[anthodhalia]

Having a mobile phone is great when you need to talk on the go, but if you have a faulty battery, then you have to carry charger along with you throughout the day.
Many things can go wrong with a phone's battery, from the so-called "memory effect" to plain-old worn out batteries. Some problem can be corrected, but unfortunately, most of the batteries need to be replaced.
Nowadays overcharge is a more common problem in modern cell phones. When you overcharge a battery, it means that you leave the phone on the charger after it has reached 100 percent.
While leaving a battery on a charging station for a few hours after the charge has completed will not impact the battery too negatively, if you leave the battery on the charger for more than 24 hours you can overheat and permanently damage the battery.

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› See More: Overcharge of a Battery

[tavenger5]

What you are saying is completely incorrect. I'm not sure what your sources are, but you shouldn't go around posting misinformation like this.

First, lithium ion batteries will not only overheat if they are charged constantly, they could potentially explode.

Second, to prevent batteries from exploding all phones have a built in mechanism to slow and then shut off the charging of the battery once it reaches full capacity. They have to, otherwise there would be a lot of very unhappy people that left their phones charging too long.

[phonetoboost]

I believe that once the lithium-ion battery is full the charger discontinues charge and only engages when the battery voltage drops. I know that circuit is built in laptops. As far as heat goes... it will degrade to battery. Tavenger5 is right, they will explode under certain circumstances. Best way is to properly charge and exercise the battery for maximum performance and longevity.

[DustenRust]

Nowadays overcharge is a more common problem in modern cell phones.

No. You are wrong. Nowadays, smartphones benefit from a system where the battery stops charging after reaches 100% (like Tavenger5 said). Although it's a good idea to unplug your charger once your smartphone is charged (for normal, logical reasons and as you do with most of your electrical appliances), there's no such thing as "overcharging" a smartphone battery by simply forgetting about it while plugged in.

As for "faulty batteries", well, ALL batteries degrade over time, regardless if you pull the plug as soon as the battery reaches 100% charge. All smartphone batteries have a certain lifespan, after which their "health" degrades noticeably. If I'm not mistaken, this lifespan consists in many hundreds of full recharges, so it should last you at least 2 years or so, without having to deal with noticeable battery life drops due to degradation.

However, nowadays batteries are getting better and better, and the lifespan and capacity is increasing while the physical size is decreasing. There's no "growing problem" as you are implying. Technology has a tenancy of moving forward, not the other way around.

[Carrie0827]

sometimes i forgot to unplug the charger when the battery reached its full capacity. i used to have such concerns about the battery lifespan. now i'm much relieved.