Smartphone batteries, especially lithium-ion batteries, undergo a process known as degradation over time. This happens because of the fundamental chemistry of the battery, which gives rise to unavoidable chemical reactions that take place inside the battery during runtime. It is worth noting that certain factors can contribute to battery degradation, such as exposing the battery to high temperatures or regularly charging it to 100% and then draining it to 0%.
The battery health of a smartphone refers to the condition of the battery in terms of its ability to hold a charge compared to when it was new. Over time, batteries age, and their ability to hold a charge decreases. Therefore, taking good care of your smartphone’s battery can help slow down the degradation process and prolong its life. It is important to note that every battery has a limited lifespan, and it is normal for its performance to decrease over time. However, with proper care, you can maximize its lifespan.
How Smartphone Batteries Degrade
Since smartphone batteries naturally degrade over time due to several factors,
- Charging your device to 100% and draining it, considered one charge cycle, stresses the battery’s chemical reactions. Battery life will get shorter after a certain number of cycles (around 500 to 1000).
- Lithium-ion batteries typically comprise a metal oxide-based cathode and a graphite anode, which can cause some degradation due to the migration of ions and stress on the battery’s internal materials.
- Temperature and usage habits can also accelerate battery degradation.
Furthermore, this natural process occurs with rechargeable batteries to some extent, and the optimal performance of your device must address degraded battery issues.
- Device performance is directly linked to battery health. With a degraded battery, the device may be unable to draw enough power to support high-performance tasks.
- Unexpected shutdowns can occur due to a degraded battery protecting electronic components.
- Battery life is another noticeable effect of degradation, which can potentially harm your device.
Remember that battery degradation is inevitable, but proper care and usage can help prolong the life of your smartphone’s battery.
Check battery health on Xiaomi HyperOS.
Some manufacturers, like Xiaomi, Apple, and Huawei, offer built-in features within their OS that allow users to check the health of their device’s battery, giving them an idea of their battery’s current capacity.
Apart from this, there are other ways to check battery health on Xiaomi devices.
Using ADB/LABD
Before proceeding, ensure that your device is 100% charged.
- Start by installing the ADB driver and then enabling Developer Mode, which requires USB debugging.
- Now, open Command Prompt (CMD) on your desktop and type “adb shell” to connect your mobile phone to your PC.
- If the driver is installed correctly, it will detect your device. To confirm that it is your device, you will see the device codename on CMD.
- After that, execute “dumpsys battery” to show the current voltage, capacity, temperature, and other information about your device’s battery.
- Then, within the Charge Counter, you will find details for Battery Capacity “Status.” If it shows a status of 5, you can check the battery health using the formula: Actual Capacity / Current Capacity * 100. Alternatively, you can use Xiaomi’s Dial Interface with the code ##6485## on the dial interface to check the battery loss and health status and determine if a battery replacement is necessary.
Using a bug report
- Open the device’s settings.
- Click on “My Device.”.
- After that, tap on “View all specifications.”.
- Tap on “CPU info” five times.
- Now, you can calculate Xiaomi’s battery health using the formula: actual capacity vs current capacity 100.
Note: This only works with Xiaomi devices and does not work with other Android devices.
HyperOS extends the average lifespan of a smartphone’s battery and allows you to replace the phone’s battery.