Hands-On Tech 278: Understanding Battery Percentages - All TWiT.tv Shows (Audio)

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Coming up on Hands On Tech. What do you do if you're pretty sure your phone's battery is lying to you? Stay tuned. This is Twit. Hello and welcome to Hands On Tech. I am Micah Sargent, and today I'm taking your tech questions and answering them. And today's question is a great one because it's certainly something I've heard before, a question that I have asked myself before. And so when that happens, I'm always glad to be able to talk about it. This one comes in from Curtis in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Curtis writes, my phone will sit at 100% forever and then fall off a cliff from 30% to dead in 20 minutes. My wife says I'm imagining it. Am I? Is the percentage an actual measurement or just a guess? And is there anything to that old advice about recalibrating a battery? Would love to finally understand what that little number really means. I love this question because especially as I'm running this beta software over the summer, it's clear that, yeah, the battery is not what one would expect. And here's the short answer for you, Curtis. You aren't imagining it. The fact is that percentage isn't an actual measurement. It's just a prediction. Okay. It's not the same as a candy thermometer placed into a vat of boiling sugar and watching that thermometer reach the softball stage. No, it is just. It's more a. A weatherman. Yeah. A meteorologist. Sure. No, let's talk about it. There's no gauge inside of the battery. So a battery isn't able to directly report how full it is because there's not some, like, little. You know how you could, you could have like a glass of water. And if you take a red, like pink or a yellow ping pong ball and you put it in there and you pour water into the glass, that ping pong ball is going to rise to the top. And then technically, you could very easily, even from a distance, see how full the cup is. There's no little float inside of the battery tank that's telling the system where the battery is. There's actually just a little chip inside that's sort of like a fuel gauge. And this is how it works. It estimates the charge. It does this thing called, and I may be mispronouncing it, it's C O U L O M B colum counting. And what this does is it essentially, it's almost like it's watching little soldiers walk out of the barracks and walk into the barracks, right? And the Barracks are the battery and the little soldiers are the charge. So it's tallying the energy that's flowing in and out of the battery, and then it's also measuring voltage, it's measuring temperature, and it's got a clicking clock of your usage history. And it combines all of this together to sort of, I think what the current battery is, is this. And so yet that number that's on the screen is just your best guess, or rather the chip's best guess, of what is going on with the battery. And, well, those guesses can drift over time because it can only go based on what the expected battery discharge and charge cycles would look like and the expected battery life. Right. So real world charging, when you do those partial top ups, when you see these temperature swings, when, you know, sometimes the battery discharges to 20 before it gets refilled or gets recharged to some other person, all of those things result in error over time. And so that can make a difference. Now, iFixit has a battery calibration guide and it talks about how batteries can be calibrated to provide the possible best way of kind of working with that chip that's inside to tell you what it is. And so I fix it. Depending on your device. Phones and Tablets versus Laptops has some recommendations. So it says for phones and tablets, charge it to 100% and then keep charging it for at least two more hours. Then it says use your device until it shuts off due to low battery and then charge it uninterrupted to 100%. For laptops, you charge it to 100 and again, keep charging it for two more hours, unplug the laptop, use it to drain the battery, and then save your work. Of course, when you see that low battery warning, keep your laptop on until it goes to sleep due to low battery or shuts down due to low battery, and then wait 5 hours, charge your laptop uninterrupted to 100%. So this is interesting too, because iFixit goes on to say that if you have a newer device, we've talked about this a lot, which have a bunch of different battery management and health saving features. IFixit suggests turning it off in order to allow for this battery calibration. Now, I argue that it's not incredibly important to do this, but what I love about this, this iFixit guide, is that it has a lot of information about the what's essentially called a fuel gauge. That's what they call the chip inside that we talked about. And so it tells you kind of how these batteries work, what a smart battery is. And then how does a, specifically a battery fuel gauge work? This is a site called Battery University. And that's what iFixit links to and talks about the work that the fuel gauge inside does to determine what's going on. There's a tri state fuel gauge, and so it will work with the, the rest of the system to try to understand kind of what's going on. Really cool stuff. In any case, you were wondering, you know, why does it seem to fall off a cliff at the low end? So we've kind of gotten the calibration stuff out of the way. Why does it fall off of a cliff at the low end? Well, as the battery ages, of course, we know that capacity is going to shrink the