Isn’t one plus one of the brands that has their own fast charging tech, that’s extra fast?
Yes, but…
OnePlus offloads heat to the charger, so the phone actually doesn’t get hot while charging. This fact alone would IMPROVE charge cycles, even at fast speeds.
But OnePlus also uses quite a few “tricks” to preserve battery health. Did the test include those features or did they turn them off. And if they turned them off, did they do the same with the Samsung phones (which have similar battery-health preserving options)?
I’ve had my OP13 since the day it came out (around 5-6 months) and keep it charged to 80% (built-in feature) and only charge it to 100% when I’ll be out for the day and need to use GPS with max screen brightness. Battery health is still 100%.
I’ve owned a lot of Samsung phones before that, and the battery health was the only reason I’ve needed to replace them. So, I’m glad to see that the EU is taking charge cycles into account.
One piece of the puzzle that the numbers don’t mention, is that the smaller battery of the Samsung phones means you’ll be charging more often (i.e. more charge cycles) vs. something like a OP13 with a larger battery and excellent battery life (i.e. fewer charge cycles for the same use). Maybe that balances things out, but I’m still shocked that Sammy can get 1000 more charge cycles, which is YEARS more battery health than the other brands.
Some of it. They omit some circuitry that would have generated additional heat in the phone, and have it in the charger instead, but that doesn’t magically mean the battery itself wont generate the inevitable heat caused by being charged faster. The battery itself only accepts one voltage, so the only way to charge it faster is amps.
And my feeling is that they aren’t using the gains from this to make the batteries last, as SUPERVOOC is faster than pretty much every other standard. That makes me think they turned in any and all gains in battery health, for speed.
Most chargers send the additional energy via the cable in the form of extra voltage, because that doesn’t require a special cable. Turning that voltage into amps in the phone produces a little bit of extra heat, but that doesn’t mean that by eliminating that step, you get none from the battery itself as it charges. You can technically charge with a higher voltage, if you set up a phone such that it has more than one lithium cell. Some phones do this, but this doesn’t require the OnePlus approach of using a special charger that provides a higher current, since any fast charger that can do the usual higher voltage method of providing extra power will work.
Like you say. I’m curious how they test this. Even if one battery gets more cycles, it’ll degrade with time, as well. iPhones fast charge, too, but not with the chargers that used to come with the phones. You have to get one specifically for fast charging to get faster-than-normal charging.
Also, a tip. You may want to use something like AccuBattery to actually measure the state of the battery. Batteries, being chemical devices, have different capacities straight off the production line simply by virtue of not being chemically identically down to every molecule. (My Xperia 1 V unfortunately came with 93% design capacity, still within manufacturing tolerance, but the lowest I’ve seen on a new battery, it can be a bit of a lottery)
The built-in battery health monitor will just say “all good” until it isn’t. AccuBattery has allowed me to monitor every percentage of degradation over the lives of my last few phones.
And my feeling is that they aren’t using the gains from this to make the batteries last, as SUPERVOOC is faster than pretty much every other standard. That makes me think they turned in any and all gains in battery health, for speed.
There is a setting to explicitly benefit from using an official charger and cable, but I don’t know if it’s on by default (it’s disabled on my phone).
That said, the heat while charging is about the same as the heat from holding the phone in my hand (around 38C), and doesn’t get much hotter than that while gaming thanks to pass-through charging.
My Samsung was definitely hotter, and would overheat if charging while doing anything like GPS navigation. But my last Samsung was a Note 10+, and so things may have very well changed since then.
You may want to use something like AccuBattery
Already do, and have for years.
But AccuBattery doesn’t seem to play nice with the OP13, with many users reporting lower battery health from the start (80-90%), and inaccurate capacity (<1000 mAh less than the designed capacity).
Coupled with the fact that it’s only accurate if you are constantly charging from below 15% to 100%, these are ranges that I rarely get my phone into.
Even though battery longevity is important to me, since I no longer replace my phones “every year”, it really would be best if these damn things had user-replaceable batteries that were readily available. 😫
I was shocked when my new realme, which uses the same tech, didn’t even break 30°C while charging at 8+ Amps (should be around 80W). This was in a relatively warm room (25°C) and using the case that came with it, which surely doesn’t improve thermals. It gets warmer when charging from other sources with only 2-3A, like USB-PD or QuickCharge.
Coupled with the fact that it’s only accurate if you are constantly charging from below 15% to 100%, these are ranges that I rarely get my phone into.
AccuBattery needs a session to have 60% charged, so <20% to 80% works. Doesn’t need to be every single one. I actually asked support about it and they said this was the lowest percentage they were comfortable with. I was requesting to make it adjustable.
Accuracy of the measurement isn’t the entire point. I see the same issue, but since it helps track relative degradation over time it can still add value by giving more information when you suspect the capacity is getting worse.
I was shocked when my new realme, which uses the same tech, didn’t even break 30°C while charging at 8+ Amps (should be around 80W). This was in a relatively warm room (25°C) and using the case that came with it
That’s impressive. I’m looking at my phone now, not charging, but the screen is on, and it’s at 33C. LOL
AccuBattery needs a session to have 60% charged, so <20% to 80% works. Doesn’t need to be every single one.
It’s rare for me to get that low, even while charging to 80%. 😵
But yeah, every so often I’ll let it drain, then do a 100% charge to see what’s up. I don’t like doing that, because even Accubattery says that takes up more of a charge cycle than charging conservatively.
