Everyone hates waking up in the morning with their phone warm from last night’s charging session (especially in the summer). You also hate it when you miss calls or flights when your phone dies because the battery doesn’t hold charge like it used to.
Chargie will put an end to this mess. It was invented by Ovidiu Sandru, a guy who one autumn afternoon almost missed his flight home because of a dying phone battery. The smart charging device now has over 30,000 customers worldwide and the project has been protecting phone batteries since its debut May 2019.
Chargie keeps phone batteries from aging
You probably know that keeping electric car batteries at 100 per cent overnight reduces their lifespan by a lot. That’s why Tesla avoids full charging by default. The car says it is fully charged, but it’s not. However, phones don’t enjoy this luxury, because of the huge market competition on battery capacity and the always shrinking battery size.
Chargie is basically a gem for your very capable pocket gadget that controls the charging level of your Android phone’s battery, to greatly prolong its lifespan. Because its manufacturing process is so energy and resource intensive, a phone’s hardware and battery should ideally be usable for about 5-6 years or more, not 2.
How do I hook it up?
Chargie sits right between your phone charger and the USB cord that attaches to your smartphone or tablet. You don’t have to worry about complex wiring operations – everything is dead simple. Chargie is travel-size and can go everywhere with you.
Overnight charging at its best
With its own app and Bluetooth connection, Chargie lets you take control of the overnight charging process, giving you a chance to set the desired level of battery charging (ideally 80 per cent).
The fun and exciting part about this type of charging is that the battery will reach the desired level close to when you wake up (you tell the app when that is). That way, your phone will not stay at damaging charging levels or heat up during the night. You’ll have peace of mind in the morning, with it ready to go, just like nothing special happened.
This means no more missed alarms – and no more stressing out about the life of your phone’s battery. Chargie takes care of everything automatically.
Can I protect my other battery-powered gadgets with it?
Short answer is yes. Chargie can be used to protect smart watches, headphones, and many other battery-powered devices.
The Chargie app has an external, app-independent battery-profiling function called Hardware Limiter that measures charging power throughout the charging cycle. You can then select a power threshold at which the Chargie device, independent of its app, will automatically cut off the energy going to your battery.
It also will wait for a configurable amount of time until reapplying power to make new measurements. This way, your battery will charge to some 90 per cent, and also will get a chance to discharge for a while. You’ll just forget you’re using it, eventually.
What about the optimised charging in newer phones?
The Chargie project was here before all that (2019). Its functionality is more complex and covers various charging scenarios that phone manufacturers just can’t put into your phone by default, because they would confuse many people.
However, for battery-conscious folks, devices like Chargie are a relief. Chargie’s founder says that people came up with the idea many years ago, but there were no solutions at the time. And no, you can’t just make an app to limit charging without “rooting” your phone – an operation that is both technically complex and a security vulnerability after all. You need an external device.
Chargie offers manual/semi-automatic control over how power is supplied during the charging process. You can keep the overnight level at 50 per cent and only top up to a much healthier 90 per cent in the morning, or even to 100 per cent, if you need it. Chargie makes sure this is going to happen every single night, unlike stock implementations.
Where can I get one?
You can order your Chargie online, starting at $34.99 for Chargie A Gold Edition, if your charger is USB-A. For just $1 more, you can pick up the new Chargie C Basic, which limits the power coming out of your charger to just 8W and works with modern PD power supplies and USB-C connectors. This slows the charging process by about 20 per cent but is much better for your battery. There will also be a Chargie C for Laptops in the very near future.
Use coupon code pocketlint22 and get a free USB-C cable for Chargie C Basic and a 5 per cent overall order discount. Read more about it on the official Chargie website.