Have you ever felt that your phone sometimes lingers on a nice full battery while other times it’ll quickly fall to 99% and below almost as soon as you take it off the adapter? If so, you’ve stumbled upon one of battery charging‘s little secrets — phones report 100% charge before their battery capacity is actually completely full. It’s this little white lie that makes the question “how long does it take for a phone to charge to full?” so much more difficult to answer.
Fast charging is already a bit of a contentious issue in terms of heat, battery longevity, and real power draw. Time to “real” full charge throws an added spanner in the works for those who like to conduct smartphone charging races. But just what is the difference between reported and actual full charge times? Does it differ between phones? And does it really even matter? Those are questions we’re going to answer today.
