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How to charge an XDA battery for best results

wondered if people have an opinion on the best way to charge the XDA.
With my current mobile (samsung N500) I always used the policy of charge until full, then run until flat, then charge until full again etc.
ie, never recharging until it was flat. This is a bit of a throwback to when I used to use nicads a lot about 15 years ago.
the methodology being that if you did it this way the batteries remembered how much charge they were supposed to hold.
however, these new lithium polymer batteries in PDA's aren't supposed to have this issue are they?
On my samsung it's been fine, it's held charge well and never really gotten less, even after a years worth of charging and discharging.
A chap at work does the complete opposite, he puts his on charge whenever he can, whether it's flat or not, and usually before it falls below 80%, his reasoning being that he read somewhere that if you trickle charge it a lot it lasts longer.
as you can see, two conflicting methods of working.
what should I be doing to make my battery last as long and as well as possible

The "memory effect" issue is known for the N.MH battaries only ... and it's true that u have to drain it each time ... the XDA has L.Polymer type which doesn't have this issue ... u can charge it each night.

so I can charge it each night whether it's flat or not? sorry if this sounds dumb but I just want to make sure I understand this right,
don't fell like sending it off to have the battery replaced every few months because I abuse it.

yes ... u can actually leave it powered in the cradle the whole time

I knew the Nicads had the memory problem, but the NiMh aren't supposed to be as bad. Most new types of batteries don't have the memory problem, just increased capacities and less harmful to the environment.

discharge almost fully then recharge
I used to own a iPAQ 3630 and now I own an O2 XDA. Both the iPAQ and the XDA have a Li-Po battery, and with both devices I have the same charge/discharge experience. The battery lasts longer if you discharge it almost fully, till say 20-30% and then charge, not sooner. Constantly recharging decreases battery life considerably, as if the battery gets "lazy". My XDA's battery now lasts 5-6 hours usage with backlight on plus some 48hrs on standby. My 2 cents.

well after one days use I'm impressed by the battery life
fully charged and went off charge at 5pm
10 mins talk time
3 hours farting around with it in the evening
went to bed at 11pm
backlight off
no switch off set
phone switched off
by 7.30 am this morning, still had 30% battery left
nice.

Saving battery while listening to music
I have never had a problem keeping a battery charge until recently. I normally have my sx56 on standby and talk for about an hour a day and maybe spend half an hour checking appointments. I just recently got a 512 card and when I'm walking somewhere I listen to music. Maybe another hour out of my day. For whatever reason I used to end a 12 hour day with 40-50% battery and now I'm down to 10-20. I currently use wm player and keep the screen off when music is on. Do other softwares use less battery and is this drain in 12 hours normal. It sounds excessive to me.

doesn't sound out of the ordinary.
playing of MP3's really drains the batteries. quite a few reviews use draining the batteries by playing MP3's as some sort of yardstick.
I've seen reviews that quote the XDa as running down flat after 3 .5 hours from playing MP3's.

Is it true charging li-ion no more than 80% increase its life?

From http://www.wmskins.com/blog/how-to-increase-battery-life-of-windows-mobiles:
1. A Lithium Ion battery should never be charged to 100% or fully Discharged. The famous 80-20 rule is applicable here as well, though in a different way. Charging to 80% increases battery life.
2. Don’t wait for full discharge, charge it frequently. Keeping the battery near to 80% always, gives better life. This is also what many vendors claim as “memory effect”.
I followed that advice and then after a few weeks, when once I charged it to 100%, it dropped quickly to 80%! and has been like that since. now I don't give a damn to that rule and charge my phone to 100% instead.