actual real capacity of the battery. But the problem is that, remember, think of it like this. So we've got those barracks, remember, and the little soldiers are going in to the barracks and then going out of the barracks. And it's your job as the fuel gauge to count who's going in, who's going out, and then also be mindful of everything else that's going on, how long it's been running, et cetera. But here's the thing. Imagine that the barracks inside start to age and fall apart. And so suddenly the back half of the barracks collapses and the number of soldiers that can be inside of these barracks goes down. So you're counting the barracks going in, you're counting the barracks or the barracks, the soldiers going in, the soldiers going out, but you're unaware of the fact that the barracks has had such a huge impact until someone runs along and finally tells you, sir, sir, it's not the same as it used to be. That is a little bit like what's going on here in the sense that it could still be mapping those percentages, those, those predictions to that bigger capacity, right? So 30% of the bigger capacity versus 30% of what you actually have. Those are different measurements. So that's one reason why it can seem like it's falling off of a cliff. Also understand that the voltage curve, whenever it comes to lithium ion is pretty flat through the middle, but it can start to drop a little bit. Now that's, of course, one of the benefits of lithium is that it does try to push through as much as possible the whole time. But there are, there, there's, there's a slight difference right at the very end, and that can make a difference for the estimation. Lastly, this is kind of a, in researching this question, I Kept seeing this little trivia pop up and I thought, I don't know, I don't know. But it just kept popping up. So again, I have read that phones do and other devices that have smart battery technology hide a tiny little reserve of battery below 0%. And the reason why is that the goal is to never have the battery drain to full, like fully drained to zero percent. That can be damaging for the battery, particularly as the battery ages and as temperature temperatures change, those can have an impact on a fully dead battery. So it appears as though many device manufacturers have worked in a little bit of a reserve, that technically when the battery is 0%, it's probably more like 0.8%. Let's take a quick break so I can tell you about NetSuite bringing you this episode of Hands On Tech. They say that every day your business is late to AI, you fall two days behind. But how do you keep up? Well, the competition is only moving faster. Fortunately though, there's NetSuite next. You probably know NetSuite, the AI powered business management suite that securely connects all of your data. It's a unified suite that brings your financials, your inventory, your commerce, your HR and your CRM into a single source of truth. Trusted by over 43,000 customers, NetSuite Next is the next huge leap in how business gets done. Because AI is built into everything you do, it automatically services custom insights throughout your day. AI agents work alongside you to solve problems and handle routine work. And anytime you have a question about anything, ask, just like you're having a conversation with a colleague. NetSuite is customized for a wide range of industries, so it supports the way your business truly works. Whether your company earns millions or even hundreds of millions. It's time for NetSuite Next, where your business meets AI for the first time ever, you can try NetSuite Next for free. If your revenues are at least in the seven figures, go to NetSuite AI hot. Built for every industry, ready for every boardroom, NetSuite AI hot. All right, let's get back to the show. I again, as always, recommend using the health tools, the battery health tools that are available in, in your different devices settings because they do have an impact, a positive impact on the life of your battery. As Paul says in the chat, it's healthiest for lithium batteries to never go below 20% or above 80% and that that bears out in, in reality. That's why there are different charge capacity options for your phone these days. And now it's also, you know, making its way into laptops as well. So let's talk about recalibrating, because we started with that. Is that a real thing or is that a myth? Well, it's sort of half real, right? Because you're not actually. This is the best part. You aren't calibrating the battery. You're actually re syncing that fuel gauge. That's what's being calibrated is the gauge, not the battery itself. Okay. So calibration is not magically restoring some lost capacity. It's not like refragging or something. If your battery has aged to 85%, then calibrating is going to make the phone report that, honestly. So that is the thing that it's equivalent to. Like, remember the barracks scenario? It's like letting things shut down for a moment so that the person who's counting the little soldiers going in and out is able to go and look and see the barracks has changed and then make adjustments for the little clipboard they have in front of them. Right? That is the moment of like, okay, we got to check things out and see, excuse me, how they've changed. Now, modern phones, of course, do this recalibration automatically in the background. And that's why a lot of people probably aren't noticing what you were noticing, Curtis, because it's not super needed. I know there are some folks who are very, very, very protective of the device, batteries, and they follow