When the smartphone revolution first took hold, no one really cared about how long a battery would last. In those days, having a fully charged cell on your phone was as simple as opening the back panel, popping out the empty battery, and replacing it with a new fully charged one. Replaceable batteries have long since disappeared although the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) is seeking to bring them back.
What this proves is that the newer Pixel models are more power efficient than the earlier Pixel handsets. The lithium-ion batteries used to power most smartphones only live so long before they must be replaced. Those running a Pixel 8a or later can monitor how much capacity their battery now has by going to Settings > About Phone > Battery information. The info you will see includes the number of times the battery has been charged when it was manufactured and the date the battery was first used.
With this information, you could figure out how many charging cycles the battery on your phone has left. It can also help reveal if the battery powering your phone is the original cell that the device came with.
To slow down battery degradation on your Pixel phone, Google recommends that you don’t use your Pixel while charging the battery and don’t leave your Pixel exposed too long to the sun or high temperatures (95 degrees Fahrenheit/35 degrees Celsius or higher). Google also suggests that Pixel users enable the Adaptive Charging feature. This feature learns how you like to charge your phone and when you normally take the device off the charger each morning.
With Adaptive Charging, the phone slows down the speed at which it charges the battery and pauses at 80%. It finishes the charging process about one hour before you normally take the phone off the charger. On your Pixel go to Settings > Battery > Charging optimization. Toggle on “Use Charging Optimization” and choose between Adaptive Charging and stopping the charging at 80%.
Phone manufacturers are trying to extend the number of charging cycles a handset’s original battery can handle before becoming completely useless to the phone’s owner.
