A battery that dies by lunchtime

See how much of your battery is left in figures, find the one app spending it, and know what a replacement costs.

A phone battery is a chemical thing, and chemistry runs down. It is not a fault, and it has nothing to do with how you have charged it.

Every full charge and discharge is called a cycle. Somewhere around five hundred cycles — roughly two years of ordinary use — a battery holds about four fifths of what it held when new. At three years it might be seventy percent. The phone is not tired or clogged. It is a smaller battery than it used to be.

Three things make a genuine difference, and two popular ones make none.

When the health figure drops below about 80% and the day has become genuinely awkward, a replacement battery is the answer. Any high-street repair shop does it, the manufacturer does it, and it costs a fraction of a new phone.

Key points

Find the battery health figure and say what it means
Name the app that spent the afternoon, from the phone’s own list
Turn on Low Power Mode when a day is going to be long
Price a replacement battery instead of assuming a new phone

What to remember

Battery Health gives you a number. A number is what turns "it feels worse" into a decision.
Close the one that misbehaved. Leave the rest. The nightly clear-out is a habit without a benefit.

Try this

Look up your battery health tonight — Settings, Battery, Battery Health on an iPhone; on most Android phones, Settings, Battery, then Battery usage. Write the figure down. In six months it will tell you whether the problem is the battery or the day you had.

Practice: A battery that dies by lunchtime. Your first lesson is free, with no account or card; the rest are part of a Lantern plan. Interactive lessons require JavaScript.