every single protocol, every single rule, every single guidance, and I think that's fantastic. But I also see folks who are stressed at the idea that they need to do so much management of their device and they just sort of want it to work. And so that's where I come in and say, don't you worry. Most of this is just happening in the background. That said, if your percentage does seem to be genuinely misbehaving and there isn't a reason for it, like beta software, you know, seeing these jumpy numbers, the sudden shutdowns, even though it seems like there was supposed to be charge remaining. Try a manual calibration. That could be the first step that you do, Right. If you start to expect or notice battery issues, go ahead and do one manual calibration again. We've got a link in the show notes to that IFIXIT guide that talks about how to calibrate. And one last thing. Please, please don't do this monthly. Okay, I'm going to. I'm going to say it again because it's that important. Do not do this monthly. It's not good. Deep discharges will Absolutely. Stress lithium ion. And so you should use this as diagnostic, not maintenance, because your device is doing a lot of this stuff on its own. I want everyone to breathe in and breathe out. It's okay to let go of some control here because you're actually not letting go of control. When you think about it, you're still in control. The device is now doing what it's supposed to do and it is taking care of things for you. So you get to focus on other things instead. And it is sometimes more damaging to helicopter parent your battery because you gotta trust that that battery is gonna leave the nest and take care of stuff on its own. I am doing so many metaphors today. I'm so sorry. So how do you know if it's the gauge or if it's the battery? Well, again, the calibration stuff is going to help you with the gauge, but if calibration is not fixing it, and if it does seem like your phone isn't running for very long, it's probably that the battery has aged. Many places you can go to check the health. Many devices you can check the health of the battery. So on iPhone, that's settings, battery, battery health. And if you go into your Android settings and type in battery health in the search, depending on who makes your device, you'll be able to find some sort of battery health or battery care. You know, get creative, maybe just type in battery and see what the results show you. It's harder to say on Android again because there are different, different device manufacturers have different battery health tools and of course, when it comes to laptops, that can be all over the place. I do have also we'll link in the show notes a page from Apple that talks about charging limit and optimized battery charging. We've linked to this page lots before, but it talks about battery aging and, you know, the lifespan of a battery based on temperature history and charging patterns and, you know, being aware that these are consumable components, they are not forever lasting. So to round things live and let lithium. I love that, Paul. Absolutely. All right, so let's, let's kind of wrap things up here. Your question about the percentage. Remember when I said meteorologist? Yeah. The percentage is a bit of a forecast. It's not a fact. And hopefully you didn't, you know, you've never chased down your meteorologist with the pitchfork because they got it wrong that it was going to rain the next day. By that I mean, you know, it's doing its best. It's a weather report for your battery and then you know the question about whether it's in your head a little bit. It's in your head in the sense that it is a mixture of what you're expecting versus what's not. The part that's sort of in your head is that it's the battery when it's more likely to be the difference in the fuel gauges reading. And then last but not least, if you do see your battery percentage kind of jumping all over the place and something doesn't seem right before you need to take it in to have it serviced or anything like that, go ahead and try a recalibration. If it's still not working, if it's not going, then it may be time for a battery replacement and you can head in and have that done. That's one of the good things, is that battery replacements can be pretty or relatively cost effective and of course carry on the life of the device for quite a quite a while. And it's one of the replacements that I feel more comfortable having been done by someone other than Apple. So obviously if you can take it to Apple, do. But some people who aren't able to head to an Apple store to get it fixed get a little nervous about using a third party to do a battery replacement or sorry to to fix their device. And I have found that of all of the things that you'd want to be replaced, a battery replacement on the very modern phones that are more repairable versus the ones in between that were not as repairable is not too harrowing a task. Especially now that Apple has made a lot of those tools available to fixers. Folks, that is the answer to Curtis's question about why his phone's battery percentage seems to be lying to him. We will be back next week with another episode of Hands On Tech. But I want to thank you all so much for taking the time to join us today. I also want to remind you all about Club Twitch at Twit TV Club Twit. When you join the club you will gain access to some awesome benefits. It's just $10 a month and joining the club will give you our wonderful shows. All of them ad free. 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Summary4 min read

