Help How to get the most out of your Incredible battery?

[Smudgie]

I have read many posts stating that the battery life greatly improves over a weeks time or so. Not being all that familiar with battery technology....what is the best way to condition this battery? Should I charge completely and let it drain all the way down and then charge up again continuing to repeat this process for the first week or so? Thanks for any advice.

 

[Smudgie]

.....and is this recommended doing all of the time?

 

[CatsTide]

yep...that's how you do it...but it won't hurt it to pop it on for a quick charge before it goes all the way down.

 

[jbdan]

Charge it anytime you get the chance to charge it! Enjoy your phone and don't worry about the battery conditioning thing

 

[zemerick]

It should also be noted you are NOT affecting the battery. You are calibrating the indicator on the phone. Li-Ion batteries are ready to go from the factory.

As such, it is helpful to do a complete cycle ( Full charge to phone shuts itself off ) once a month or so to re-calibrate the battery indicator.

As for your standard daily charge...try to go from about 30%-95%. Don't fill it completely full ( unless of course if you're going to need it that day. ) or let it drain all the way to help preserve the long term life of the battery. (Letting it die every once in awhile is fine...its doing it every day that will slowly start to decrease the maximum charge over time.)

 

[barrister89]

I'm not aware that li-ions need cycling or conditioning to perform optimally, but correct me if I'm wrong. I do know that if voltage drops to zero they are ruined, and exposure to heat greatly shortens their life. They also age regardless of whether they are being used so if you have a spare I'd keep it in the fridge.

 

[barrister89]

It should also be noted you are NOT affecting the battery. You are calibrating the indicator on the phone. Li-Ion batteries are ready to go from the factory.

Didn't see that before I posted. Thanks for the good info. I wonder if people overestimate the accuracy of battery life indicators. I know a couple of laptops I've owned would say, e.g., 20% of battery life left and then shutoff (crash). My experience with laptops is that the battery life indicator seems to get less reliable over time as the battery ages.

 

[T-Mac]

Is it OK to let it charge overnight? I know some people say you should disconnect the battery from the power soon after it is fully charged. I've always let my laptop and other cellphones charge overnight. Just curious what others think about this.

 

[justbrae1]

Is it OK to let it charge overnight? I know some people say you should disconnect the battery from the power soon after it is fully charged. I've always let my laptop and other cellphones charge overnight. Just curious what others think about this.

I've never had a problem leaving phones plugged in overnight, and then removing when ready to leave the house.

 

[phorts]

Like most, i charge my phone at night, so "not filling it all the way up" is not something that's practical. I certainly can't be sitting by the phone waiting for it to hit 95% and then pull it off and turn it off.

On that note, i've read that it's better to charge the phone while it's off. Well, i plan to use my phone as my alarm clock, so that's also not going to happen.

I have, however, noticed a significant increase in battery life each day after doing full charges and discharges each day. It almost lasted me the day today after pretty heavy use. The jury is still out on whether or not it will eventually get the point where it will last me a whole day with heavy use.. if not, 2150 mAh battery here i come.

 

[justbrae1]

Like most, i charge my phone at night, so "not filling it all the way up" is not something that's practical. I certainly can't be sitting by the phone waiting for it to hit 95% and then pull it off and turn it off.

On that note, i've read that it's better to charge the phone while it's off. Well, i plan to use my phone as my alarm clock, so that's also not going to happen.

I have, however, noticed a significant increase in battery life each day after doing full charges and discharges each day. It almost lasted me the day today after pretty heavy use. The jury is still out on whether or not it will eventually get the point where it will last me a whole day with heavy use.. if not, 2150 mAh battery here i come.

Right. I've got 61% battery life after 15 hours since unplugged, and I can't get the damn thing to drain. I don't get good 3G coverage in my apartment, so I have it on wifi, playing music, surfing the web, updating all of my widgets as often as possible..

 

[ramcharger1979]

Right. I've got 61% battery life after 15 hours since unplugged, and I can't get the damn thing to drain. I don't get good 3G coverage in my apartment, so I have it on wifi, playing music, surfing the web, updating all of my widgets as often as possible..

My phone seems to last at least twice as long on the Wifi

 

[justbrae1]

My phone seems to last at least twice as long on the Wifi

I do notice that if I let it connect with 3G, it will take as much battery power as possible to increase the strength of the signal(usually about -60 dbm) to use it at a fast speed. Typically if I have an app that makes a quick attempt to connect online, there is barely enough signal(-100) and it does nothing to the battery life.

 

[Deleted User]

There are many, many threads on this topic, and almost as many opinions. The main thing is your battery life will improve after the first week because you will be using your phone less... as it seems like less of a new toy. These are my habits.

I try to charge the battery only after it is below at least 30%, and I try to charge fully and then remove from charger. I always have a backup... currently I am waiting on an extended battery from Seido (sp?), and thus my standard will go in my glove box.

The exception would be if I am using video or GPS, then I will have my phone charging if possible since those drain it very fast.

I use wifi whenever possible and shut off 3G. This has other benefits, like being faster and not counting against your "unlimited" 5GB monthly data usage (or whatever plan you have).

I never have the screen timeout set for more than 30 seconds.

I'm not lazy. If I want to watch a certain video on youtube and I am at home, I will watch it on my computer.

I used my phone a little less than usual today. Facebook, some email, maybe 30 minutes of talk time (on Bluetooth), 20 minutes of gaming. I am currently on track to get about 22 hours/charge

 

[justbrae1]

There are many, many threads on this topic, and almost as many opinions. The main thing is your battery life will improve after the first week because you will be using your phone less... as it seems like less of a new toy. These are my habits.

I try to charge the battery only after it is below at least 30%, and I try to charge fully and then remove from charger. I always have a backup... currently I am waiting on an extended battery from Seido (sp?), and thus my standard will go in my glove box.

The exception would be if I am using video or GPS, then I will have my phone charging if possible since those drain it very fast.

I use wifi whenever possible and shut off 3G. This has other benefits, like being faster and not counting against your "unlimited" 5GB monthly data usage (or whatever plan you have).

I never have the screen timeout set for more than 30 seconds.

I'm not lazy. If I want to watch a certain video on youtube and I am at home, I will watch it on my computer.

I used my phone a little less than usual today. Facebook, some email, maybe 30 minutes of talk time (on Bluetooth), 20 minutes of gaming. I am currently on track to get about 22 hours/charge

Honestly.. that is what I consider normal use. These forum users thinking this will replace their laptop and run for 12+ hours are absolutely insane. If I talk for 15 minutes on it a day, use the internet on wifi for 15-20 minutes, listen to some music on last.fm.. and teeter for a bit

 

[Deleted User]

Agreed one of the downfalls of a nice phone like this is you have to worry about the battery... just a fact of life. Even my old EnV Touch would go a couple of days without needing to charge, easily.

Just shut of stuff you don't use. I am considering turning off the GPS now, because I really don't use it much. Then again, I cannot see it listed under battery use, so maybe it simply doesn't drain when you're not using it constantly, like for navigation. I think the most important things are short screen timeout, wifi over 3g, less than 50% screen brightness, and turning off bluetooth when you don't use it.

 

[Whammy]

When you do not need, turn off the following:
Bluetooth
WI-FI
GPS.


Seems to help w/ me.