At this point, I would advise you do a full charge and deep discharge of your phone. Just to allow the phone to calibrate itself to the battery again.
However, I would advise against running programs to intentionally drain it at a high draw. So instead of playing 5 hours of FPSECE to drain it flat, just let it sit on standby and use it as you normally would, until it dies. Then charge it back up in one continuous charge (refrain from unplugging until it goes back to 100%). Hopefully that will restore the accuracy of your battery meter by a bit.
And IMHO, the article you included discusses things about batteries that are no longer true....
2. Don’t wait for full discharge, charge it frequently. Keeping the battery near to 80% always, gives better life. This is also what many vendors claim as “memory effect”.
No. "Memory effect" is, in laymen terms, the battery not being able to hold above a certain charge after being repeatedly discharged from the same capacity. E.g. being discharged at 80%. It doesn't "give battery life" -- in fact it kills your battery's capacity.
This is a term more relevant for old NiCd batteries. LiONs and most NiMH batteries have very weak/no memory effect.
3. Every battery has limited Full charge-discharge cycles. Of the order of 300+. In other words a typical phone battery can be fully charged/discharged 300 times. Doing more frequent charges, as specified in point #2, will increase overall life.
Partially true. Every battery can be charged a number of times before its ability to hold a charge deteriorates. Usually this is around 300, though the exact number varies between individual batteries. However, the concept of a "cycle" isn't exact -- just because you charged from 60-80% (or whatever) doesn't mean you didn't use a cycle. It's really a continuum, and should only be conceptualized as the battery losing its ability to be charged and hold a charge, the more times you charge it.
4. During first time use (when the battery is new) don`t use it till its fully charged. This is why it is always written on manuals “let the device charge for 2-3 hours”.
The necessity of preconditioning is controversial now. There is little evidence to suggest that devices nowadays benefit from preconditioning, and likewise there is little evidence that not doing so harms battery longevity. Many manuals these days simply omit to mention preconditioning.
5. Best way to increase battery life is Not to use it. If you keep AC power plugged in on your phones, keeping the battery at 80% (as in #1), your battery will last longer. Though discharging it once in a month would be must in such cases.
Partially true. Not using your battery does indeed help its longevity, but not by plugging into the AC. Heat is a LiON battery's enemy, and plugging it into your wall will generate heat that is ultimately bad. This translates to laptop batteries as well -- if you want to store a laptop battery, the best bet is to discharge it to 40%, then put it somewhere cool (even the fridge if you want).
Also I would say doing a deep discharge once a month is too frequent. Once every 2 or even 3 months is more appropriate.
Finally, LiON batteries themselves have a shelf life. So even if you let them sit there, they will lose their function after a few years. Just so yo uknow.
6. Surrounding temperature contributes a lot. Colder weather gives better battery life. So make sure your cellphone doesn’t overheat, if it does, find ways to keep it cool.
True. And that's why you shouldn't leave it plugged in.
Learn more about batteries here: http://www.batteryuniversity.com/

felixdd said:
E.g. being discharged at 80%. It doesn't "give battery life" -- in fact it kills your battery's capacity.
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is that so? why? so i guess now my battery's capacity has lessened. damn the article.
have drained my battery to 1% and charged it to 100%. let's see how it goes from here..

good subject for discusion. WM user or not the battery life and the tricks of LION only a few knows.
1.i have two batteries for my HTC. he original battery and one with 2800mAh. Does my phone cofused if i change tha batteries aternately?
2. if ai want to work with my phone for hours is it better to connect it with the charger?
3. Wich kind of charging is better? with USB cable from pc or wall charger.

I have the option in my BIOS for my laptop which says an 80% charge will prolong the lifespan of the battery.
Batteries must undergo a fair bit of research (for environmental impact reasons if nothing else!) and to have such a bold statement to me indicates that its an obvious fact to battery researchers.
Given ive lay in bed this morning messing about on facebook and setting up rss feeds on my phone and emptied a full battery I dont think Id ever stop charging at 80%. Ill just buy another battery!

i really doubt cold weather improves battery life, numerous times my family and I brought electronic products to cold countries and the Battery life always drops at a much quicker rate

dan138zig said:
is that so? why? so i guess now my battery's capacity has lessened. damn the article.
have drained my battery to 1% and charged it to 100%. let's see how it goes from here..
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You are taking what i said out of context.
What I'm saying is that IF your battery had a memory effect as the original article claimed, then charging the battery to only 80 will create a memory at 80, which would be worse for your battery. I'm merely trying to point out an inconsistency in there article.
However, I went on to say that li ON batteries do not have a memory effect. So more relevant to the real world is the fact that our batteries will not experience memory as claimed by the article.

Two main things kill lithium batteries, heat and time as they promote deposits forming in the electrolyte, which reduces the capacity of the battery.
So, buying a "spare" battery at the time you buy a phone with a plan on using it when the original battery starts to fail is a bad idea as the spare battery would be slowly deterorating on the shelf.
Deep charges rather than top up charges are bad as they produce more heat inside the battery, although doing it if your battery doesn't seem to be holding it's chage is a good idea as it should recalibrate the phone's battery level software.

