(Image credit: Nicholas Sutrich / Android Central)

What you need to know

• One YouTuber ran a series of three tests over 2 years involving 40 phones to test the differences in between health between various charging habits.
• The tests included comparing fast and slow charging, only charging phones to 80%, and more.
• The conclusion is that fast charging does not negatively affect battery health, but keeping a phone charged between 30-80% could potentially provide better long-term health.

For years, people have debated on the merits of fast charging related to battery health. Ultra-fast charging phones like the OnePlus 13 charge up to 100W with the brick included in the box, while most phones from Google and Samsung don’t realistically charge faster than 45W for more than a few minutes, even with a special charger.

That’s led to many people believing that Apple, Google, and Samsung have kept charging slower to prolong battery health over time. One YouTuber was tired of the baseless debate and decided to put 40 phones to a series of three tests over a 2-year time span, and he came away with one conclusion: “charge however you like.”

Is Fast Charging Killing the Battery? A 2-Year Test on 40 Phones - YouTube

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Check out the video for specific stats, but the gist is this: fast charging does not negatively affect battery life in any measurable way. The automated testbed he created charged phones up then drained them again for over 500 cycles. The main test took over 6 months to get all phones to this 500 cycle mark, while the other two tests were mostly inconclusive due to testing issues.

HTX found that Android phones using 120W charging only showed an average of 0.3% difference in battery health compared to the 18W charging by the end of this 500 cycle test. In other words, it’s far more convenient to fast charge your phone than to worry about a fraction of a percentage of battery health loss over time.

A second series of tests aimed to prove whether or not keeping your phone between 30-80% could improve battery health over time. The results showed a 2.5% difference in battery health between phones that were regularly charged to 100% and drained to 0% battery compared with phones kept in the 30-80% range, giving the latter the edge.

Of course, purposefully limiting your phone’s battery capacity to 50% doesn’t seem to make much sense if you’re only saving 2.5% battery health over the course of 2 years. Once again, HTX’s statement rings true: just use the phone as you’d like. It doesn’t really make a difference.

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Nick started with DOS and NES and uses those fond memories of floppy disks and cartridges to fuel his opinions on modern tech. Whether it’s VR, smart home gadgets, or something else that beeps and boops, he’s been writing about it since 2011. Reach him on Twitter or Instagram @Gwanatu