Am I killing my battery by leaving my Nexus 4 on the dock?

runekey · January 14th, 2013, 07:27 PM

So I just got my Nexus 4 about a month ago, and have bought this dock for my desk, where my phone sits in whenever I am at my desktop (probably around 4 hours a day). While it's charging in the dock, I frequently send/receive texts and do other phone-ish stuff with it periodically.

Awhile ago I heard somewhere that charging your phone in the middle of the day while you're actively using it destroys your long-term battery life. Is this true? Should I only charge my phone at night?

Generally I wouldn't be worried about this, but the N4's non-changeable battery has me concerned for it's longevity.

saptech · January 14th, 2013, 08:15 PM

After reading your post, I looked up a dock for my phone, sorry it's not like yours, but it does say this about mine.

Quote:

Your Galaxy S II remains fully functional while charging in its Desktop Dock. Watch your handset stream news, local weather, or just play with your apps?all while charging.

My phone also has a removable battery but I would assume yours is okay to use it while charging.

runekey · January 14th, 2013, 08:54 PM

That makes me feel a little better, but I doubt the dock manual would mention that it destroys your battery with extended use if it did.

SIII groupie · January 14th, 2013, 09:24 PM

Don't stress or worry. Unless it gets high temps. Heat is an enemy of Li-Ion and similar. They do not suffer "memory effect" that other do. Meaning you don't have to worry about partial charges. It is recommended to periodically do a full discharge. Before anyone says that is bad you can't do a real full discharge the battery won't let you. But do down to what the phone lets you to keep the battery from atrophy maybe once a month. That is for anyone not just docks.

If you want to learn about batts, Google BatteryU.

runekey · January 15th, 2013, 12:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SIII groupie

Don't stress or worry. Unless it gets high temps. Heat is an enemy of Li-Ion and similar. They do not suffer "memory effect" that other do. Meaning you don't have to worry about partial charges. It is recommended to periodically do a full discharge. Before anyone says that is bad you can't do a real full discharge the battery won't let you. But do down to what the phone lets you to keep the battery from atrophy maybe once a month. That is for anyone not just docks.

If you want to learn about batts, Google BatteryU.

Thanks, that makes sense!

itsallgood · January 15th, 2013, 12:36 PM

No more then when your not using the dock. Most mobile devices monitor the charge, so that you won't over charge the battery. I have an Atrix 4G and I use both the standard dock, as an alarm clock, and Lapdock as a netbook computer. My phone is always being charged in both docks, at least 11hrs a day, and I haven't noticed any abnormal decrease in the batter or increase in heat. I would say that my phone is being charged more then not. I am still using the stock battery, but have a backup battery. I switch between the two every week, just to keep both batteries fresh. (Only been doing this for about 3 months.) At least once a month I let both batteries go down to about 30%.