How to know the capacity of the Li-ion battery of your smartphone

Today we will tell you how to check the capacity of the battery of your phone. Unfortunately it is a burning problem for many owners. The smartphone battery over time (2-4 years of use) loses more than 30% of its original capacity and trouble begins:

• discharges to zero faster (sometimes in a few hours),
• stops responding to charging,
• The device shows that it is fully charged, but you take out the USB cable and the equipment spontaneously shuts down,
• The battery is badly bloated, deforming the case,
• Rarely blows up.

This is not a complete list of “horrors”. To avoid trouble with modern lithium-ion batteries, we recommend periodically diagnosing the condition of the cell.

The step-by-step instructions are universal and suitable for all models: iPhone, Alcatel, Asus, Lenovo, Meizu, Philips, Nokia, Oppo, Phillips, Prestigio, Sony Xperia, HTC, Samsung, Xiaomi (Redme), ZTE, BQ, Vertex, Micromax, Umidigi, Oukitel, Texet, Leagoo, Dexp, Doogie, Huawei (Honor), HomTom, Chinese No-Name, sold under the brands Megaphone, Beeline, MTS and t.д.

Android smartphone manufacturers have already taken care of everything. If you have this particular phone, go to the standard call menu and enter the following code ##4636##. A menu will appear on the screen with full battery status information.

How long has it been working since it was turned on, not the total time it has been working. ##4636## shows how many milliseconds each app (and there are dozens of them) has been running, it’s just not useful.

Battery status On iPhone 6 and later models, after updating to iOS 11.3 or later, new features become available: viewing battery status and notification of the need to replace the battery. These functions can be found in the “Settings” “Battery” “Battery Status” menu.

Then you need to determine the remaining capacity in the battery, this is done using a special formula: E [Hour]=I[A]T[hour], for a certain period of time the nominal battery capacity is indicated, with the discharge current chosen so that the discharge period was between 10 and 20 hours.

To check the battery level, just dial the combination ##4636## in the call app, and then go to “Battery Information”. Here you will find information about the condition of the battery, including battery type, voltage, temperature, and overall performance indicator.

To check the car battery. take an ordinary multimeter and measure the voltage of the car battery. The red multimeter probe to the positive. “red” lead of the battery, and the black probe to the negative. “black” lead of the battery.

Lithium-ion battery packs wear out with every charge and this is a normal process. But some factors affect the rate at which the battery’s capabilities are lost:

• improper charging;
• long exposure of the smartphone to the sun;
• no protection at minus temperatures for extended periods of time;
• completely discharged for a long period of time.

The easiest way to check the battery status is to monitor its behavior. Devices with serviceable batteries have virtually no standby power loss. The maximum is 6% overnight when running background applications. If the power cell lasts for a few hours, and the charge quickly drops from 100% to zero, then it is obviously time to change the battery.

On the Internet you can find the time it takes to charge a certain model of device. Problems arise if the charging rate is much higher or lower. In the search bar of your browser, enter the appropriate query and compare the data. The figures are approximate, but give an idea of the general characteristics.

What is the battery capacity on an Android smartphone?

Battery capacity is an estimate of how long a device will work uninterruptedly. The consumption of the entire capacity can be called a cycle. A cycle is one charge/discharge of a smartphone battery.

By the way our blog has a post on how to charge an Android smartphone, we recommend checking out the recommendations and dispel some of the rumors about charging smartphones and tablets.

It is considered that the battery life of the device is at a good level in the range of 500 hundred cycles. If the cycles are more than five hundred, then as a rule, the smartphone or tablet does not have such a good battery life and tends to run down quickly. Next we will look at how to check the battery capacity on Android.

The app will show you the battery information

In Play Market there are a huge number of programs that show the state of the battery. Except that the really good ones are very few and can be counted on the fingers. Even one finger.

How To Check Battery Health On ANY Android!

Warning ! Initially the program does not show the battery status and calculated capacity. How to be? Put the Galaxy S9 to charge for at least 10 minutes the data will appear.

This is because the application uses its own algorithms to display the health of the battery.

Basically, there’s not much else to go over, but it’s easy to understand the program’s interface.

When a new battery is installed at the factory, the controller that controls the battery‘s charging and discharging processes is tied to battery levels of 100% (the threshold corresponding to a full reserve of energy) and 0% (the threshold taken as zero. once it is reached the powered device is disabled). This does not actually mean that the battery is completely discharged. This is only a conditional limit below which further discharging is undesirable, otherwise the battery capacity may decrease.

