Battery Indicator - Never 100%

[FaroeseViking]

Just got my Nexus S, and no matter how long I leave it on the charger, it never goes beyond 97%. I've even tried other battery app indicators, no luck. Any ideas?

 

[B2L]

Just got my Nexus S, and no matter how long I leave it on the charger, it never goes beyond 97%. I've even tried other battery app indicators, no luck. Any ideas?

Here's a couple of things you should read. It will help you understand better, it's doing that to help the overall life of your battery.

Your Battery Gauge Is Lying To You: Everything You Need To Know About Bump Charging And Inconsistent Battery Drain

[BUG] Full Charge Oddity, Charge to 100%, Unplug to 97% - xda-developers

 

[Deleted User]

Here's a couple of things you should read. It will help you understand better, it's doing that to help the overall life of your battery.

Actually those posts do not have accurate information about Li-Ion technology, except where I posted.

Li-Ion does not benefit from reduced charge levels (charge cycles are not extended with lower levels), so there is no reason for the Nexus S to charge to 97% - it's an issue with the charge voltage cutoff level being too low in the code for the charging algorithm. Call it a bug/issue/error whatever, but it shouldn't stop charging at 97%. Google can fix this by either changing the voltage cutoff or by altering the battery info code to display 100% instead of 97%. Either way, it's an oversight on the part of the programmers at Google.

 

[razvan06]

i don't get it ,i read here and there that some users get 97% or 95% or 93% ,i get two levels ...sometimes 93% ,sometimes 95% ...what's the deal ??? is it from the ROM ? or it's the battery ,changed 3 of them untill now ,same levels ...running CM7 ?!?!?!?!

 

[Deleted User]

i don't get it ,i read here and there that some users get 97% or 95% or 93% ,i get two levels ...sometimes 93% ,sometimes 95% ...what's the deal ??? is it from the ROM ? or it's the battery ,changed 3 of them untill now ,same levels ...running CM7 ?!?!?!?!

I usually see 97% but due to the way android charges Li-Ion, you may see the battery level after the charging has stopped and the battery level has dropped a percent or two. Unlike Ni-Cad or Ni-MH, these batteries do not do trickle charging to maintain a charge. Instead, once the battery is fully charged, current is cut off completely and the battery is used (or idles while the charger is still attached and powering the device) until it drops down to 95%, at which point the charge circuit kicks in again and tops the battery back up to a full charge, then shuts off again. If you catch it during that cycle, you will see a lower battery level.

Having said that, 93% is odd and may be related to the CM7 you're running.

 

[Casual Pete]

Having said that, 93% is odd and may be related to the CM7 you're running.

Mines completely stock and will only charge to 92%. Really bugs me.

 

[razvan06]

I usually see 97% but due to the way android charges Li-Ion, you may see the battery level after the charging has stopped and the battery level has dropped a percent or two. Unlike Ni-Cad or Ni-MH, these batteries do not do trickle charging to maintain a charge. Instead, once the battery is fully charged, current is cut off completely and the battery is used (or idles while the charger is still attached and powering the device) until it drops down to 95%, at which point the charge circuit kicks in again and tops the battery back up to a full charge, then shuts off again. If you catch it during that cycle, you will see a lower battery level.

Having said that, 93% is odd and may be related to the CM7 you're running.

I already know what you say there ,but i leave my phone turned off to charge ,and when i see the screen turn on and point out that the 5 bars are full ,turn it on ,and still 93%/95% ,it's never the same ,and i delete the batt stats often ...

 

[Deleted User]

I already know what you say there ,but i leave my phone turned off to charge ,and when i see the screen turn on and point out that the 5 bars are full ,turn it on ,and still 93%/95% ,it's never the same ,and i delete the batt stats often ...

I don't know why it's doing that...I can only say that I normally see 96 or 97%. It's odd that this is the only phone that has never fully charged to 100% as it should out of the box. It kinda diminishes my respect for Google if their flagship device doesn't charge properly and none of the updates has fixed such an obvious bug. Casual users don't care about what happens under the hood, so when their phones only charge to 96% (or 93/95 whatever), something is wrong with the device or software running it. That doesn't impress me regarding Nexus phones and may influence my next purchase decision.