Why you could be charging your phone the wrong way

You should avoid keeping your phone plugged in once it is fully charged (Photo: Mirror)

Smartphone users everywhere know the drama of trying to nurse their battery through the day without running out of juice. If you are nowhere near a charging point, a typical day of messaging and checking social media can drain your battery annoyingly quickly.

You might dismiss your phone's rubbish battery as a frustrating fact of life, but actually, the way you charge it has a big impact. It is commonly thought that charging our phones in small bursts damages the battery, but in reality the opposite is true, Business Insider reports.

Experts from the Battery University site have created a guide of the best ways to keep your battery in top condition.

It turns out that charging your phone overnight, leaving it plugged in for hours after it has reached 100%, is one of the worst things you can do. This is because it keeps the lithium-ion battery in a high-stress state, which wears it down and damages it in the long-run.

In fact, there is no need to fully charge your phone at all.

The Battery University guide says: "Li-ion does not need to be fully charged, nor is it desirable to do so. In fact, it is better not to fully charge, because a high voltage stresses the battery."

Instead, the battery will stay in much better condition if you charge it in short bursts throughout the day, rather than for one big daily session.