I would suggest just charge it to 100 %, its better to do that than to drain the battery too much (or even completely dead). But I would also suggest not to worry too much about it (I am a person who did charge his last phone 30%-80% and the battery still managed 1 full day after 5 years). Why? Because if your battery start sucking, you can buy and easily change for a new one. Please don’t misunderstand me, I am all for saving the battery for as long as possible, but nowadays the recycling of batteries is very efficient and the battery change is an easy user swap. That said, for me it is not inconvenient too much, so I will keep my 30-80 habit.
6 Likes
Thanks.
I think I am now a bit more concerned about keeping my battery in good health since I know more about how it is produced and what materials are used. I am not sure how efficient recyling of the batteries is. Would you share some good news?
I am quite accustomed to switching off my mobile at night but then limited charging becomes an issue. Well, it might be time to learn some new tricks;-)
2 Likes
Just for completeness:
Using the 0-20% range is not as bad for battery life than using the 80-100% range.
There have been done extensive tests.
After doing 600 cycles (charge/discharge) from:
20-80%, you have 97% capacity left
0-20% you have 94% capacity left
80-100% you have 88% capacity left
0-100% you have 81% capacity left.
This is for LiFePO4 type. I don’t know which chemistry the FP5 batteries use, but it’s probably in the same ballpark.
(source)
8 Likes
I can’t find resource right now, but in EU the recycling of all batteries is over 50 % and the market is on a huge rise in the past few years.
1 Like
Not using your battery to its full potential is also not very resource efficient 
If the battery would last for 2 days then I would be willing to keep an eye out for those percentages. But since it doesn’t, I rather not stress about it, that’s not healthy for your heart. Also life is too short to spend time on that. But that’s just me of course.
4 Likes
That’s why FP have at last included means to limit charging to 80%. I strongly recommend using it if you can. Somebody earlier was saying that battery recycling is improving. Maybe it is, but they didn’t cite many figures and frankly, as we all know, the fewer resources we use the better, from all perspectives except that of the battery manufacturers 
1 Like
My FP5 can barely last a day with a 100% charge (with battery safer enabled from 35% onward and AoD disabled). Charging to 80% is not a quality of life improvement. I’d rather use the battery to its full potential. I honestly doubt the effectiveness of just charging to 80%. My Pixel 3 also had a terrible battery life, so most of the day it was on the Pixel Stand charging wirelessly and getting hot in the process. The absolute way to destroy battery health. A friend of mine was like you, always keeping an eye on the percentages, but in the end, the battery health was the same after all those years. I also created a Reddit post and similar results were reported by other people who used the phone for the same duration.
2 Likes
I’m not saying it is, though it could be argued that it favours improvement of the quality of life of our children. I’m saying that some of us are prepared to make efforts, possibly detrimental to their “quality of life”, to avoid having to replace batteries when that’s possible. It is for me, I just have to charge the phone twice a day instead of once. The 80% limiter helps a lot there.
Let’s avoid going off topic. This has been amply debated elsewhere. The only people of whom I know that are qualified to comment on battery health for the FP5 are Fairphone. They have provided this feature and they have not so far updated their guidelines on this.
That’s all I have to say on the subject here, thanks.
So in practice, how much longer would you be able to use your battery than I will be? A few months? A few years? Probably just a few months, and then I’m being very optimistic. I would say, fight the battles that matter and have a bigger impact. I don’t think this will make a huge difference. Of course all small bits help, but the net benefits are not that amazing. But as mentioned, the battery doesn’t even last a full day. So it’s not practical for most people to do this. Some people may even buy an extra battery because of that. Charging methods have improved as well, I think when you take that into account the battery wear isn’t that major. In the end I think most people will have 80-85% battery health left after 3 years. That’s what I got with my Pixel 3, which I totally abused as I mentioned. Those who did take care of the percentages had the same battery health anyway.
I actually guess they provide this, as people demand it.
