Leaving Mobile Phone Charger Plugged In For Entire Night

[Ahsaniqbalkmc 0]

Mobile phones of today are pretty smart (thats why they call them smart phones). They can do almost everything that a pc can do and the best thing about them is they are easily accessible anytime. But most of the smartness comes from software side. No doubt, the hardware of today's smartphones has to be capable enough to host the smart operating systems but it is the operating system that make the phones really smart.My question is that how these smartphones handle ac power. Older phones had battery damage issues when they were left plugged into ac power for long time. Do the smartphones of today have the same issue? What will happen to my phone if I leave it plugged in into the ac power for say 100 hours. Or will the battery life be reduced if I make the habbit of leaving my phone plugged into ac power for 8 hours every night?By the way, if someone is interested, my phone is Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc running Android ICS 4.0.3

[manuleka 0]

i have an iPhone 4 and have been advised not to leave it plugged on wall once it is fully charged... but i think as you say it shouldn't be much of a problem because phone should be smart enough to handle it

[yordan 10]

i have an iPhone 4 and have been advised not to leave it plugged on wall once it is fully charged... but i think as you say it shouldn't be much of a problem because phone should be smart enough to handle it

The battery is "before" the phone smartness, the phone can act after the battery, but not on the DC inlet.
The best thing is to carefully read the documentation provided with the phone, and do as recommended.
Unfortunately, this will influence only the end of life of the battery, so you will see the result of your acctions next year only.

[manuleka 0]

The battery is "before" the phone smartness, the phone can act after the battery, but not on the DC inlet.The best thing is to carefully read the documentation provided with the phone, and do as recommended.
Unfortunately, this will influence only the end of life of the battery, so you will see the result of your acctions next year only.

smart phones have been around for sometime now... they should be smart enough to work-around this, although i think most manufacturers (if not all) DO NOT recommend leaving battery plugged in for too long after its being fully charged...

it may shorten the life of the battery...

in my opinion - i would expect smart phones of today to be smart enough to handle this...

[Ahsaniqbalkmc 0]

Let me throw light on the issue from a different perspective. While the phones have become smarter during time, the phone chargers haven't kept the pace. They are the same chargers as they used to be a few years ago. And as @yordan said, the battery is before the phone smartness. So to make a phone which would not be affected by keeping it plugged in all night long, the charger itself can be among the things that need to be changed. I don't know much about electronics and how the components of a normal mobile charger works, but I hope that we have such electronic components available that could cause cessation of further charging of battery after a certain voltage is built.One issue that directly comes into mind with the scenario where charger is the main controller is that this may cause states where the battery is charged for a couple of minutes and then the charging stops when that level is reached. But when after a few minutes the voltage just drops from the set level, the charging would start again and the cycle would repeat again and again. This might not be very healthy for the battery.The other target, which I can think under the umbrella of my very basic knowledge of things, is the phone software. Although the battery is before the phone smartness, but the current software are smart enough to control the battery in a retrospect manner (I think). So the scenario would be that when the battery attains a certain level of charge, the phone software would cause the breaking of the electronic circuit so that the electricity coming from the charger ceases to charge the battery.These are very simple scenarios which are not good for battery life because they may cause states of quick alternate charging and discharging. I think the actual challenge would be to attain a state where when the battery reaches certain level, and while the charger is still plugged in, the phone stops using charge from the battery and instead uses the wall charger as its main power source. This shift should happen in such a way that the phone doesn't restart or without any other issue.Maybe some experts can throw more light on the practicality of the scenarios I mentioned.Maybe better understanding of the charging procedure would help.

[manuleka 0]

Let me throw light on the issue from a different perspective. While the phones have become smarter during time, the phone chargers haven't kept the pace. They are the same chargers as they used to be a few years ago.

i would probably disagree with you... smart phones are definitely smarter and i don't think they leave the charging facility of it no included in the evolution/improvements

now the wireless charging is starting to ship with devices now...

