Here at Small Dog, we meet a lot of people who have misconceptions about different ways to preserve the battery life of their laptop, smartphone, or tablet. You may have heard some of these myths yourself.
Several years ago, the most common type of rechargeable batteries included in electronic devices were nickel-cadmium batteries. One of the drawbacks of these batteries was known as the memory effect. Due to the chemical composition of the batteries, they would tend to “remember” the point that they were discharged to previously, and experience a sudden drop in charge once they reached that point. For this reason, it was often recommended to allow your battery to completely discharge before charging it to 100% again.
Almost all electronic devices manufactured within the last several years use newer lithium-ion batteries, and not the older nickel-cadmium batteries. Lithium-ion batteries use completely different chemicals and manufacturing processes from nickel-cadmium batteries. There are positives and negatives (no pun intended) to using lithium-ion batteries instead of nickel-cadmium batteries. Lithium-ion batteries are lighter and more environmentally friendly than nickel-cadmium batteries. Lithium-ion batteries have a slightly shorter lifespan than nickel-cadmium batteries, but they do not suffer from the “memory effect.”
Modern batteries do not suffer from the memory effect, and so you can safely charge your electronic device at any capacity.