The low power mode is a pretty useful feature on most smartphones. It helps you get more battery life during the day and extend your phone’s uptime in case of emergency or when you’re about to head out and don’t know how long your day will last. Once enabled, low power mode reduces some of your phone’s performance to save energy. It may also turn down the brightness of your screen, reduce vibration strength, disable GPS, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth, and – if it supports fast charging – bring down the intensity of your charger as well. There are many phones that support fast charging (if you happen to own one, that is). Do they charge faster when on Low Power Mode?
Does Your Phone Charge Faster on Low Power Mode?
The “Low Power Mode” is a new feature that Xiaomi introduced with the launch of the Mi A1. The smartphone comes with two power modes: Normal and Low Power Mode. The latter reduces the performance of the device by limiting the maximum operating temperature and clock speed, thus increasing battery life.
Why Your Phone May Not Charge Faster On Low Power Mode?
- I have been using my phone for the past year now. I am using an iPhone 7 Plus. Before this, I was using a Samsung Galaxy S4 which was my first smartphone. After spending almost a year with my new iPhone, I started noticing that my phone charges slower when on low power mode than when it is charging normally. My phone charges slower even if it is in low power mode for less than 30 minutes!
- My phone charge takes about 3 hours when charging normally and only 1 hour when on low power mode. This means that I will be out of battery for more hours during the day because of this! This does not make sense to me as it is just wasting electricity and time. In fact, the only time when my battery charges faster on low power mode is when I am driving or sitting in a place that has a good Wi-Fi signal and has no other device connected to the internet or any background app running in the background except my phone!
- I have tried all kinds of tricks like changing the settings to see if there is any difference but it was always the same result. This happens even after restarting or shutting down all apps that are running in the background, so there must be something else going on here! Is this normal? Should I be worried? What can be done?
- I have been using my phone for the past year now. I am using an iPhone 7 Plus. Before this, I was using a Samsung Galaxy S4 which was my first smartphone. After spending almost a year with my new iPhone, I started noticing that my phone charges slower when on low power mode than when it is charging normally. My phone charges slower even if it is in low power mode for less than 30 minutes!
- My phone charge takes about 3 hours when charging normally and only 1 hour when on low power mode. This means that I will be out of battery for more hours during the day because of this! This does not make sense to me as it is just wasting electricity and time. In fact, the only time when my battery charges faster on low power mode is when I am driving or sitting in a place that has a good Wi-Fi signal and has no other device connected to the internet or any background app running in the background except my phone!
- I have tried all kinds of tricks like changing the settings to see if there is any difference but it was always the same result. This happens even after restarting or shutting down all apps that are running in the background, so there must be something else going on here! Is this normal? Should I be worried? What can be done?
Solution: The problem you are mentioning here seems to be related to your perception of how fast your phone charges. Your perception may have been skewed because
How Fast Chargers Actually Work?
- A wall charger will always charge the phone at the maximum rate that it can supply.
- A fast charger will charge the phone at a much faster rate than a wall charger, but it can’t supply more current than a wall charger can.
- When fast charging, your phone will be receiving more current than it needs to power itself, so it will draw more power from the battery and drain it more quickly.
- Your phone is designed to be on low power mode when plugged in and charging because of this reason. The faster you charge your battery while on low power mode, the less healthy your battery is going to be due to overcharging and under-discharging.
- Fast chargers are not made for phones that support low power mode because they are designed for phones that don’t support low power mode – or even fast charging at all! The only time a phone would ever see a performance boost from fast charging is if you have an older phone that doesn’t support slow charging or fast charging at all, in which case there would be no difference between using a fast charger and using a regular wall charger.
- Even if you have a newer phone that supports slow charging or fast charging at all, there is still minimal performance improvement from fast charging.
- The only time fast charging will actually help you is if you have a very old phone that doesn’t support low power mode and your battery is in poor health because of overcharging and under-discharging. In this case, using a fast charger will help preserve your battery health.
- If your phone supports slow charging and you are not on low power mode, it will charge at the same rate as if you were not on low power mode because the phone is designed to know what’s going on and respond accordingly.
- Fast charging is not faster than slow charging. If you’re using a fast charger, it’s because your phone does not support slow charging. It’s like using a road map when you have a GPS!
- Some chargers are designed to charge the battery of your phone at the same rate as if you were not on low power mode, but this is not true for all chargers and it’s up to the manufacturer to determine if their charger will do this or not.
Bottom Line
If you’re charging your phone on a wall charger at full capacity and it has the option to charge at a lower rate, you should do so to improve your battery health. If you’re charging your phone on a wall charger at full capacity, and it has the option to charge at a faster rate, you should do so to improve battery health. If you’re charging your phone on a wall charger at low power mode, and it has the option to charge at a faster rate, you won’t see any difference in battery health. If you’re charging your phone on a wall charger at low power mode, and it has the option to charge at a slower rate, you could see a decrease in battery health.