To paraphrase the old saying, " blogs and opinions are like a##holes, everyone has one "
I have followed the links in this thread and so far I have just read unsubstantiated opinion.
I have used " cordless " electronics for most of my life and have used all kinds of batteries extensively as well as talked to company reps and battery " experts ".
Nickel Cadmium batteries had memories. The batteries had to be conditioned and fully charged and discharged. The new Lithium Ion batteries were advantageous , not only because they held a bigger charge and lasted longer, but also because they have NO memory. The latest example being, I regularly charged my Tilt battery to all levels of charge. Mostly 100% everyday and ran it down to 5% most times before charging it again. I used it a lot and charged it a lot. and it lasted 2 yrs.
The only difference I have really noticed in batteries has nothing to do with the way you charge it. It has to do with " getting what you pay for " I have had quality batteries really show their quality and $ 12 batteries give me up to and only my $12 worth.

Charging Lithium Ion Batteries to 80%
denco7 said:
To paraphrase the old saying, " blogs and opinions are like a##holes, everyone has one "
I have followed the links in this thread and so far I have just read unsubstantiated opinion.
I have used " cordless " electronics for most of my life and have used all kinds of batteries extensively as well as talked to company reps and battery " experts ".
Nickel Cadmium batteries had memories. The batteries had to be conditioned and fully charged and discharged. The new Lithium Ion batteries were advantageous , not only because they held a bigger charge and lasted longer, but also because they have NO memory. The latest example being, I regularly charged my Tilt battery to all levels of charge. Mostly 100% everyday and ran it down to 5% most times before charging it again. I used it a lot and charged it a lot. and it lasted 2 yrs.
The only difference I have really noticed in batteries has nothing to do with the way you charge it. It has to do with " getting what you pay for " I have had quality batteries really show their quality and $ 12 batteries give me up to and only my $12 worth.
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I have a Nissan Leaf. It is clear that the engineers have spent a LOT of time thinking about how to maximize the life of the battery in the car. One of the options the car come with is to ALWAYS charge the batteries to 80%. In fact, they've gone as far as to add a button on the dashboard to override that setting in cases where a 100% charge is needed. According to the documentation that comes with the car, this is the single most important step to prolonging battery life. Next is frequent charges. Next is monitoring battery temperature which is constantly shown in a BIG display on the dashboard. In general, a good way to think about a lithium ion battery is that over its life you're trying to maximize the amount of power stored and then subsequently removed from the device. From the research I've done, if the "charging/discharging life" of the battery were cycles that swung from 100% to 0% you might get X kwHrs of power "moved" through the battery, yet if you were to limit charges to 80% and constantly charge it after each use, you could expect at least 2X! So it's a big deal. I live in Bellevue, Washington which has a very mild climate and have put 26,000 miles on this car in the last 2 years, making mostly small 3-to-20 mile trips, and I routinely charge the car when I pull into the garage, and would estimate that the battery has been charged well over 1000 times. To date, there is no detectable loss in battery capacity; the first indication of which would appear on the car's instrumentation when just over 4% of the charging capacity of the car has been lost.

My Sony VAIO Pro 13 actually offers the 80/20 option in Power Settings. However, I do not use it.

Possible Battery Charge Limiter?

Guys,
I have a sony vaio and i have a mode called Enable Battery Care Function where the app restricts the battery to stop charging at 80% which would multiply the life of a notebook battery (says Sony) there is another mode super care function @ 50%. I find this handy because i always have the power plugged in for my laptop.
Similarly i always have my HD2 plugged in to my notebook, so i keep recharging and may be over charging the device too and burn my recharge cycles. So can an app limit my charging to 80% or so? anybody share the same feeling?
Maybe an app can help.
Thanks,
Raj

commonsense would say it stupid.
stinginess would say it smart.
unless of course, you plan to use that phone for few decades where no more battery would be on sale. then you better start take good care of that battery.

badai said:
commonsense would say it stupid.
stinginess would say it smart.
unless of course, you plan to use that phone for few decades where no more battery would be on sale. then you better start take good care of that battery.
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Well,
I never use a phone for more than an year, you can see my list.. but what i do is to maintain it properly. I also have 2 spare batteries with me. so answer to my question if you know or pass.. this forum is no place for crap for someone with post count of 15.
Raj..

