Understanding bypass charging and its impact on battery life

Smartphone batteries are designed to last a certain number of charge and discharge cycles. The more often you use your phone, the more often it discharges, and the more often you need to charge. This constant use wears down the chemical properties of the battery itself, degrading its performance over time and severely limiting its ability to hold a charge.

This problem is worsened when these charge-discharge cycles are more frequent, and it can be especially apparent among gamers’ smartphones that happen to run hot for long durations. Bypass charging is simply one of the many methods manufacturers use to reduce wear and tear on your smartphone’s or laptop’s battery.

What is bypass charging?

Your phone normally draws power from your battery to operate, and connecting to AC power simply tops up the battery as it’s being drained. High-performance laptops and some newer phones from the Asus ROG and Samsung Galaxy S series of smartphones support bypass charging. In this mode, the phone or laptop draws power directly from the charger rather than the battery. This bypasses the battery, hence the name.

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Since the devices are running directly off AC power, the strain on the battery is much lower than it would have been had the battery been continuously drained and charged. This not only cuts down on the wear and tear of the battery, it also cuts down on the heat that is generated, giving you better performance. Some gaming laptops will only work at their best using bypass charging as the battery may not be able to provide the full power that the laptop needs when gaming.

Bypass charging vs trickle charging

Trickle charging is the process where a battery is continuously topped off while it is being drained. While this generally happens at a lower power than regular charging, trickle charging also causes wear and tear over time, especially when your phone is left, say, overnight for charging. Again, bypass charging helps here by not drawing power from the battery and letting your phone or laptop operate directly from AC power.

Do you need bypass charging?

Bypass charging is primarily useful when you need to use your phone continuously and for long durations. This obviously includes gaming, which is a very power-hungry operation, but could also include people who must engage in long meetings everyday. Meetings also consume a lot of power as the phone has to use the camera, transmit a lot of data over wireless networks, and operate features like noise-cancelling for the duration of the call. Bypass charging can really help here by letting you conduct the meeting on AC power and preserving your battery.

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Bypass charging is a great feature to have, and if you’re a power user, is worth looking for in the devices you buy. Not all devices support the feature, but most gaming laptops and flagship Android phones do support it. For regular smartphone users, people who do not need to spend a significant amount of time tethered to their desks, bypass charging can help a bit, but is not required.