The Guidelines are not saying a lot about the why 20-80%… Shiftphones exaplaines this better. So do they really have better charging/battery technology? I doubt.
I don’t really know what I’m looking at (can’t understand French), you’re saying you have 9:30 hours of on screen time? Can you share some more in-depth statistics? Which apps you use, for how long, when your last full charge was, and such? How about you share the native Android battery stats? Those include all those details.
The upper half is the average consumption and usage, presented as the consumption per hour, I suppose 2 sessions durant les 7 derniers jours is referring to two battery sessions/charge cycles? over 7 days…
At the bottom you have the estimated capacity for a 100% charged battery.
So 9h 31 minutes if you would KEEP the screen on for as long as it takes to drain the battery, same story with Ecran éteint, but turned off.
The last, combinée is what I assume a combination based on previous usage (% screen on time of total use per day/charge)
2 Likes
I feel like we aren’t getting anywhere with this discussion, unless we actually try to look at qualitative sources. The behavior from one battery to the next can be vastly different, even if they are the same type.
If we have a look at this review (https://kd.nsfc.gov.cn/paperDownload/ZD5994538.pdf section 3.4) we can see how SoC (state of charge or how full a battery is) and DoD (depth of discharge) actually affect the battery life.
The capacity loss you get with your battery at 100% SoC is pretty high (fig 18). But unless you charge your battery over night and leave it at 100%, your average battery percentage is probably around ~60%. If you only charge it to 80% your average is even lower.
On the other hand, discharging your battery form 100%-20% SoC (so 80% DoD), you gain a few charge cycles (fig 19). But the amount you gain is about the amount you lose from not using the last 20% of your battery.
But if you only had a DoD of 60% you over double the usable life you get out of a battery.
Since I’m not an expert, I don’t know if you are allowed to combine these results. But it seems to me, that
- charging your phone to 80% will slow down the charge depletion from it being at a high state reasonably well,
- discharging the phone only by 60% increases the amount of cycles as well as the total battery life a lot.
So depending on your use, you can more than double the life of you battery. Based on that review, discharging your battery every day by 60% twice, would give you around 1.9 times the same battery life as discharging it by 100% once per day.
1 Like
except, who would ever discharge their battery by 100% every day?
I know I never do (I put it in the charger at night or when it reaches about 20%).
So, it’s a silly thing to put it as the one alternative to discharging twice by 60%.
Thanks, that’s it.
3 days ago i posted a comparison between my FP4 (with a new battery) and a FP5. Use was everything but streaming.
At the time a took the screenshot, i was 20 hours after a full charge, 4h 45 mins screen on time, and 20% battery left.
Note : very good coverage during the test.
I’m very skeptical. But would really like to hear people’s honest experience after 3 years.
@chantoine can you share a screenshot of your native Android battery stats?
I was only providing some non-anecdotal data. And the example is just an illustration.
What you are describing, I also mentioned though.
I think if you are purely relying on anecdotal evidence, you could easily come to the wrong or meaningless conclusion. I’d be ideal to find an actual study on phone batteries in different usage scenarios. But I didn’t want to go digging for that right now.
I just feel like it is important to make sure that our conversation is at least based on some form of objective facts, otherwise it will just turn into an echo chamber 
1 Like
“can you share a screenshot of your native Android battery stats?”
Sorry, i can’t, that was a test and the FP5 was shipped back on saturday.
I find the native Android stats unusable, but they showed the same screen on time than Accubattery.
During my tests, i found the FP5 less efficient (than the FP4) in deep sleep and screen on, and much less efficient in streaming, even with a good coverage.
Compared to the tests published on the launch, the last software update gave a boost on the battery efficiency… but there is still room for further optimizations. At least that’s what I think, and hope.
I agree. Therefore I am very curious about the battery health people have after 3 years. If it supposed to really have a meaningful effect, then the proof is in the pudding. I would join in on the experiment, if the battery would easily last a day. But I really need those 20% and I find it a waste to not use it.