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Possible Duplicate:
Does constant charging harm my Android cellphone?

I am using my Xperia Active for application development. Given that scenario, I obviously have the phone connected to the laptop most of the time since I want to be able to easily test my app on the device.

The thing that's worrying me is that when I go to Settings > About phone > Status, the Battery level is set to 100% and the Battery status is set to Charging (USB).

Am I overcharging my phone? Is this bad for the battery's health? If yes, what do I do about it? I use this phone on a daily basis and I don't want the battery's performance to be affected by my development cycle.

Community
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Propeller
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2 Answers2

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I doubt it. The charging circuits should be smart enough to avoid this. More likely they aren't actually charging your battery but directly powering your phone from the input while leaving the battery mostly alone.

Nova
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  • Well it's being indicated as "Charging" on the status so obviously, I'll have the impression that it's still pumping gas to my full battery. I would have been appeased if it said "Charged" or "Idle" instead of "Charging". – Propeller Apr 23 '12 at 09:54
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Usually phone batteries are smart enough to close the circuit when the battery is full to prevent overcharging and damaging the phone/battery.

However, since you say you are developing with the phone, it could be possible that your usage of the phone (screen on, full brightness, heavy gpu or gps usage, etc.) could be causing it to drain more than the usb connection can charge. USB ports have a lower current than say a wall plug in. Maybe it's just enough that your phone is really at 99.X% and it is rounding it up to 100% and therefore it is still technically "charging?" No idea if this is your case, but it could potentially be a possibility.

Bryan Denny
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  • I'm running at 2.3.4. Can someone verify if this Android version actually uses other words than Charging and Discharging? – Propeller Apr 23 '12 at 15:24