Android may soon tell you when it's time to replace your phone's battery
Android may soon tell you when it's time to replace your phone's battery
Android is preparing to give you an estimate of the remaining capacity of your phone's battery, making it easier to know when to replace it.
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Surely I know when I want my phone's battery replaced, because I'm the one using it?
Most people can't tell how much battery life has been lost to wear and tear just by using the battery.
This is especially true for users of Lineage os. Its hard to know if the reduced battery is related to updates or not.
if I can't tell that my battery life has been reduced, why do i care? i'm literally oblivious to it
I see this more as a tool for people who notice reduced battery life and want to do something about it. Currently they essentially need to guess if the battery is the issue and get it replaced to find out.
If you notice your battery life shortening, the health check can either confirm that you will see improvement with a new battery, or it will tell you your battery is okay, and reduced life is due to software changes or increased usage.
Seems then if the user can't tell...
Honestly sometimes I get carried away on my device and eat through 20-30% of my battery. And then start thinking it needs replacement because it felt like it's just been a few mins... before popping open the battery stats and realise i've actually been on my phone for hours 🤦♂️
Worse if you buy it used.
The phone I bought used was fortunately a company phone where the prior user barely touched it. So it lasted two years before really going to crap. But I've seen stories of used phones working fine for a few months then the battery just goes to shit.
But can you tell how much longer the battery will keep working?
does it see future? all it knows is the current calculated capacity and cycle count. the battery might continue degrading linearly, or it might go down a cliff. nobody knows.
Ever look at a weather report? Predicting the future according to a model whose inputs are measurements of things we can't directly perceive is something we do all the time.
You can predict things when you
- know how things are now
- have seen how similar events unfold in the future
Now who is keeping current performance data for every single battery batch? For every single battery model ever produced?
You're seriously gonna argue that having a complete history of a battery's usage and data from phones of the same model doesn't tell you anything more than a user's gut feeling about how well the battery is performing?
Oh it will show the actual capacity. But who knows when will it fail (i.e. start degrading a lot faster)?