Will speed chargers kill your battery?

One thing all our portable electronics have in common, whether smartphone, tablet, phablet, or wearable; or Android, Windows Phone, or iOS, is the battery. Unlike desktop computers that get their power through a plug in the wall, all of these devices have to carry their own power source onboard, and battery capacity hasn’t really kept up with the rest of the tech inside our devices. To combat this, OEMs have tried to introduce new ways to keep our portables charged. From SoCs that are more energy efficient, more power conscious code, Qi wireless chargers, and now we even have speed chargers to help us get a quick boost right when we need it – well, almost.Charging a battery isn’t a fast endeavor. Sometimes it seems like it takes as long to charge a battery as the usable time you get out of it. Luckily that’s more perception than reality, but it underscores just how slowly batteries charge. Recently, however, various manufacturers have begun to ship “speed chargers” that promise to give us oodles of run time on just a short charge. This seems contradictory, and flies in the face of what most would pass off as “good care and upkeep” for our batteries. It’s even gotten some of our Pocketnow Weekly Podcast listeners scratching their heads.Dear Pocketnow,I look forward to your content, especially the podcast – you all do a fabulous job. …  My question is this: fast charging is on many of the new phones out (I have an HTC One M8 and an iPhone 6 Plus). I remember reading somewhere that while you can benefit from faster charging speeds, this will ultimately shorten your battery lifespan (i.e. number of charge cycles). Is this true? Or am I just paranoid? …Thanks again for all your hard work and great content.Best,John KurokawaGreat question, John (and everyone else who sent in similar questions)!First off, no, you’re not paranoid! You’re being careful and concerned – both are good qualities to have! Traditionally, your concerns would be absolutely merited! If you were to take a typical 12-volt car battery and try and charge it with really high voltage and amperage, you’d end up destroying the thing. Charging has to be matched to the battery or bad things can happen (internal pressure can build up leading to an explosion of acid; scorchingly hot temperatures; even fires are possible). Cram this inside a very small device that we keep in a pocket and, well, you get the picture.

Sorcery!

Now, however, companies like HTC and Motorola are coming out with “Turbo Chargers” that promise to cut charging time drastically, some even promising to give you an extra six hours of battery life from just 15 minutes of charging.