So I recently bought a new honor magic 5 pro. My last phone the Huawei p20 pro was around 5 years old and started to show significantly less battery life. So I want to use this phone again for 5 years. But now I wonder should I keep the battery around 50% (65-35) and charge twice as often or should I 80-20 and charge once every two days? Is there any science that proves one is better than the other? Thank you for your information and sources.
This is all anecdotal, so take it as you will. At some point in the past I used to be careful to do 80–20, or even 70–30 when possible. It was usually a pain, because I didn’t get the full benefit of the battery, and I was always worried I might go above or below my targets. I still had to replace a battery after 2 years.
Then, with my previous phone, I decided not to worry about that and just charge whenever. The vast majority of the time I charged to 100% using fast charge, albeit not overnight. I had that phone for 4 years and it was only in the last year that I felt the battery had got worse. That last year was also after a big software update.
With my current phone, I’m doing 80–20 again—but more often 85–35—without fast charging. A year and half in and the battery has definitely degraded. I have easy access to a charger most of the time, and I use a software feature on the phone to limit charging to 85%, so my current schedule is easy to keep to, but if it wasn’t, it probably wouldn’t be worth it for me. I’d just accept that, worst case, I have to buy a $50 battery every couple of years to not have to worry about charge levels.