GoKawiilAdrian Kingsley-Hughes/ZDNET
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ZDNET's key takeaways
Charging to 100% stresses your battery, as most cap at 80%.
Certification matters more than brand when picking a charger.
Draining to 0% doesn't 'calibrate' a lithium-ion battery.
Not a week goes by that I'm not correcting someone who is still recycling some battery myth packaged as a "tip" from the nickel-cadmium era (also known as the 1990s).
These tips have been repeated and regurgitated so many times. A quick Google search (or an AI prompt) turns up plenty of articles that reassure readers that the tips are 100% grounded in present-day, lithium-ion era reality, when they most definitely are not.
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I've picked six charging habits that people ask about constantly, and checked manufacturer documentation. When the manufacturers offer vague answers, I've referred to peer-reviewed battery research to get a definitive answer.
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