Hands-On Tech 278: Understanding Battery Percentages
Host: Micah Sargent
Date: August 3, 2026

Episode Overview

In this episode of Hands-On Tech, Micah Sargent answers a listener’s question about why smartphone battery percentages often "lie"—appearing stuck at 100% for a long time, then dropping suddenly at lower percentages. Micah explains the underlying technology behind battery percentage estimation, debunks common myths about calibration, and offers practical advice for understanding and managing your device’s battery health.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

How Battery Percentages Work

Listener Question: Curtis from Sioux Falls, SD asks why his phone can sit at 100% for a long time, then drop from 30% to dead in 20 minutes. He wonders if the percentage is an actual measurement or just a guess, and about the validity of recalibrating batteries.
Micah’s Core Answer (02:41):

"You aren't imagining it. The fact is that percentage isn't an actual measurement. It's just a prediction."
Battery Percentage is a Forecast, Not a Fact
- Unlike a physical gauge (like a float in a water tank), there is no "real meter" for battery fullness; instead, phones use a chip—often called a fuel gauge—that estimates battery charge.
- The estimation combines:
  - "Coulomb counting" (tracking charge in/out)
  - Monitoring voltage and temperature
  - Usage history (03:56)
"It's more a weatherman—yeah, a meteorologist." (Micah, 02:54)

Why Percentages Drift and Jump

Causes of Inaccuracy:
- Aging of the battery reduces actual capacity, but the fuel gauge may still base percentages on the original (higher) capacity (09:50).
- The voltage curve for lithium-ion batteries is very flat through the middle, but drops sharply near the end—making end-of-charge percentage predictions less reliable.
- Real-world usage: partial top-ups, temperature swings, and incomplete charge/discharge cycles degrade calibration accuracy over time.
Memorable Analogy:

"Imagine that the barracks inside [the battery] start to age and fall apart. ... You're unaware of the fact that the barracks has had such a huge impact until someone runs along and finally tells you..." (Micah, 10:31)

The Truth About Battery Calibration

Fuel Gauge Calibration, Not Battery Repair:
- Calibration doesn’t restore lost capacity—it just helps the fuel gauge more accurately predict remaining charge.
- Recommended if you notice erratic battery percentage readings or sudden shutdowns.
Calibration Steps (from iFixit Guide):
- Phones/Tablets:
  - Charge to 100% + 2 extra hours
  - Use until the device shuts off due to low battery
  - Recharge to 100% uninterrupted
- Laptops:
  - Charge to 100% + 2 extra hours
  - Unplug and use until it sleeps or shuts down
  - Wait 5 hours, then recharge to 100% uninterrupted
- Modern devices with advanced battery management may require turning off health features during calibration (07:14)

Calibration Cautions

Do Not Calibrate Monthly!

"Please, please don't do this monthly... Deep discharges will absolutely stress lithium ion." (Micah, 18:00)
Calibration should be a diagnostic step, not routine maintenance.

Battery Health and Management Features

Most modern devices now include software features to prolong battery life, such as charging limits and battery health tools in system settings (16:28).
- Lithium batteries last longer if kept between 20% and 80% charged.
Advice from listener Paul:

"It's healthiest for lithium batteries to never go below 20% or above 80% and that that bears out in reality." (16:34)

Secret Battery Reserve

Many devices actually retain a tiny "reserve" charge after showing 0% to prevent harmful deep discharges (13:43).

