eli5: How come an old Nintendo DS battery lasts forever and will play for a long time on a charge but modern phone batteries deteriorate so much within a few years?

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My 15 year old well worn DS lite seems like the battery capacity hasn’t changed at all over time, but my 6 year old Galaxy S6 has a very noticeable quickly draining battery. I think processor and system load has something to do with it but they are both lithium ion I believe. Me no get

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Anonymous 0 Comments

I assume you use your phone much more often than your DS and therefore have more recharge cycles. Most people also leave the phone charging even though the battery is fully charged (there is a protection in place which prevents overcharging).

Still, this will wear down the battery over time.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Edit: I stand corrected.

I will be more careful about where I get my information from and make sure to fact check my statements, before I spread false information in the future

Thank you to u/Pocok5 and u/d2factotum for pointing out my mistakes in their comments.

~~Easy. Same reason they made light bulbs have a certain living spance.~~

~~They could make a light bulb that will shine for literally 100 of years. They already did (Google Centennial Light for more info), but there’s not much business in making things last.~~

~~So I guess, just like the light bulb, the battery industry has to make their products last as short as possible but still long enough for the consumer to accept the buy and throw away concept they are presented with.~~

~~More productions creates more profits. Just as simple as that~~

Anonymous 0 Comments

Phones have increasingly more tech put into them over the years, with ~~great power comes great responsibility~~ higher battery drain.
Batteries wear out due to things like charging cycles, heat, how fast they are charged, etc.
A DS may not draw as much from a battery so the battery cycle isn’t repeated as much. Additionally, it might not put as much of a load on the battery causing a voltage drop.

In addition to the phone being a higher draw device than a DS, the phone probably went through charge/discharge cycles daily with use. If it was plugged into a faster charger, then that also would have caused more battery degradation.