Galaxy Z Fold 3 And Galaxy Z Flip 3 Have A New Feature To Protect Batteries

Many smartphone users were waiting in anticipation for Samsung's new Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3 smartphones with their flexible form factors. Samsung has always used its One UI over the top of Android to deliver customization and features that might not be part of the normal Android build. On both the new folding smartphones, One UI 3.1.1 is the version running out of the box.

While One UI 3.1.1 isn't a gigantic update over the previous version of Samsung's skin, it does have some notable improvements. One of those improvements is a new feature that comes straight from Samsung's Galaxy tablet line and is designed to help protect the battery inside the smartphones. Both of the folding devices have a Device Care option called "Protect battery."

Owners of the devices can find the feature in settings under Device Care and then tap the Battery icon and hit "More battery settings." However, there is a caveat when turning this feature on, even though it may help the battery survive in the long run. When Protect battery is enabled, the caveat is that it limits the battery inside the smartphone from charging over 85 percent.

Having a battery that won't completely charge will reduce the device run time and could leave users with a dead phone right when they need it. Studies have shown that completely charging a conventional battery to 100 percent does negatively impact the battery performance over the long haul.

Samsung certainly isn't the only smartphone maker to offer settings limiting the charge capacity of smartphone batteries. Apple does this, as do other Android manufacturers. It appears Samsung may be more concerned about the battery life for the folding smartphones than it is for its more popular Galaxy S21 series. S21 devices recently received an update to One UI 3.1.1, and the Protect battery feature is missing for those devices.