YouTube – oh, that’s five. Anyway, we want our phones to charge as fast as possible,

even if it means messing up our little digital friends! Well, there’s a right way to charge

your gadgets fast so they serve you longer – and there’s some wrong ways! Avoid the

myths and try these tips!

1. The quickest way to juice up is to turn the phone off. The battery won't spend any

energy at all and will charge faster.

2. The phone also charges faster in Airplane Mode because it disconnects all communication

channels. That way, the battery isn’t juggling the task of sending and receiving signals

while it’s getting some much-needed refreshment.

3. If you can’t go without Internet while you’re phone’s charging, at least try

to stick to Wi-Fi. It’s more energy-efficient than using your mobile network.

4. Turn off the sound so the charge lasts longer, and don't forget the vibration! It’s

a real energy waster.

5. The phone will charge much quicker if you do it through an outlet. Of course, you can

use USB to charge it through the computer and car, but you’ll have to wait longer.

6. Use an original charger from the manufacturer. It perfectly matches the characteristics of

your particular phone. Cheaper and unknown charging devices can ruin the battery. There

have even been cases when batteries caught fire because of a poor-quality charger!

7. If you head out and don't take your laptop with you to a cafe, on a trip, or to work,

it’s best if you remove the battery. That way, it’s not sitting there all alone using

power. Put it back in when you take your computer with you somewhere.

8. Still, it's not good to constantly keep the battery without work, so try to discharge

and charge it at least once a week. Unless you’re a MacBook user – then you don’t

have to.

9. The windowsill next to your bed or chair might seem like a convenient place to lay

your charging phone, but don’t do it. Even if it’s not charging, keep your phone out

of direct sunlight or frost. The battery drains faster at these temperatures. Room temperature

is best.

10. Same goes for your laptop. In winter, when you come home packing your computer bag

in with you, let the laptop warm up a bit in the room before you use it. Don't let it

overheat or freeze either.

11. On average, a phone charges up fully after 1½ to 3 hours. But there is a way to charge

it up to 79% in about 15-30 minutes – that would be a quick charge feature. The battery

in any phone is designed to receive a certain current strength, and blocks any excess flow

of energy. But not with fast charging. Your phone quickly goes up to 79%, but then this

function stops, and the amperage goes in limited mode again. This is done intentionally to

not damage the battery.

12. If you have an iPad, then use its charging adapter if you want to charge your iPhone

faster. Or you can find a special fast-charging adapter for Apple Phones.

13. Your phone feels really hot and stuffy in a case, so remove it when it’s juicing

up. The battery heats up during the charge. It's better for this heat to freely escape

through the phone body, and not accumulate inside the case.

14. Wireless chargers aren’t nearly as effective as conventional ones when it comes to speed.

Yes, it's convenient and looks nice without a bunch of cords hanging all over the place.

But if you need to charge your phone quickly, then wireless charging is a no-go.

15. Always work with your laptop on a flat surface. Heat should flow out of it evenly

and freely. When you put it on your lap or lay it on a bed or pillow, it seriously overheats

and ruins the battery.

16. There are so many tips on the Internet about how to charge your phone “in just

10 seconds!” using anything from aluminum foil to lemons! Manufacturers don’t recommend

any of these half-baked ideas. Don’t fall for the online hype – you could end up doing

permanent damage to the battery and phone!

17. If you have an older phone, unplug it when the battery’s fully charged. Charging

a charged phone keeps the battery under stress. It's like with muscles – they should rest

after an intense workout. Without that, the battery capacity will decrease noticeably

after a year of such excessive overload, and the phone will start losing juice faster.

18. If you have a newer phone, it’s not such a big worry. The latest models have a

built-in feature that blocks the charging as soon as the battery’s at 100%.

19. Charge the phone as often as possible, but little by little. If you charge it to

100% and use the gadget until it's completely drained, then the battery will withstand about

500-700 recharge cycles. If you let it go down to 50% and plug it in for a short time,

let it run down a bit again, and so on – your battery will withstand about 1,000 cycles.

This comes to about 3 years if you charge the phone every day. The ideal level is always

keeping the phone between 40 and 80%.

20. Still, you should “train” your battery capacity once a month. You do that by letting

it run down to 0% and then fully charging it up to 100. This “exercise” will help

calibrate the mechanisms that are responsible for the correct display charge level. But,

again, don't do this often because it can shorten your battery’s lifespan.

21. Monitor the status of your battery. You can download apps for Android and iPhone that

show you how worn out your battery is and what its peak performance stands at. The app

will notify you when the time to change the battery comes. Replace the battery on any

of your devices at least once every 3-4 years. I know it can be pricey, but it’s worth

it.

22. Don't leave a laptop connected to the network with a 100% charge when you aren't

working with it. And don’t charge it to 100% every single time. Like with phones,

keeping the battery between 40 and 80% is ideal.

23. There’s a myth that you shouldn’t use your phone while it’s charging. If someone

has problems with this, it most likely comes down to a faulty (or non-original) charger.

With the manufacturer-approved charger, everything will be fine. Just don’t overload the phone

while it’s plugged in by playing heavy games, for instance. Scrolling your social media,

answering emails, and watching videos – perfectly fine during charging.

24. Another common misconception is that you should close all background apps to save power.

But modern phones are designed so that background apps don’t waste power. That, and when you

launch a closed app, it drains much more energy than launching an app from the background.

25. For your laptop, it’s a little different. You should download apps that speed it up

by closing useless background tasks and deleting unnecessary cache files. Just make sure you

find a good-quality trustworthy program. Sorry, but the best ones aren’t free!

26. If your phone has an AMOLED or OLED-type screen, you can save battery power significantly.

Just set a very black picture as the wallpaper. This display consists of Organic Light-Emitting

Diode. Sounds fancy, but it basically emits light when current passes through it. Black

doesn’t let light come through (except where your icons are, of course), so the screen

won’t light up and waste so much battery!

27. If you go outside, but can't leave your laptop, then you can use solar battery charging.

The downside is that the speed of your charge will depend on the weather. The brighter the

sun, the faster the charge. Just don't leave the laptop directly in the sun. Cover it,

or lay it under a tree in the shade. If it's hot even in the shade, then you can use a

cooling pad.

Ah, doing work, outside, under a tree, in the shade, with a gentle breeze and a glass

of lemonade. Can you picture that? Hmmm. And that, my friend, is just how I did today’s

voiceover. (You didn’t hear that plane fly over did you? Ah, good!)

Hey, if you learned something new today, then give the video a like and share it with a

friend! And here are some other cool videos I think you'll enjoy. Just click to the left

or right, and stay on the Bright Side of life!