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This dongle could protect your smartphone’s battery: Here’s how

 

Battery Guard is an accessory that looks like a dongle and sits between the phone charger and the charging cable.

      

Fast charging has become a common tech on most smartphones, and while it is convenient, it does impact the longevity of the battery in question. Fast charging does negatively impact the health of a smartphone’s battery in the long run. To solve this problem, a startup — Canal Electronics — has come up with an accessory named Battery Guard that increases battery life considerably and costs just $25 (Rs 1,843).

Battery Guard is an accessory that looks like a dongle and sits between the phone charger and the charging cable. Its function is to regulate the rate at which your charger charges the phone. It is compatible with both ioS and Android devices.

Many smartphone users still have the habit of charging their phone overnight so that they can get a day’s usage without plugging in the charger. That’s where the app created by the company steps in as it allows users to select a time by which they will wake up and need their phone to be charged fully.

After the user selects a time, the accessory spreads out the charging periods and ensures that the phone is charged 100 per cent without temperature spikes that can be caused by intensive charging and further lead to battery decay. The max charging speed achieved by the device can be 20V via USB Type-C whereas its 5V via USB Type-A.

“Using fast chargers accelerates battery degradation exponentially,” the team lead at Canal Electronics, Mohamed Morsy told Forbes. “The reason batteries degrade is because of charging, not discharging.”

The team got the results from their own small scale research under which they charged 12 batteries through 470 cycles. The results showed that the battery decay was 50 per cent less because the device was able to keep in check temperature spikes. The product is currently sold via Kickstarter and has got $11,510 out of the $20,000 goal amount with 10 more days to go.