http://www.wmskins.com/blog/how-to-increase-battery-life-of-windows-mobiles
A Lithium Ion battery should never be charged to 100% or fully Discharged. The famous 80-20 rule is applicable here as well, though in a different way. Charging to 80% increases battery life.
Don’t wait for full discharge, charge it frequently. Keeping the battery near to 80% always, gives better life. This is also what many vendors claim as “memory effect”.
Every battery has limited Full charge-discharge cycles. Of the order of 300+. In other words a typical phone battery can be fully charged/discharged 300 times. Doing more frequent charges, as specified in point #2, will increase overall life.
During first time use (when the battery is new) don`t use it till its fully charged. This is why it is always written on manuals “let the device charge for 2-3 hours”.
Best way to increase battery life is Not to use it. If you keep AC power plugged in on your phones, keeping the battery at 80% (as in #1), your battery will last longer. Though discharging it once in a month would be must in such cases.
Surrounding temperature contributes a lot. Colder weather gives better battery life. So make sure your cellphone doesn’t overheat, if it does, find ways to keep it cool.
When not in use for long, store the battery keeping point 1 and point 6 in mind.
Apart from this there are specific tips to elongate battery life which are related to user’s usage:
Keep the screen brightness to as low as possible. This can reduce battery consumption by upto 40%.
Don’t do heavy tasks like gaming when running on battery. This often uses High CPU graphics which drains battery faster.
Kill background processes that you are not using, multitasking is one serious battery killer.
Use headsets for long conversations. This will give you 40-70% improvement in talk time. Why? because when you hold the cellphone in hands, your body absorbs most of the RF.
Use software like WMLongLife, it can increase battery significantly. It does that by switching the network mode to 2G automatically when you doen’t require 3G
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Well, I have my Sony Vaio TT92 with ext.batt (big one) now for 1,5 yrs in everyday use and until February had it in batt-save-mode 80%. It lasted about 10 hrs. with 50% screen-brightness and volume 50 %. Now in Feb it started to last only 7 hrs and less. Now I switched to full charge to get 9 hrs. of working time.
On the other hand I have my HTC Touch HD now for 2,5 yrs and until Dec. 2009 in full use, since my HD2 arrived as backup phone with a "xtra" sim-card so both the HD2 and Touch HD are ringing. I reduced e-mail download on my Touch HD to once a day and the batt after unplugging at 6 am shows still 98-99 % in the evening at 10 pm with the original batt that came with the phone.
What do I want to tell You: drain and charging cycles do not seem to affect small batts with little Ah-drain as much as notebook batts, so it seems to me.
For my HD2 I bought the ext.batt and it is fine for 2 days of full work with it. When I see it deteriorating I will buy a new one.
Or, more probable, the HD3

