Like most portable electronics, smartphones have built-in batteries. The size of these batteries varies from phone to phone, and for some users it is important to choose a smartphone with a large capacity battery if they want their devices to last all day. But at the same time, it is also worth paying attention to the condition of the battery.
Over time, lithium-ion batteries degrade. This is because all batteries hold a fixed amount of charge, and every time you charge your phone, they begin to deteriorate, and over a long period of time, your battery will hold a charge worse than before when you first purchased your mobile device .
So, while battery life can be easily displayed on the home screen, how can you check the battery status of your Android smartphone?
How can I see how long my phone has been working?
The standard method for Android is through Settings, then Battery, then in the advanced settings there is the necessary information. There is also an option through the “Digital Well-Being” system application, which also allows you not only to track, but also to limit the time spent in a particular application.
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Guide on how to check the battery on Android
You can independently check the battery on Android and determine its “health” even by external examination. We'll go over all the effective options, including available measurements.
If the battery is removable.
Tablets and smartphones with a removable battery design require disassembling the case yourself. Most often you need to pry the lid with a thin plastic tool (for example, a guitar pick).
If you do not know whether your device has a removable battery, we recommend checking the information on the Internet. If you cannot find information, then it is better to assume that it is most likely non-removable (you can also look for your device in our instructions for replacing the battery).
Check the connectors (contacts)
- — Turn off the device,
- - open the lid,
- — check if there is corrosion on the metal contacts of the battery (green or white spots);
- — the presence of corrosion is the first sign of serious degradation of the battery.
Look for a "Hump" or Bloat
- — Inspect the battery case for any bulge (“hump”);
- — pay attention to the gaps in the area of the controller board (does it come off);
- — a swollen battery does not lie flat on the table and unwinds easily;
- — with such deformations, there is a risk of shell rupture, chemical leakage, and even fire (do not use a swollen element).
Use a multimeter
- — Use a multimeter in voltage measurement mode;
- - measure the battery voltage at the contacts after full charging;
- — the passport specifications usually correspond to 3.7V (check the instructions for the phone, it may be 3.85V or 3.6V);
- - deviations from this value (by 0.5-1V or more) are direct evidence of aging.
If the battery is NOT removable.
Non-removable construction is now much more common. Most models of smartphones and tablets in recent years do not allow the user to easily remove the battery from the case (find out why they do this).
You can still get an idea of the critical conditions of the battery even with this design. Below we have indicated what to look for.
Is the body deformed?
- — Inspect the body of the device (if there are any bulges, cracks, or increased gaps);
- — when the battery swells, its “hump” puts pressure on other components of the smartphone and tablet;
- — there is some play at the cover (creaks, gaps);
- — the screen may be accidentally pressed or respond worse to pressing;
- — the image is sometimes distorted in colors, the backlight changes, and cracks appear on the glass.
Is the device getting hot?
- — A worn-out battery in some cases heats up unreasonably (high temperatures, in principle, have a bad effect on Li-Ion);
- — after the smartphone or tablet has been left without load on the processor, you notice that the device is hot to the touch;
- - if the device has never become very hot before, but now quickly discharges and heats up;
- — sometimes background processes cause heating (in this case, we recommend making sure that it is not the battery by performing a soft reset of Android).
Are there other signs?
- — Discharges quickly and turns off (example from 30% to 1% and turns off);
- — discharges abruptly (sharply from 100% to 92% and holds for a long time, sometimes calibration with a long charge helps);
- — the charge freezes at a certain percentage (but most often the problem is corrected by software);
- — if calibration and other methods do not help, the battery charge indicator regularly fails, then there is a high probability of physical wear and tear (replacement is recommended);
- — the poor condition of the battery also manifests itself when it does not take a charge well (at room temperature it is charged very slowly by any chargers or is not fully charged).
Let's summarize all the points
- 1. If there is corrosion on the battery contacts, clean them, make sure that the voltage on the battery corresponds to the standard values.
- 2. The appearance of a “hump” (bloating) is the final verdict on modern lithium-ion and lithium-polymer cells.
- 3. Swollen batteries cannot be pierced or repaired, only replaced with a new one (otherwise you risk the electronic device and even your life).
- 4. If overheating, check background applications and re-read the list of “other signs” above, just in case.
Power Battery
This is not just an application, but a whole complex for diagnosing and caring for the battery. It has everything: a set of tests to evaluate and improve battery performance, built-in saving modes and a memory cleaning service.
Program features:
- accurate determination of the remaining battery life;
- assessment of power consumption by applications installed on the phone;
- the ability to remove unnecessary programs and garbage that affects battery consumption;
- memory optimization functionality that improves device speed;
- hardware and software identifier;
- counters of the remaining time for calls, games, listening to audio and video content;
- assessment of the battery condition: its wear, temperature, capacity, voltage;
- the ability to create an energy-saving mode taking into account the user’s personal preferences.
Many functions in "Power Battery" can be used in automatic mode. When they are activated, the application automatically disables energy-consuming programs, puts the phone into saving mode and clears the memory of unnecessary garbage. The program has its own community where its users communicate. It has a lot of functionality and provides it absolutely free.
Compatibility: Android.
Nova Battery Tester
With this app you can test the battery capacity on both your phone and tablet. The program contains several testing modes: fast, standard and long mode. The most realistic indicators are provided by standard and long testing. The fast mode shows results with a noticeable error. A complete battery analysis using Nova Battery Tester takes from 1 to 1.5 hours.
