Found out my phone battery has a hidden expiration date, not just charge cycles

I was looking up why my Pixel 6 battery started draining so fast after 2 years, and I stumbled on a stat that blew my mind. Apparently lithium ion batteries start degrading the moment they're made, even if you never use them. I found this deep in a thread on a battery science subreddit where someone linked a study showing 20% capacity loss after 3 years just sitting on a shelf. That means the battery in that new phone you buy from a 2022 batch is already partially dead. Has anyone else checked their manufacturing date and found it older than you expected?

2 comments

2 Comments

simons2810d agoMost Upvoted

Ha, I bought a "new" phone last year and the battery was made 14 months before I even unboxed it.

matthewkim10d ago

Yeah that tracks with what I found too. In my experience it's pretty common for phone batteries to be sitting in warehouses for months before you ever get them. @simons28 your 14 month old battery is actually pretty normal, I've seen some folks report 2+ year old batteries in "new" phones. One thing that helped me was using a battery health app to check the manufacturing date right after unboxing. If it's over a year old I'd honestly consider returning it if you can, especially for a flagship phone. Also keeping your charge between 20-80% instead of going to 100% all the time seems to slow down the aging process a bit. Your mileage may vary but that's what's worked for me on my last few phones.