How to charge a smartphone
How to charge a smartphone
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Like laptops and tablets, a smartphone has a built-in, rechargeable battery.
You can use a smartphone for many hours before the battery runs down. In this activity, you'll learn how to recharge the battery of a smartphone.
Start activityHow to check the battery power
When the smartphone is turned on, you'll see a battery power symbol near the top right of the screen. It will show how full the battery is.
When the indicator is getting low, it's time to recharge. You can recharge by connecting the smartphone to a mains power socket with a cable.
It may take some time to recharge the battery, depending on how low the power level is when you start. You should, however, be able to use the smartphone while you are charging it.
How often should I recharge my battery?
This will depend on how much you use your smartphone, and the types of things you do on it. Watching a video, for example, will use more power than reading emails. The are a few ways to recharge the battery in a smartphone. Let's look at them.
Recharge from mains power
To recharge from a wall socket, you need a USB or USBC power adapter. The smartphone might come with one, or you can get one from most supermarket and electronics stores. You plug the adapter into the wall. Then you connect the phone to the adapter with the power cable that came with the phone.
Recharge from a computer
Just like a tablet, a smartphone can also draw power from a computer. You can use the power cable that comes with the phone to plug into a port on the computer.
Recharge from a cradle
Some smartphones may have a cradle or dock for recharging.
These connect to a mains power wall socket, and you place the smartphone into the cradle or dock when you want to recharge it.
How you know when the smartphone is charged
To check the progress of the charge, turn the smartphone on while it's connected to power. If the battery symbol appears full, the smartphone is fully charged. Many smartphones will also show the charge level as a percentage. If the smartphone shows 100%, you can unplug it from mains power.
Congratulations!
You've completed the activity on How to charge a smartphone.
In this activity you have learned that the battery in a smartphone needs to be recharged every now and then, and that you can recharge from a mains power socket, or a desktop or laptop computer.
Next up, Comparing devices, is where we compare a smartphone with computing devices you may have learned about in the previous desktop, laptop and tablet courses.