Nintendo has revealed that the Switch 2 console ships with a smart battery charging feature that is meant to prolong the overall battery health of your console by slowing its charge down when it hits 90%.
The news comes from the official Nintendo Today! news app, which sadly isn’t available to South Africans. Nintendo shared the information in a post. According to the console maker, this battery feature will let users enable a smart charge setting. Once enabled, the console will trickle charge the battery as it approaches 90% capacity and maintain that charge.
This is a feature that most tech includes nowadays. Most smartphones come with the ability to set a charge limit and Valve is also working on implementing the feature into the Steam Deck in a new update.
Essentially, smart charging a battery does help with its overall lifespan. That’s because lithium battery cells, which are included in the majority of tech, suffer from shortened lifespan if they are kept in a “charge state” for a prolonged period of time.
So if a battery is stuck at 100% for a long time, it doesn’t stimulate the battery cells and affects the overall health of the battery. If a battery is set to charge to 90%, it will keep trickle charging as it drops to, say, 89.9% back up to 90%. That way, the cells are kept active and stimulated.
The safest way to keep the best battery health on a product is to never let it go completely flat and never let it charge all the way to the max and stay there. I always say, 20% – 80%. However, the Switch 2 is seemingly 90% which is just as good.
When you get your Nintendo Switch 2 console, you’ll be able to enable the feature in the system settings. The toggle is called “Stop Charging Around 90%”. Once enabled, you’ll live a happier life knowing your Switch 2 battery might last a bit longer.
