The Pixel’s 80 percent charge limit has one fault you should be aware of

Smartphones are not cheap devices, and one of the primary reasons people decide to finally upgrade is due to battery degradation. Having to plug in your phone multiple times a day is a pain. With December’s Pixel Feature Drop, Google added a new Charging Limit feature to Pixel phones to help users better optimize their battery so it will last longer.

However, a new fault with the feature has been discovered. The 80 percent charge limit does not work when your phone is powered off (via 9to5Google).

This means if you have an 80 percent charge limit enabled and your Pixel is powered off, when you plug it in to charge, it will ignore the limit and charge up to 100 percent. This can be avoided by powering the phone on before it hits an 80 percent charge. This fault indicates that the charging limit feature is implemented at the Android OS software level, not hardware.

How to enable a charging limit on your Pixel

Bypass charging is another new feature available now

While this fault is a nuisance, it’s not the end of the world. Hopefully, Google will address this in a future update. It’s not common for people to charge their phones powered off, but it does happen. Occasionally, your Pixel phone might also ignore the charging limit even when powered on too, but this is intentional and is done to “recalibrate estimated capacity” so battery life estimates remain accurate.

If your Pixel phone is up-to-date, you can enable the charging limit feature in the Settings app. Just select Battery > Charging optimization. With the charge limit set to 80 percent, when your phone is powered on, it will automatically stop charging once it reaches that threshold. The feature is available on the Pixel 6 series and up.

Enabling a charge limit is a great way to extend your battery’s longevity, as it reduces the amount of charge and discharge cycles the phone goes through. Bypass charging is another new feature that has recently come to Pixel phones. It only works if you have a charge limit set and your phone is plugged into the wall. Once your phone hits an 80 percent charge, it will use DC power from the charger instead of the battery to power the device. This is useful if you use your phone a lot while charging, such as for playing games or watching videos.

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