During operation the battery degrades, its capacity decreases. In addition, the user does not always charge the battery to 100%, or begins charging not at zero. some “experts” even advise to do it on purpose. it supposedly prolongs battery life. Leaving aside the discussion of the effectiveness of these questionable methods, it should be noted that this mode, along with the loss of capacity, contributes to the calibration of the controller.

Its essence is that the control circuit begins to take for 100% another level, for example, 90%. When this threshold is reached, charging is stopped. The lower level can also shift, and the device shuts down when it reaches a limit, such as 10% instead of 0%. Both of these processes do not make full use of the actual capacity of the battery. To eliminate the consequences and relate the levels of the controller to the actual levels, you need to do the calibration procedure.

How to know the capacity of the battery

To determine the condition of the battery, you need to know its actual capacity at the moment. It is generally different from the nameplate capacity and decreases over the life of the battery.

Where the actual capacity is found

The declared capacity can be found on the battery case (or in the technical documentation of the battery). This value coincides with the actual value only for a new battery that has not been stored and not exploited, and only in the case of a bona fide manufacturer. Little-known manufacturers, for marketing purposes, may declare an inflated capacity. The actual value at the present moment can only be known by measurement.

Checking with a multimeter

Since capacity is the discharge current in amps (or milliamps) multiplied by full discharge time in hours, you can find out the real capacity of a battery by discharging it with a known current and measuring the discharge time. Assemble a simple circuit consisting of a fully charged battery, a load, and a meter.

It is better to use an incandescent bulb as an equivalent consumer, because it is a kind of current stabilizer. The lower the voltage, the less heated up the coil of the bulb, the lower its resistance and the higher the current. The voltage during discharge will drop from 3.7 to 2.4 volts (1.5 times), but the current will change to a smaller factor (ideally it will remain constant).

You need to pick up a light bulb (or install 2.3 or more in parallel) on the power so that the discharge current was about 0.1.0.3 C (C is the capacity of the battery). Measure it at the beginning and at the end of the discharge to calculate the average current. If you use a resistor as a load, you will have to measure the current more often to get some average value. But the dependence will be non-linear, so the accuracy of the measurement will drop.

measure the time for the battery voltage to fall to a minimum and multiply by the average current. This will be the actual capacity. Note that capacity is dependent upon discharge current, so measurements taken with different loads may not add up.

When discharging the battery inside the phone during the operation, the level of remaining charge is controlled by the smartphone controller that will shut down the device in time, not allowing the battery to go into a deep discharge. If you are experimenting with a lithium-ion battery that has no internal controller (no Protected label), you must monitor the discharge voltage yourself, preventing the lithium-ion cell voltage drops below 2.4 volts.

Otherwise, the battery may be permanently damaged. It is also necessary to monitor the temperature of the battery to ensure that it does not rise above 50 degrees Celsius (50 degrees Fahrenheit), or less than 50 degrees Celsius. С.

Determination with a USB tester

In specialized stores and at online trading sites you can purchase battery testers, which also measure the actual capacity of cells. Only they do it not when discharging, but during the charge of the battery. The principle is the same. the battery is charged with a steady current for a certain period of time, the amperes (milliamps) are multiplied by the clock. Calculations, including averaging current, are performed by a microcontroller and displayed.

The device is convenient, but the actual measurement accuracy is low. According to various estimates, the error is up to ±25%. This is due to the simplified circuitry. Because of the lack of shunt amplifier the resistance of the measuring resistor is chosen quite large. The voltage drop on it is also quite large, so the error will be considerable. Even more the accuracy of measurement drops if you measure the capacity of a non-removable battery inside the smartphone. In this case, the phone’s internal controller also interferes, and the error of measurement increases.

The same, but to a greater extent, applies to attempts to determine the residual capacity of the Power Bank. It has a voltage converter, so the current consumption will not be equal to the charging current.

But for a rough estimate, better an inaccuracy of 25% than nothing. And if you need to make a comparative test of two or more batteries and choose the best one, then this error practically does not influence the choice. But it is much more convenient than setting up a stand with a multimeter and light bulbs.

Through the system files for Samsung smartphones

South Korean-made smartphones have a built-in battery check function. In order to use it, it is necessary to open the Samsung Members app.

Press “Help” button to enable automatic or interactive testing.