Before many of you jump to the comment section reminding us that Qnovo is a thing that exists – we are well aware. Unfortunately, these extra steps to take care of a phone’s battery in the long run are far from common and rarely the focus of lofty new device presentations or software updates.
So is great to see that OnePlus is now joining in. The simplest explanation of what its new Optimized Charging does is that it holds-off on charging your phone’s battery to 100% until you need it.
The best example is overnight charging. Instead of going all the way to 100% after you plug it in, the handset will charge to 80%, then stop and only pump the remaining 20% 100 minutes before your wakeup time. OnePlus is currently estimating that wake-up time based on what it calls “user sleep cycle detection”.
It relies on any upcoming alarm you have set. However, in time, OnePlus will be working to improve its algorithms and also take into account things like sleeping-in on weekends or time zone changes while you are traveling.
Currently, the feature has been rolled out as part of last month’s beta Oxygen OS builds for the OnePlus 7 and OnePlus 7 Pro. Users on that software can enable the feature in the Battery Menu in Settings.
While Optimized Charging is on, the battery icon in the status bar will change and there will also be a muted notification in the notification shade. Clicking “Continue Charging” on it can override Optimized Charging, if you would like to have a full battery at any particular point in time.
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