Pixel’s 80% charging limit only works when your phone is powered on

Frequent charging and discharging is one of the primary reasons for early battery degradation, especially in smartphones. While many operating systems have long offered a concrete way to counter early battery wear and tear, Google’s implementation came only roughly two months ago.

Back in November, the tech giant finally began rolling out a hard charging limit to Pixel devices running Android 15 stable, something that had already been spotted in several preceding beta builds. We later learned that the feature isn’t as strict as we might have previously thought.

For reference, even with the 80 percent charging limit enabled, your Pixel device might occasionally charge to 100 percent. This is not a bug, and rather an intentional way for the device to “recalibrate estimated capacity,” offering more reliable and accurate battery life estimates.

Now, we’re learning that there’s one more instance where a Pixel device might bypass its hard charging limit, and this one has no apparent connection to any intended calibration feature.

Don’t forget to power on your Pixel

First spotted by folks over at 9to5Google, the 80 percent charge limit is disregarded when your Pixel device is powered off. For reference, iPhones and some Android devices from other OEMs automatically power on when connected to a charger. In the case of Pixel devices, the phone only powers on when you manually do so.

For example, let’s say your Pixel 8 runs out of charge after a heavy day of usage, and you throw it on a charger but forget to manually power it on, it will disregard the 80 percent hard limit and charge all the way up to 100 percent. This suggests that Google’s charging limit is implemented at the Android OS level rather than at the hardware level.

Users hoping to maintain their Pixel device’s battery health should consciously power on their device if it is dead when thrown on the charger. For what it’s worth, you can be a little careless once the device is powered on, considering that when the device hits the 80 percent battery mark, it will automatically stop regular charging and switch to bypass, allowing it to run on your wall outlet’s power alone.

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