You've been charging your smartphone wrong

Do you know how to keep your smartphone's battery healthy?

Probably not. In fact, you've probably been hastening the death of your phone's battery with your charging habits.

Charging to 100%? Charging overnight? Fully discharging before plugging in? All these common practices can shorten the usable life of your battery, according to Cadex, a company that offers devices that test smartphone and other batteries.

Just how to best extend the life of batteries has been a prime topic recently, since Apple disclosed that it was slowing down iPhones with degraded batteries so the devices don't shut down unexpectedly.

Cadex offers a lot of information about batteries on its Battery University website. Among the things it discusses is lithium-ion batteries - the type that powers smartphones. It turns out - if you're interested in delaying having to replace your battery or buy a new phone - there are specific percentage charge levels within which you should keep your phone's battery.

Check out how and how not to charge your phone: