All batteries degrade over time with each charging and discharging cycle. Android OS does not have a battery health feature the way that iPhones do. As such, you may not be able to tell how healthy your Android phone’s battery is. But there is a feature that Samsung provides to help you protect battery health on Galaxy S23, S23+, S23 Ultra, and other Galaxy smartphones.
Having used a few iPhones and Pixel phone models, I know that under certain conditions, e.g. if the phone gets warm or hot, or under sustained heavy use, the battery do not charge beyond 80%. This was done to protect their battery health so the batteries can last longer before they need replacing. The good news is that Samsung has implemented a similar thing in the Galaxy S23 and other Samsung phones. I currently have it enabled on my Samsung Galaxy S23. Let me walk you through it.
Enable this feature to protect battery health on Galaxy S23 and other Samsung phones
On your Samsung Galaxy S23, go to Settings. In the search box at the top, enter, “Battery”, and scroll down through the results till you see More battery settings. tap on that. Scroll down to Protect battery and toggle it on to enable the protection feature. What this does is make sure that your Samsung phone’s battery is not charged beyond the 85% point, similar to what happens with iPhones and Pixel phones. The difference here is that this limit is in effect all the time, not just under extreme conditions.
Samsung developed this feature into their custom user interface, One UI, so you should be able to find it in other Samsung smartphones as well. If you own a Galaxy A54, Galaxy A34, or other model, check it to see if you can enable the protect battery feature. of course, as already mentioned, this feature also lets you protect battery health on Galaxy S23+ and S23 Ultra as well.
Note that you don’t have to use it. If you use your phone in a more demanding way, that extra 15% charge to full capacity can mean a big difference, in which case, you might want to not use this feature. Or best, you can enable it for about a week to see if you can live with it or not, after which you can make a permanent decision about it.
Whether you enable the feature or not, hopefully, by now you understand that one key way to protect the battery health of your phone is not to charge it all the way up to 100%. Even when I had the feature off, I would disconnect my Galaxy S23 from the charger at around 95% charge.
Also, to protect battery health on Galaxy S23 and other phones, do not empty the battery
Another thing you can do to extend the battery life span of your Samsung phone and indeed any other smartphone is to not wait for the battery to empty before charging it. Top up your battery at any opportunity you get, so it never drains to zero. Modern batteries function better when not charged to 100% and when not discharged completely to 0%. As a matter of fact, try to charge your phone before it drops below the 50% battery mark. Repeatedly allowing the battery to drain completely is likely to shorten its life and decrease its overall capacity.
Practice these two tips and your phone’s battery will last longer before deteriorating. Note that modern smartphone batteries are already resilient. The average battery is designed to retain up to 80% of its original capacity even after several hundred complete charge cycles when operating under normal conditions. You might likely change your phone before the battery health drops to that level. But if you are one of those who like to use their smartphones for a few years before replacing them, it is a good idea to follow these tips to protect their battery health.