of those warnings however, are typically misguided or often just flat-out wrong.

There are many misleading myths that evolved over time about charging a phone, for instance, most of which are completely wrong. “Don’t use your phone while it’s charging,” “don’t leave it plugged in overnight” and “always let it die completely before recharging” — these are just a few popular myths about smartphone batteries.

When it comes to battery life, there are many little rules for what you can and can’t do with your smartphone. While plenty of real rules exist, there are several rumoured ones you can simply ignore.

Phone batteries have evolved so much over the years, becoming smarter and easier to manage. Most lithium-ion batteries, used by major retailers like Samsung and Apple, should last between three and five years, if you take proper care of it.

There are those who will warn you against using your phone while charging. People believe that using a phone while charging will make the phone explode, or electrocute the user. That actually happened to a Chinese flight attendant named Ma Ailun in July 2013, when she used her iPhone 4 while it was charging. But Ailun was using a third-party charger, not an original Apple charger. If you’re using the manufacturer-approved charger and battery, you should be fine.

BATTERY NOT IN USE

Is it okay to charge your phone overnight? Your phone is smarter than you think. Once it’s fully juiced up, it knows when to stop charging. That means the battery isn’t even in use at all.

However, that doesn’t mean you should be charging your phone all night, every night. Your battery life will last longer if you keep your phone charged between 40 per cent and 80 per cent.

Some myths advise that you should wait until your phone is fully dead before recharging. The truth is; it’s better to charge your phone every day than to do a “deep charge” from time to time.]

If you constantly let them drain to 0 per cent, they become unstable. Your battery has a finite number of charge cycles, and every time it fully dies, that’s another cycle out the window.

Should you charge your new phone before using it? Almost every new phone comes with instructions to fully charge it before you start using it, but it’s mostly unnecessary.

Since most modern batteries are best stored at about 40 per cent, almost every manufacturer sends their phones out with at least half a charge. This means that if you buy a new phone and it does not have a 40 per cent charge when you turn it on, its most likely because the battery is very old.

If this is the case, you should ask for a different one as it will surely last you longer than one that has either been used before, or has been sitting idle for a really long time with no use.

When browsing the web, there’s this misconception that “incognito” and “private” are synonymous with anonymous. If you’re using Incognito Mode in Google Chrome or Private browsing in Safari, it simply means the browser won’t keep track of your history, import your bookmarks, or automatically log into any of your accounts.

It won’t keep your identity anonymous — so keep that in mind if you’re visiting sites you shouldn’t be.

It’s not always true that the higher the pixels, the better the quality of the picture. What’s the difference between 12 megapixel cameras and 8 megapixel cameras? Not much, as it turns out. The quality of an image is determined by how much light the sensor is able to take in.

Typically, bigger sensors come with larger pixels, and the larger the pixel the more light it can absorb. So, it’s really the size of the megapixels that matter more than the sheer number of megapixels.

Sam Wambugu is a monitoring and evaluation specialist. Email: [email protected]