"...when the battery is 0%, it’s probably more like 0.8%..." (Micah, 14:05)

Identifying Battery vs. Gauge Issues

If calibration doesn’t fix percentage swings or your device’s life is notably worse, consider battery aging as the culprit:
- Check battery health stats (Settings > Battery > Battery Health on iPhone; search "battery health" on Android).
- Battery replacements are cost-effective and one of the safer repairs to have done by third parties (21:00).

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

On Forecasts vs. Facts in Battery Readouts:

"Remember when I said meteorologist? ... The percentage is a bit of a forecast. It's not a fact." (Micah, 20:10)
On Recalibration:

"You aren't calibrating the battery. You're actually re-syncing that fuel gauge. That's what's being calibrated is the gauge, not the battery itself." (Micah, 17:30)
On Stressing About Batteries:

"It is sometimes more damaging to helicopter parent your battery because you gotta trust that that battery is gonna leave the nest and take care of stuff on its own." (Micah, 19:26)
Listener Wisdom:

"Live and let lithium." (Paul, 20:00)

Timestamps for Key Segments

[01:30] – Listener question from Curtis
[02:41] – Percentage is an estimate, not an exact measure
[04:00] – Explanation of the "fuel gauge" chip
[07:00] – How real-world use and age cause calibration drift
[08:45] – Steps to recalibrate: Phone, tablet, and laptop
[10:31] – Barracks analogy for battery aging
[13:43] – Manufacturers’ hidden battery reserves
[16:28] – Using health features and safe charging levels
[17:30] – Clarifying recalibration: What really gets "calibrated”
[18:00] – Warning: Don’t deep-discharge routinely
[19:26] – Helicopter parenting your battery
[21:00] – Battery replacement advice

Final Advice & Wrap-Up

Battery percentage is a prediction, not a precise measurement.
Occasional recalibration is helpful if readings are erratic, but don’t do it routinely.
Check device settings for battery health information.
If persistent issues remain after calibration, battery replacement is usually straightforward and effective on modern devices.
Let your device’s built-in battery management features do their job—no need to micromanage.
"Live and let lithium."

For more information:

Links to the iFixit battery calibration guide, Apple’s battery health documentation, and other resources are included in the show notes.

