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Layne asked: “I was wondering how long a normal life-span of a cell phone battery is. I have a Galaxy S5 and have had it about 2 and a half years. It doesn’t seem to be holding a charge like it used to. Wondering if I should get a new battery.”
Layne, the life a battery is measured in charge cycles. A charge cycle is the equivalent to charging a battery from empty to full.
Modern batteries tend to last around 500 life cycles, but before that you’re likely to see some kind of deterioration, since they’re chemical devices and they do wear out.
If your battery is two and a half years old, it’s normal for it to not be holding a charge as well as it used to.
If your battery is two and a half years old, it’s normal for it to not be holding a charge as well as it used to.
The good news for you is that if you replace the battery with a new one, there’s no reason for the new one to perform any differently than the original one did when they phone was new. If you want to replace the battery you can and you will notice a difference.
Just don’t spend too much money on a new battery, a 2 and a half year old phone probably don’t have a lot of life left in it, and you’ll probably want to replace it at some point, but if the battery is reasonably inexpensive, go for it!