你应不应该整夜给手机充电?

Chances are, you plug in your phone before you go to bed at night, thinking it's best to greet the morning with a fully charged device.

晚上临睡前，你可能会给手机充上电，想着第二天早上看到一部电量满格的手机。

Is this a good idea? That depends.

这是个好主意吗？不一定。

Here's the thing. Many people don't expect to keep their phones for much longer than two years.

问题在于，很多人并不想使用寿命超过两年时间的手机。

For the most part, experts say, those people are not going to notice much damage to their phone batteries before they start hankering for a new device.

专家称，大多数情况下，这些人在渴望换新手机之前，并不会注意到现有手机电池的受损程度。

If that sounds like you, feel free to charge every night, and as often as you like in between.

如果你也是这样，那你可以每天晚上都充电，想充几次就充几次。

But frequent charging takes a toll on the lithium-ion batteries in our phones.

但频繁充电会损害手机锂离子电池的性能。

And it's not because they can be overcharged, said Edo Campos, a spokesman for Anker, which produces phone chargers.

Anker公司的发言人埃多·坎波斯表示，原因并不在于电池不能过度充电。

"Smartphones are, in fact, smart," Mr. Campos said. "They know when to stop charging."

"事实上，智能手机很聪明，"坎波斯说，"它们知道应该何时停止充电。"

Android phones and iPhones are equipped with chips that protect them from absorbing excess electrical current once they are fully charged.

安卓手机和苹果手机一旦充满电，内置芯片就会阻止它们吸收多余的电流。

So in theory, any damage from charging your phone overnight with an official charger, or a trustworthy off-brand charger, should be negligible.

因此，理论上用原装充电器或其他可信赖的品牌的充电器给手机彻夜充电，所造成的损害可以忽略不计。

But the act of charging is itself bad for your phone's battery. Here's why.

但是充电行为本身对手机电池是有害的。原因如下：

Most phones make use of a technology that allows their batteries to accept more current faster.

多数手机都采用了一种可以给电池快速充电的技术。

Hatem Zeine, the founder, chief scientist and chief technical officer of the wireless charging company Ossia, says the technology enables phones to adjust to the amount of charge that a charger is capable of supplying.

无线充电装置公司Ossia的创始人、首席科学家及首席技术总监哈特姆·泽恩表示，这种技术会让手机自动调整，来适应充电器能够供应的电量。

The technology allows power to pulse into the battery in specific modulations, increasing the speed at which the lithium ions in the battery travel from one side to the other and causing the battery to charge more quickly.

这种技术允许以特定的脉冲调制方式将电充入电池，提高锂离子在电池中的移动速度，从而让电池更快地充电。

But this process also leads lithium-ion (and lithium-polymer) batteries to corrode faster than they otherwise would.

但是与其他充电方式相比，这一过程也会导致锂离子（以及锂聚合物）电池比正常情况下损耗得更快。

"When you charge fast all the time, you limit the life span of the battery," Mr. Zeine said.

泽恩说道："总是快速充电会降低电池的使用寿命。"

If you're intent on preserving a lithium-ion battery beyond the lifetime of the typical phone or tablet, Mr. Zeine suggested using a charger meant for a less powerful device, though he couldn't guarantee that it would work.

如果你想让锂离子电池的寿命比一般的手机或平板电脑更长，泽恩建议使用小功率设备专用的充电器，但他不能保证这个方法一定有效。

"For example, if you used an iPhone charger on an iPad Pro, it's going to charge very slowly," Mr. Zeine said. "If the electronics are right, they can actually preserve the battery because you're always charging it slowly."

"例如，如果你用苹果手机充电器给苹果的平板电脑充电，这个速度会很慢，" 泽恩说。"如果使用合适的充电器，它们真的可以保护电池，因为充电的速度会很慢。"

People looking to preserve their batteries should make sure their phones don't become overheated, Mr. Campos advised, because high temperatures further excite the lithium-ion in batteries, leading to even quicker deterioration.

坎波斯建议，人们如果想要保护电池，应该确保手机不会过热，因为高温会让电池中的锂离子的速度移动更快，导致电池加速耗损。

Apple's website says temperatures above 95 degrees Fahrenheit (or 35 Celsius) can "permanently damage battery capacity."

苹果官网称，温度超过95华氏度（或35摄氏度），会对电池性能造成永久性损害。