Summary by: Hands-On Tech Podcast Summarizer

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[00:00]
A
Coming up on Hands On Tech. What do you do if you're pretty sure your phone's battery is lying to you? Stay tuned. This is Twit. Hello and welcome to Hands On Tech. I am Micah Sargent, and today I'm taking your tech questions and answering them. And today's question is a great one because it's certainly something I've heard before, a question that I have asked myself before. And so when that happens, I'm always glad to be able to talk about it. This one comes in from Curtis in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Curtis writes, my phone will sit at 100% forever and then fall off a cliff from 30% to dead in 20 minutes. My wife says I'm imagining it. Am I? Is the percentage an actual measurement or just a guess? And is there anything to that old advice about recalibrating a battery? Would love to finally understand what that little number really means. I love this question because especially as I'm running this beta software over the summer, it's clear that, yeah, the battery is not what one would expect. And here's the short answer for you, Curtis. You aren't imagining it. The fact is that percentage isn't an actual measurement. It's just a prediction. Okay. It's not the same as a candy thermometer placed into a vat of boiling sugar and watching that thermometer reach the softball stage. No, it is just. It's more a. A weatherman. Yeah. A meteorologist. Sure. No, let's talk about it. There's no gauge inside of the battery. So a battery isn't able to directly report how full it is because there's not some, like, little. You know how you could, you could have like a glass of water. And if you take a red, like pink or a yellow ping pong ball and you put it in there and you pour water into the glass, that ping pong ball is going to rise to the top. And then technically, you could very easily, even from a distance, see how full the cup is. There's no little float inside of the battery tank that's telling the system where the battery is. There's actually just a little chip inside that's sort of like a fuel gauge. And this is how it works. It estimates the charge. It does this thing called, and I may be mispronouncing it, it's C O U L O M B colum counting. And what this does is it essentially, it's almost like it's watching little soldiers walk out of the barracks and walk into the barracks, right? And the Barracks are the battery and the little soldiers are the charge. So it's tallying the energy that's flowing in and out of the battery, and then it's also measuring voltage, it's measuring temperature, and it's got a clicking clock of your usage history. And it combines all of this together to sort of, I think what the current battery is, is this. And so yet that number that's on the screen is just your best guess, or rather the chip's best guess, of what is going on with the battery. And, well, those guesses can drift over time because it can only go based on what the expected battery discharge and charge cycles would look like and the expected battery life. Right. So real world charging, when you do those partial top ups, when you see these temperature swings, when, you know, sometimes the battery discharges to 20 before it gets refilled or gets recharged to some other person, all of those things result in error over time. And so that can make a difference. Now, iFixit has a battery calibration guide and it talks about how batteries can be calibrated to provide the possible best way of kind of working with that chip that's inside to tell you what it is. And so I fix it. Depending on your device. Phones and Tablets versus Laptops has some recommendations. So it says for phones and tablets, charge it to 100% and then keep charging it for at least two more hours. Then it says use your device until it shuts off due to low battery and then charge it uninterrupted to 100%. For laptops, you charge it to 100 and again, keep charging it for two more hours, unplug the laptop, use it to drain the battery, and then save your work. Of course, when you see that low battery warning, keep your laptop on until it goes to sleep due to low battery or shuts down due to low battery, and then wait 5 hours, charge your laptop uninterrupted to 100%. So this is interesting too, because iFixit goes on to say that if you have a newer device, we've talked about this a lot, which have a bunch of different battery management and health saving features. IFixit suggests turning it off in order to allow for this battery calibration. Now, I argue that it's not incredibly important to do this, but what I love about this, this iFixit guide, is that it has a lot of information about the what's essentially called a fuel gauge. That's what they call the chip inside that we talked about. And so it tells you kind of how these batteries work, what a smart battery is. And then how does a, specifically a battery fuel gauge work? This is a site called Battery University. And that's what iFixit links to and talks about the work that the fuel gauge inside does to determine what's going on. There's a tri state fuel gauge, and so it will work with the, the rest of the system to try to understand kind of what's going on. Really cool stuff. In any case, you were wondering, you know, why does it seem to fall off a cliff at the low end? So we've kind of gotten the calibration stuff out of the way. Why does it fall off of a cliff at the low end? Well, as the battery ages, of course, we know that capacity is going to shrink the actual real capacity of the battery. But the problem is that, remember, think of it like this. So we've got those barracks, remember, and the little soldiers are going in to the barracks and then going out of the barracks. And it's your job as the fuel gauge to count who's going in, who's going out, and then also be mindful of everything else that's going on, how long it's been running, et cetera. But here's the thing. Imagine that the barracks inside start to age and fall apart. And so suddenly the back half of the barracks collapses and the number of soldiers that can be inside of these