moto g3 battery strength testing and EOL determination

This is intended to be generic - Moto G3 with any ROM - stock or custom, and any apps on it.
I had drained my battery to 40% chasing a supposed weak signal problem, and noticed that it seemed to take many hours to recharge. Probably didn't help that I left it on while charging. I have always recharged this only letting it get down to maybe 80%. Some folks say that is bad.
I ordered a replacement battery on ebay. Currently undecided whether to install it.
Searched around for determining battery health and yes there is the usual very extensive test that will probably kill your battery by the time you are done.
One app said my battery was "good". Another wanted to calibrate it "Advanced battery calibrator" which wanted to install "battery life repair" which wanted to check my battery, supposedly found some bad cells, and when told to fix them, supposedly fixed them (NASA should be alerted about this for things like Mars Rovers!!!)( ), and of course a bunch of reviewers saying it's fake, and etc.
BUT... All that aside, I thought I would post that to see if anyone has found any great pearl of wisdom as to determining when to replace a battery. Or how to extend it's life. Or anything else pertaining to MG3 phone batteries..
EDIT: found this at http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/gadgets/a15731/best-way-to-keep-li-ion-batteries-charged/
One cycle is just one bout of discharging, but how much energy you discharge in one go—a measure referred to as depth of discharge (DoD)—matters bigtime. Lithium-ions really hate a deep depth of discharge. According to Battery University, a staggeringly exhaustive resource on the topic, a li-ion that goes through 100 percent DoD (the user runs it down all the way to zero before recharging) can degrade to 70 percent of its original capacity in 300-500 cycles. With a DoD of 25 percent, where the user plugs it in as soon as it gets to 75 percent remain, that same battery could be charged up to 2,500 times before it starts to seriously degrade.
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Oddly that's what I've been doing. Maybe battery's fine...? Figure 2 years at 1/day = 720. But what would leaving it plugged in all night be considered?
Then there's this which says don't leave it plugged in when it's fully charged (which I do overnight)
https://www.sciencealert.com/here-is-the-best-way-to-charge-your-phone
Yes, we know. Our smartphone batteries are bad because they barely last a day.
But it's partially our fault because we've been charging them wrong this whole time.
Many of us have an ingrained notion that charging our smartphones in small bursts will cause long-term damage to their batteries and that it's better to charge them when they're close to dead.
But we couldn't be more wrong.
In fact, a site from battery company Cadex called Battery University details how the lithium-ion batteries in our smartphones are sensitive to their own versions of 'stress'. And, like for humans, extended stress could be damaging your smartphone battery's long-term lifespan.
If you want to keep your smartphone battery in top condition and go about your day without worrying about battery life, you need to change a few things.
Don't keep it plugged in when it's fully charged
According to Battery University, leaving your phone plugged in when it's fully charged, like you might overnight, is bad for the battery in the long run.
Once your smartphone has reached 100 percent charge, it gets 'trickle charges' to keep it at 100 percent while plugged in. It keeps the battery in a high-stress, high-tension state, which wears down the chemistry within.
Battery University goes into a bunch of scientific detail explaining why, but it also sums it up nicely: "When fully charged, remove the battery" from its charging device. "This is like relaxing the muscles after strenuous exercise." You too would be pretty miserable if you worked out nonstop for hours and hours.
In fact, try not to charge it to 100 percent
At least when you don't have to.
According to Battery University, "Li-ion does not need to be fully charged, nor is it desirable to do so. In fact, it is better not to fully charge, because a high voltage stresses the battery" and wears it away in the long run.
That might seem counterintuitive if you're trying to keep your smartphone charged all day, but just plug it in whenever you can during the day, and you'll be fine.
Plug in your phone whenever you can
It turns out that the batteries in our smartphones are much happier if you charge them occasionally throughout the day instead of plugging them in for a big charging session when they're empty.
Charging your phone when it loses 10 percent of its charge would be the best-case scenario, according to Battery University. Obviously, that's not practical for most people, so just plug in your smartphone whenever you can. It's fine to plug and unplug it multiple times a day.
Not only does this keep your smartphone's battery performing optimally for longer, but it also keeps it topped up throughout the day.
Plus, periodic top-ups also let you use features you might not normally use because they hog your battery life, like location-based features that use your smartphone's GPS antenna.
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Question Poll: do you use the 85% charge limit?

Do you use the 85% charge limit?

i personally think that 85% is BS i have had god knows how many phone all charged to 100% every single night and ZERO! issue. and limiting this phone specially to 85 is a big cut in the hours you will get.

Not a chance. I'd hate this phone if it only charged to 85%.

I Use it all the time. 85% is enough Juice for one workday and i simple want the battery to last as long as possible. I have had bad experience with batteries dying after ~3 years.
The 85% Rule is no BS. You also have to keep an eye on minimal SOC and never go under 10% to avoid unnecessary battery degradation. With that your battery will perform according to the specs (~700 cycles until 80% SOH, modern smartphone batteries). Otherwise it will suffer and that reduces cycle life. This is simply the state of current lithium battery tech.

From my pov, a full day usage requires 100% of charge because some of them cannot charge the phone while they are outside the whole day.

I have wireless chargers almost everywhere, so when my phone is not being used it's normally sitting on a charger. That means that it very rarely uses much charge, so charging to 85% is fine by me. If I knew that I was going to be away from a charger for a protracted period, then I'd probably charge to 100% beforehand.
I can't get too excited about battery management. If I need to buy a new battery for my phone at some point in the future (it has never happened yet...) then that's what I'll do.

i use 85% because i have quick carger in my car and it charge all the time.
at home I have wireless charger and when i need i put it.

I tried it for a few weeks and instead of having 80% leaving work I was at 50%, not really worth it since I'll probably have a new phone in six months. It was too much of a headache stressing about battery life without the phone fully charging.

No, I charged to 100%.