Lets Re-Define 'Full Battery'

published 2026-09-05 | tags: #idea

TLDR: if your devices are set to limit charging, you can "over-charge" to 100% and it feels like a free upgrade.

For over a year now I've set all of my devices to restrict charging to 70%-90% of their maximum capacity.

Of course I did this because we've all heard that it helps improve battery health. Most of my devices are plugged in most of the time.

• My laptops are basically desktops, charging all day and rarely un-plugged.
• My Steam Deck is docked most of the time as well, I don't play video games that much (I wish).
• My phone is plugged in the least, but that's still charging ~8-10 hours a day.

I can't say anecdotally if this is improving the battery health of my devices, but I haven't noticed any issues. At least with the lifestyle I live, less than 100% battery is fine. Sure I usually end my day at ~15% battery on my phone, but that's still a few hours of use right before bed.

Assuming this actually works, I think we should consider making something like this the default. Battery life is one of those things that you just get used to. At least I have learned to intuit, ok if I watch a movie I'll need to plug in sooner; if I get a new phone I'll still hit the charge limits at some point and I'll just need to learn where those are.

Here's the secret: you can do ad-hoc over-charges.

This framing is actually really nice. If I know I'm traveling today and I won't be able to charge reliably, I will charge my devices to 100% just that once. Then it feels like I'm lousy with battery life. If my device is usually charged to 70% and I charge it to 100% that's almost increasing my battery by 50%! Can you imagine if you could just increase your battery by 50% whenever you wanted? Most of the time you don't need it, but when you do it's such a luxury.