I do like the trend chart, although, the battery health on that actually went UP 5% between March and May 😱
Xiaomi has faast charge, and it (33watt) has worked both fast and reliable on my 4-5 year old note 9 pro phone. I just changed to a 13tp with 120 watt, let’s see how that pans out 🔥😋
Isn’t one plus one of the brands that has their own fast charging tech, that’s extra fast?
Makes total sense if they traded in longevity for speed.
Yes, but…
OnePlus offloads heat to the charger, so the phone actually doesn’t get hot while charging. This fact alone would IMPROVE charge cycles, even at fast speeds.
But OnePlus also uses quite a few “tricks” to preserve battery health. Did the test include those features or did they turn them off. And if they turned them off, did they do the same with the Samsung phones (which have similar battery-health preserving options)?
I’ve had my OP13 since the day it came out (around 5-6 months) and keep it charged to 80% (built-in feature) and only charge it to 100% when I’ll be out for the day and need to use GPS with max screen brightness. Battery health is still 100%.
I’ve owned a lot of Samsung phones before that, and the battery health was the only reason I’ve needed to replace them. So, I’m glad to see that the EU is taking charge cycles into account.
One piece of the puzzle that the numbers don’t mention, is that the smaller battery of the Samsung phones means you’ll be charging more often (i.e. more charge cycles) vs. something like a OP13 with a larger battery and excellent battery life (i.e. fewer charge cycles for the same use). Maybe that balances things out, but I’m still shocked that Sammy can get 1000 more charge cycles, which is YEARS more battery health than the other brands.
edit: clarity
Some of it. They omit some circuitry that would have generated additional heat in the phone, and have it in the charger instead, but that doesn’t magically mean the battery itself wont generate the inevitable heat caused by being charged faster. The battery itself only accepts one voltage, so the only way to charge it faster is amps.
And my feeling is that they aren’t using the gains from this to make the batteries last, as SUPERVOOC is faster than pretty much every other standard. That makes me think they turned in any and all gains in battery health, for speed.
Most chargers send the additional energy via the cable in the form of extra voltage, because that doesn’t require a special cable. Turning that voltage into amps in the phone produces a little bit of extra heat, but that doesn’t mean that by eliminating that step, you get none from the battery itself as it charges. You can technically charge with a higher voltage, if you set up a phone such that it has more than one lithium cell. Some phones do this, but this doesn’t require the OnePlus approach of using a special charger that provides a higher current, since any fast charger that can do the usual higher voltage method of providing extra power will work.
Like you say. I’m curious how they test this. Even if one battery gets more cycles, it’ll degrade with time, as well. iPhones fast charge, too, but not with the chargers that used to come with the phones. You have to get one specifically for fast charging to get faster-than-normal charging.
Also, a tip. You may want to use something like AccuBattery to actually measure the state of the battery. Batteries, being chemical devices, have different capacities straight off the production line simply by virtue of not being chemically identically down to every molecule. (My Xperia 1 V unfortunately came with 93% design capacity, still within manufacturing tolerance, but the lowest I’ve seen on a new battery, it can be a bit of a lottery)
The built-in battery health monitor will just say “all good” until it isn’t. AccuBattery has allowed me to monitor every percentage of degradation over the lives of my last few phones.
There is a setting to explicitly benefit from using an official charger and cable, but I don’t know if it’s on by default (it’s disabled on my phone).
That said, the heat while charging is about the same as the heat from holding the phone in my hand (around 38C), and doesn’t get much hotter than that while gaming thanks to pass-through charging.
My Samsung was definitely hotter, and would overheat if charging while doing anything like GPS navigation. But my last Samsung was a Note 10+, and so things may have very well changed since then.
Already do, and have for years.
But AccuBattery doesn’t seem to play nice with the OP13, with many users reporting lower battery health from the start (80-90%), and inaccurate capacity (<1000 mAh less than the designed capacity).
Coupled with the fact that it’s only accurate if you are constantly charging from below 15% to 100%, these are ranges that I rarely get my phone into.
Even though battery longevity is important to me, since I no longer replace my phones “every year”, it really would be best if these damn things had user-replaceable batteries that were readily available. 😫
I was shocked when my new realme, which uses the same tech, didn’t even break 30°C while charging at 8+ Amps (should be around 80W). This was in a relatively warm room (25°C) and using the case that came with it, which surely doesn’t improve thermals. It gets warmer when charging from other sources with only 2-3A, like USB-PD or QuickCharge.
AccuBattery needs a session to have 60% charged, so <20% to 80% works. Doesn’t need to be every single one. I actually asked support about it and they said this was the lowest percentage they were comfortable with. I was requesting to make it adjustable.
Accuracy of the measurement isn’t the entire point. I see the same issue, but since it helps track relative degradation over time it can still add value by giving more information when you suspect the capacity is getting worse.
That’s impressive. I’m looking at my phone now, not charging, but the screen is on, and it’s at 33C. LOL
It’s rare for me to get that low, even while charging to 80%. 😵
But yeah, every so often I’ll let it drain, then do a 100% charge to see what’s up. I don’t like doing that, because even Accubattery says that takes up more of a charge cycle than charging conservatively.
I do like the trend chart, although, the battery health on that actually went UP 5% between March and May 😱
Xiaomi has faast charge, and it (33watt) has worked both fast and reliable on my 4-5 year old note 9 pro phone. I just changed to a 13tp with 120 watt, let’s see how that pans out 🔥😋