[Ahsaniqbalkmc 0]

i would probably disagree with you... smart phones are definitely smarter and i don't think they leave the charging facility of it no included in the evolution/improvements
now the wireless charging is starting to ship with devices now...

Wireless chargers are the new technology in town but I am afraid most of devices commonly used today still have those old wired chargers. And I said that though the smartphone itself has evolved, the charger hasn't kept up with it, because when you look at the charger and compare it with an old charger, you won't find any extra components in it that could make one feel that this thing has evolved. It is still that simple transformer to downgrade the voltage and convert the current to DC.

[manuleka 0]

Wireless chargers are the new technology in town but I am afraid most of devices commonly used today still have those old wired chargers. And I said that though the smartphone itself has evolved, the charger hasn't kept up with it, because when you look at the charger and compare it with an old charger, you won't find any extra components in it that could make one feel that this thing has evolved. It is still that simple transformer to downgrade the voltage and convert the current to DC.

i think i talking more on the side of the phone... yes chargers are still the same, the phones charging mechanism has evolved dramatically and with smart devices it handles this charging facility a lot better... so i'm guessing they should be smart enough to cut off the charging even while still plugged in, then again I'm just assuming but in reality and just as a precautionary measure they always advice to unplug when device is fully charged

[Ahsaniqbalkmc 0]

i think i talking more on the side of the phone... yes chargers are still the same, the phones charging mechanism has evolved dramatically and with smart devices it handles this charging facility a lot better...so i'm guessing they should be smart enough to cut off the charging even while still plugged in,

On my part, this statement looks more of a guess (as @manuleka himself mentioned) than a reality because I haven't read any reliable document on this yet. I hope this is true that the new intelligent operating systems like newer versions of android does exactly the same as @manuleka mentioned. This would be a great extra comfort for me to leave my phone plugged in and sleep. I don't have to worry about how much it is charged or how long it has been charging. I would just rise up in the morning, take my fully charged phone and go to work. It would be much simple for me than keeping my mobile phone plugged in while I am working... so I can't go away (somebody might steal my phone), and have I feel bound to the table, which is bad.

I am perfectly sure that android is smart enough to handle the charging issue, but whether it is optimized to do it in a practical environment is a question mark. The thing that makes me more cautions about the issue is that although the windows 7 (desktop version) is much more capable than android, people are still not sure about leaving their laptops plugged in all the time. Some will tell you that leaving it plugged in all the time won't have any significant effect on the life of battery while other will tell you to use your laptop like you would use a mobile phone -- i.e. unplug when it is fully charged.

I think it is more related to companies not giving attention to this issue than the capability of software or hardware.

then again I'm just assuming but in reality and just as a precautionary measure they always advice to unplug when device is fully charged

And in my opinion, people having devices whose battery can't be changed easily e.g. the iphone should be more cautious. Especially those who make long term relations with their gadgets. Because if you have a phone like Sony Xperia Arc (e.g. myself ), when you feel that your phone battery has aged, you can simply buy a battery and replace with your old one. But if you have a phone like iphone 4s, you would have to go through a lot of trouble to get the battery replaced, and it would cost you more time and money.

[manuleka 0]

And in my opinion, people having devices whose battery can't be changed easily e.g. the iphone should be more cautious. Especially those who make long term relations with their gadgets. Because if you have a phone like Sony Xperia Arc (e.g. myself ), when you feel that your phone battery has aged, you can simply buy a battery and replace with your old one. But if you have a phone like iphone 4s, you would have to go through a lot of trouble to get the battery replaced, and it would cost you more time and money.

hehe quite true... speaking from experience, i have tried replacing a few iPhone 4 screens before and one of the phones end up with issues on the front camera, i must've messed up something on the board during the process

It's a pain replacing anything on iDevices

[Ahsaniqbalkmc 0]

Well, replacing a screen would have been a pain on any device.

[manuleka 0]

Well, replacing a screen would have been a pain on any device.

yes its a pain... but doing it a few times kinda makes you feel kinda cool afterwards hehe