Your Android phone's battery has a limited lifespan: Here's how to check it

Published Sep 30, 2026, 9:00 AM EDT Joe Fedewa has been writing about technology for over a decade. Android and the rest of the Google ecosystem have been a focus for years, as well as reviewing devices, hosting podcasts, filming videos, and writing tutorials. Joe loves all things technology and is also an avid DIYer and food blogger. He has written thousands of articles, hundreds of tutorials, and dozens of reviews. Before joining How-To Geek, Joe worked at XDA-Developers as Managing Editor and covered news from the Google ecosystem. He got his start in the industry covering Windows Phone on a small blog, and later moved to Phandroid where he covered Android news, reviewed devices, wrote tutorials, created YouTube videos, and hosted a podcast. From smartphones to Bluetooth earbuds to Z-Wave switches, Joe is interested in all kinds of technology. After several years of jailbreaking and heavily modifying an iPod Touch, he moved on to his first smartphone, the HTC DROID Eris. He's been hooked ever since. Day in and day out, there's one thing keeping your Android phone ticking: the battery. You may already know that your charging habits determine the battery's long-term health, but this is not some mysterious metric. It's a thing you can actually find and track. Battery health is very important It's the key indicator for long-term usability Smartphone batteries die in two different ways. There are typical charge cycles happening every day, but in the grand scheme of things, a battery can only withstand so many of those cycles before it dies completely. That's when a battery can't hold a charge at all. Battery health is the metric that tells you where you are on that big picture scale. Professional athletes are often asked about their health after an injury in terms of percentage, and the same logic applies to batteries. There's not an exact, specific scale, but here's a good general guide: 100-90%: Excellent — holding max capacity, discharging as slowly as possible. 90-80%: Normal — typical wear, operating near max capacity. 80-70%: Fair — still usable, but noticeably doesn't last as long as usual. 70-60%: Worn — discharges quickly, should be replaced soon. Below 60%: Poor — replacement needed in order to keep using the device. Measuring the battery health takes a combination of hardware sensors and software algorithms. The device tracks how many mAh pass from a 0% state to a 100% state to determine the battery's current max capacity. Then, it can compare that to the battery's original "Design Capacity." On a more basic level, the device keeps a count of charge cycles — most lose around 20% capacity near 1,000 full cycles. Not all Android phones display the battery health in a precise percentage. Some use simple language like "normal" and the other words mentioned in the list above. So let's go find out. Check battery health on a Samsung Galaxy phone Easy as it's always been Samsung was one of the first Android phone makers to include the ability to check battery health without a hacky diagnostic code. The feature is tucked away in an app that sounds completely unrelated to device diagnostics, but it's accessible from the phone's settings as well. First, open the Settings on your Samsung phone and go to "Device Care." Scroll down and select "Diagnostics," then "Phone diagnostics" on the next screen. If you've never opened this screen before, you'll need to wait for some tests to run. It's not necessary to run the extra tests to see battery health. Once complete, tap "Battery status" and you'll see your battery health reading (mine is "Normal"). Check battery health on a Google Pixel phone Finally built in Up until the release of Android 16 in 2025, Pixel phones didn't have an easy way to check battery health. Now, it's actually easier than Samsung (you don't need a strange "Members" app to do it) and provides more detailed information. Open the Settings and go to the "Battery" section. Technically, you can see the reading right here — it's shown under the "Battery health" header. For a bit more info, tap "Battery health" to read the full details. Here you can see a precise percentage for the battery capacity. There's also a shortcut to adjust the charging optimization. For those who don't use a Samsung or Google phone, try searching for "battery health" or "battery diagnostics" in the Settings app. Practice safe battery usage Now that you know how to find your Android phone's battery health, let's talk about ways to maintain it. The main thing to know is that batteries don't like being completely empty or fully charged all the time. Keeping the battery away from extremes as much as possible, in the 80-20% range, is best for long-term health. Speaking of extremes, temperature plays a role as well. Avoid leaving your phone in the sun or a hot parked car. Don't let your phone stay hot from extended gaming sessions or navigating during long road trips. On the other hand, cold temperatures can actually be good for a battery as long as it doesn't lead to condensation inside the device. I'm just glad that it's finally easy to check battery health on most Android phones (and the iPhone) nowadays. Samsung Galaxy and Pixel phones have plenty of other diagnostic tools at your disposal, too.