barracks goes down. So you're counting the barracks going in, you're counting the barracks or the barracks, the soldiers going in, the soldiers going out, but you're unaware of the fact that the barracks has had such a huge impact until someone runs along and finally tells you, sir, sir, it's not the same as it used to be. That is a little bit like what's going on here in the sense that it could still be mapping those percentages, those, those predictions to that bigger capacity, right? So 30% of the bigger capacity versus 30% of what you actually have. Those are different measurements. So that's one reason why it can seem like it's falling off of a cliff. Also understand that the voltage curve, whenever it comes to lithium ion is pretty flat through the middle, but it can start to drop a little bit. Now that's, of course, one of the benefits of lithium is that it does try to push through as much as possible the whole time. But there are, there, there's, there's a slight difference right at the very end, and that can make a difference for the estimation. Lastly, this is kind of a, in researching this question, I Kept seeing this little trivia pop up and I thought, I don't know, I don't know. But it just kept popping up. So again, I have read that phones do and other devices that have smart battery technology hide a tiny little reserve of battery below 0%. And the reason why is that the goal is to never have the battery drain to full, like fully drained to zero percent. That can be damaging for the battery, particularly as the battery ages and as temperature temperatures change, those can have an impact on a fully dead battery. So it appears as though many device manufacturers have worked in a little bit of a reserve, that technically when the battery is 0%, it's probably more like 0.8%. Let's take a quick break so I can tell you about NetSuite bringing you this episode of Hands On Tech. They say that every day your business is late to AI, you fall two days behind. But how do you keep up? Well, the competition is only moving faster. Fortunately though, there's NetSuite next. You probably know NetSuite, the AI powered business management suite that securely connects all of your data. It's a unified suite that brings your financials, your inventory, your commerce, your HR and your CRM into a single source of truth. Trusted by over 43,000 customers, NetSuite Next is the next huge leap in how business gets done. Because AI is built into everything you do, it automatically services custom insights throughout your day. AI agents work alongside you to solve problems and handle routine work. And anytime you have a question about anything, ask, just like you're having a conversation with a colleague. NetSuite is customized for a wide range of industries, so it supports the way your business truly works. Whether your company earns millions or even hundreds of millions. It's time for NetSuite Next, where your business meets AI for the first time ever, you can try NetSuite Next for free. If your revenues are at least in the seven figures, go to NetSuite AI hot. Built for every industry, ready for every boardroom, NetSuite AI hot. All right, let's get back to the show. I again, as always, recommend using the health tools, the battery health tools that are available in, in your different devices settings because they do have an impact, a positive impact on the life of your battery. As Paul says in the chat, it's healthiest for lithium batteries to never go below 20% or above 80% and that that bears out in, in reality. That's why there are different charge capacity options for your phone these days. And now it's also, you know, making its way into laptops as well. So let's talk about recalibrating, because we started with that. Is that a real thing or is that a myth? Well, it's sort of half real, right? Because you're not actually. This is the best part. You aren't calibrating the battery. You're actually re syncing that fuel gauge. That's what's being calibrated is the gauge, not the battery itself. Okay. So calibration is not magically restoring some lost capacity. It's not like refragging or something. If your battery has aged to 85%, then calibrating is going to make the phone report that, honestly. So that is the thing that it's equivalent to. Like, remember the barracks scenario? It's like letting things shut down for a moment so that the person who's counting the little soldiers going in and out is able to go and look and see the barracks has changed and then make adjustments for the little clipboard they have in front of them. Right? That is the moment of like, okay, we got to check things out and see, excuse me, how they've changed. Now, modern phones, of course, do this recalibration automatically in the background. And that's why a lot of people probably aren't noticing what you were noticing, Curtis, because it's not super needed. I know there are some folks who are very, very, very protective of the device, batteries, and they follow every single protocol, every single rule, every single guidance, and I think that's fantastic. But I also see folks who are stressed at the idea that they need to do so much management of their device and they just sort of want it to work. And so that's where I come in and say, don't you worry. Most of this is just happening in the background. That said, if your percentage does seem to be genuinely misbehaving and there isn't a reason for it, like beta software, you know, seeing these jumpy numbers, the sudden shutdowns, even though it seems like there was supposed to be charge remaining. Try a manual calibration. That could be the first step that you do, Right. If you start to expect or notice battery issues, go ahead and do one manual calibration again. We've got a link in the show notes to that IFIXIT guide that talks about how to calibrate. And one last thing. Please, please don't do this monthly. Okay, I'm going to. I'm going to say it again because it's that important. Do not do this monthly. It's not good. Deep discharges will Absolutely. Stress lithium ion. And so you should use this as diagnostic, not maintenance, because your device is