When you connect for the first time, the utility requires an Internet connection to enter data about the current consumption of your device and other characteristics downloaded by the application from its own online database.
The program is free, Russified, and has a simple and intuitive interface. There is nothing superfluous in it, it does not hang and copes with the task assigned to it perfectly.
Compatibility: Android.
AccuBattery for Android
The AccuBattery application reads information from the battery controller and displays it in a visual shell. The utility helps you choose the most optimal charge, determine the applications that consume the most power from your gadget, and find out about the current battery wear.
Development of AccuBattery began after Dutch engineers tried to extend battery life. This is not about slowing down discharge during the day. The goal is to ensure that the battery does not lose capacity after many months of use. The problem is also relevant because many modern gadgets come with non-removable batteries.
The developers conducted a series of tests, as a result of which important conclusions were drawn. There is no need to charge the device throughout the night, since during reboots the power source loses its capacity. The reason for this is the chemical processes that occur in the battery.
Mobile devices have an internal switch that stops charging when reaching 100% while power continues to flow, which affects the oxidation resistance of certain chemicals. It turns out that to fully charge the tablet or phone you need to disconnect it from the power supply as soon as possible, after 100% charging.
The most optimal battery charging option is 80%. The AccuBattery app has a built-in alarm that alerts you when the optimal charge level is reached. It is located in the “Charging” menu.
Battery Doctor
The utility evaluates the battery life and extends its life. It increases the battery charging time, evaluates the sources and volume of energy consumption.
What the application can do:
- gives an accurate estimate of the remaining time of use of the gadget based on the current charge level;
- provides the ability to monitor programs with high energy consumption;
- gives advice on saving food;
- controls the charging process.
The program automatically turns off applications that consume a lot of energy, improves battery life and speeds up the device. Features of the utility: Russian language, user-friendly interface, accuracy of calculations.
Compatibility: Android, iOS.
Checking battery capacity
With each charging cycle, the smartphone battery wears out. But besides this, there are other reasons that accelerate battery degradation. For example, they left the phone in the sun, used the smartphone for a long time in the cold, and so on. All this has a detrimental effect on the condition of the battery.
Discharge rate
The simplest option for checking the battery. Monitor how quickly the battery drains. If after several hours of normal work (without solving resource-intensive tasks) the smartphone battery drops to 0 percent, then this means one thing - the battery has become unusable.
A normally functioning phone does not lose more than 2 percent of its charge per hour (in rest mode). The maximum rate of charge loss in a quiet state is 6% per night.
Frequently asked questions about how to check the battery on Android
This article was first posted three years ago. We have added a section here with accumulated answers to questions from those who order batteries from us and comment on our articles on VKontakte, Yandex.Zen, Medium and on the blog.
Question 1: How to check if the battery capacity on Android has decreased?
There is nothing more accurate than professional equipment. It is best suited for measuring the capacity of lithium batteries (for example, Canadian Cadex testers, which we use at our production in Moscow). You can use a multimeter and USB testers yourself (instructions).
To independently check the battery condition, you can use some Android applications. Here is a list of what we personally tested on the batteries of Android devices (follow the links for a brief overview of the capabilities and differences between one and the other, and whether Root is needed):
- • 1 place. AccuBattery
- • 2nd place. BatteryGuru
- • 3rd place. Wakelock Detector (WLD)
- • 4th place. BetterBatteryStats
- • 5th place. GSam Battery Monitor
Question 2: Is it possible to check how much the battery capacity has decreased using Android utilities in the system itself?
A more accurate battery check on Android is indeed carried out using standard tools. Google relies on a battery monitoring utility. But in most versions of shells the function is closed from prying eyes.
On some smartphones and tablets, its statistics (along with temperature and wear) are called up through the service menu. For example, try the well-known dialer code *#*#4636#*#* (it's easier to remember the *#*#INFO#*#* ) for Android. But this does not always work (or the information is displayed incorrectly).
Question 3: I want to check the battery status in the Android application, but they require Root from me - why?
If you need advanced statistics and battery testing, applications may require Root rights. Objectively, it is not recommended to give access to Root management to unknown and unverified applications (fraud with programs for checking batteries is common).
When checking the battery capacity normally, the application does not require Root rights. Statistics will be collected over several charging and discharging cycles. The graphs will clearly show the degree of wear and the actual characteristics of the battery.
Question 4: The phone is completely new, but the applications and system show high wear (more than 50%) - why?
If a new smartphone or tablet you just purchased was not charged to 100% (as it should be), but was immediately discharged before turning off, and even not charged for some time (it was left discharged), then the software statistics will be incorrect.
Perform calibration. It is almost certainly a software problem and the battery is not actually worn out. After a month of active use and regular charging and discharging, the percentage of wear will be adjusted. Although some models require firmware updates, we do not have an exact list of them.
Question 5: The smartphone generally behaves strangely - sometimes it won’t charge, sometimes the screen is black, sometimes it freezes... What’s wrong with it, doctor?
Interestingly, the battery can sometimes really affect the operation of the motherboard, processor, and screen. As soon as the battery stops providing the required voltage, strange behavior of electronics and various inexplicable problems begin.
However, don't buy a new battery right away to test it. It is better to take the device to a reliable service center to diagnose the problem. And if they confirm that the battery is faulty, then replace it (be sure to ask for a warranty on the battery - for example, we have it for 12 months).
More about Android
Before deciding to replace the battery, you can tell us about your situation in the comments - we will help you. We are waiting for your messages on VKontakte @NeovoltRu.
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