doing a lot of this stuff on its own. I want everyone to breathe in and breathe out. It's okay to let go of some control here because you're actually not letting go of control. When you think about it, you're still in control. The device is now doing what it's supposed to do and it is taking care of things for you. So you get to focus on other things instead. And it is sometimes more damaging to helicopter parent your battery because you gotta trust that that battery is gonna leave the nest and take care of stuff on its own. I am doing so many metaphors today. I'm so sorry. So how do you know if it's the gauge or if it's the battery? Well, again, the calibration stuff is going to help you with the gauge, but if calibration is not fixing it, and if it does seem like your phone isn't running for very long, it's probably that the battery has aged. Many places you can go to check the health. Many devices you can check the health of the battery. So on iPhone, that's settings, battery, battery health. And if you go into your Android settings and type in battery health in the search, depending on who makes your device, you'll be able to find some sort of battery health or battery care. You know, get creative, maybe just type in battery and see what the results show you. It's harder to say on Android again because there are different, different device manufacturers have different battery health tools and of course, when it comes to laptops, that can be all over the place. I do have also we'll link in the show notes a page from Apple that talks about charging limit and optimized battery charging. We've linked to this page lots before, but it talks about battery aging and, you know, the lifespan of a battery based on temperature history and charging patterns and, you know, being aware that these are consumable components, they are not forever lasting. So to round things live and let lithium. I love that, Paul. Absolutely. All right, so let's, let's kind of wrap things up here. Your question about the percentage. Remember when I said meteorologist? Yeah. The percentage is a bit of a forecast. It's not a fact. And hopefully you didn't, you know, you've never chased down your meteorologist with the pitchfork because they got it wrong that it was going to rain the next day. By that I mean, you know, it's doing its best. It's a weather report for your battery and then you know the question about whether it's in your head a little bit. It's in your head in the sense that it is a mixture of what you're expecting versus what's not. The part that's sort of in your head is that it's the battery when it's more likely to be the difference in the fuel gauges reading. And then last but not least, if you do see your battery percentage kind of jumping all over the place and something doesn't seem right before you need to take it in to have it serviced or anything like that, go ahead and try a recalibration. If it's still not working, if it's not going, then it may be time for a battery replacement and you can head in and have that done. That's one of the good things, is that battery replacements can be pretty or relatively cost effective and of course carry on the life of the device for quite a quite a while. And it's one of the replacements that I feel more comfortable having been done by someone other than Apple. So obviously if you can take it to Apple, do. But some people who aren't able to head to an Apple store to get it fixed get a little nervous about using a third party to do a battery replacement or sorry to to fix their device. And I have found that of all of the things that you'd want to be replaced, a battery replacement on the very modern phones that are more repairable versus the ones in between that were not as repairable is not too harrowing a task. Especially now that Apple has made a lot of those tools available to fixers. Folks, that is the answer to Curtis's question about why his phone's battery percentage seems to be lying to him. We will be back next week with another episode of Hands On Tech. But I want to thank you all so much for taking the time to join us today. I also want to remind you all about Club Twitch at Twit TV Club Twit. When you join the club you will gain access to some awesome benefits. It's just $10 a month and joining the club will give you our wonderful shows. All of them ad free. Just the content. You also gain access to some special feeds. We have a behind the scenes feed that's kind of got before and after show moments. We've got a feed that has our live coverage of tech news events and a feed that has our special club Twitch shows like Minecrafting Corner, Stacy's Book Club, Media Club. We just covered the Matrix, reviewed the Matrix. We've got all sorts of great shows at the AI User Group and if I haven't mentioned it, I don't believe I have. You also get chapter markers for your shows. Yes, I know I love chapter markers. So I was really excited to know that we're doing that for the club. If you would like more, well that's fine because I have more to give you. You'll also be able to join our Club Twit Discord, a fun place to go to chat with your fellow Club Twit members and those of us here at TWiT. We'd love to see you in the club and see you in the Discord. And I look forward to being back next week with another episode of Hands On Tech. Bye bye. I see you. Avatar Fire and Ash is now streaming on Disney plus. It's the film critics are calling the best avatar yet. A true epic and completely jaw dropping. This is the only pure thing in this world. Return to Pandora on Disney. It will be an adventure for the whole family and watch the Oscar winning phenomenon at home. This is sick. Avatar Fire and Ash now streaming on Disney. Rated PG 13 hey, it's Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile. Now. I was looking for fun ways to tell you that Mint's offer of unlimited premium wireless for $15 a month is back. So I thought it would be fun if we made $15 bills, but it turns out that's very illegal. So there goes my big idea for the commercial. Give it a try@mintmobile.com Switch upfront payment
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