best method of charging your phone to maintain your battery life and health

[TheyCallMeMrGlass]

Sorry to create another new thread so quickly, I guess I am a little overzealous with my comeback, lol.

To get straight to the point, what is the best convenient method of charging your phone battery for maximum health and battery life?

The reason I ask is because I always thought this: Charge brand new battery for several hours. Then use it and drain it down completely. Charge every night fully. Every month, drain it down.

Now when I purchased the phone, the seller advised:

Charge your new phone for a couple of hours (have it switched off). Drain your phone down. Then charge again only until its fully charged, say 4 hours. Always have the phone switched off while charging.

This sounds so bloody inconvenient. I dont really want to ever switch my phone off at night, and how on earth can I take wake up in the middle of the night to take the charger off. There is logic to what the seller says though to keep the battery healthy and have a longer life but I dont think I like to have my phone off overnight.

[WarCow]

There are lots of myths regarding batteries for some reason, but I've found this website to provide some really good information: http://batteryuniversity.com/

Basically, there is no point in charging the battery for "a few hours", since when it becomes fully charged it stops. End of story Whether it's turned on or off doesn't make a difference (except faster charging time). Also for Li-Ion batteries there is no difference between the first charge and the 100th, so no need to prepare it in some special manner. It's ready for use.
Also, i'm not sure if this applies for the Galaxy S2, but the battery should only charge to 95% when fully charged. This is normal and prolongs the life of it.

Li-ion batteries do not like to be fully drained too often, this can seriously limit their lifespan. Charge it as often as possible, whenever you can and use it as much as possible. All Li-ion batteries will eventually lose charge capacity after a few years, this is simply an limitation of their design, so don't worry too much about it and use it as much as you want.

However, you can do a calibration once in a while, if you find the battery indicator is inaccurate. Simply drain it completely and recharge fully before going back to the usual routine. Note that this does not affect the battery itself in anyway, it won't even notice it. It only calibrates the software of the battery/phone, so it can track the charge more accurately.

[TheyCallMeMrGlass]

Thank you WarCow, some interesting and informative reading there, if a bit headache inducing! Gosh...its been 20 years since I studied that hard at a uni, while binging at the student union bar...pity this uni is not serving alcohal

[Spavac]

It depends how luck you are on battery, i charge mine every night (from 2am till 10am) i use my phone quite heavy (min 2hours calling and receiving calls, texting (200msgs), emailing(quite a lot) and surfing (not that much). After im done with work which is around 23:00 my battery is on 25-30%, i maybe play a bit music while i taking a walk with my dog and around 1am battery is on 15-20% and ready for charging). My friend for example doing same this have longer battery life (his batter is on 30-35% before he puts phone on charge (every night same as me) and my other friend is using her phone waaay less then we do (she does few calls, msgs and some surfing and music) and she needs to recharge her batter often (sometimes even twice a day). So yeah depends how luck you are

[mark22]

I don't think luck has too much to do with it, something is probably keeping your friends phone awake.

[Tufftoad]

It depends how luck you are on battery, i charge mine every night (from 2am till 10am) i use my phone quite heavy (min 2hours calling and receiving calls, texting (200msgs), emailing(quite a lot) and surfing (not that much). After im done with work which is around 23:00 my battery is on 25-30%, i maybe play a bit music while i taking a walk with my dog and around 1am battery is on 15-20% and ready for charging). My friend for example doing same this have longer battery life (his batter is on 30-35% before he puts phone on charge (every night same as me) and my other friend is using her phone waaay less then we do (she does few calls, msgs and some surfing and music) and she needs to recharge her batter often (sometimes even twice a day). So yeah depends how luck you are

Could be something as simple as the data connection often switching between 3, 3g & H. I know some people who walk around with GPS, mobile data and wifi all on.

As for your friend charging the phone twice a day, does she charge fully each time or is she just giving it a quick charge for an hour? Also has she calibrated the battery. Let alone the range of different firmwares available that effect battery life.

All of these things matter and there are so many variables when trying to compare battery usage.

Luck, coincedence or chance.....the Galaxy's battery isn't a lottery and can be drastically altered.

[WarCow]

Indeed, something as simple as how good your coverage is can have a huge impact on battery life..remember it's always connected to a cell tower, and if you're further away or inside a building or whatever, the phone will have to turn up the power of its radio to catch the signal. Same goes with WiFi and GPS etc. Lots of factors

@TheyCallMeMrGlass
Hehe yeah, some of the information is really technical and overkill. Do we really need to know how the chemical processes inside a battery work?

[Spavac]

@Tufftoad

I see..... She has wifi turned on a lot becuase she didnt subscribe to unlimited internet package from Telenor like 2 of us did, and i wouldnt know if she does quick charges or normal full charges her phone, but yeah wifi could be reason why her batter life is shorter then ours but tbh i didnt think wifi can make that much diference. As for battery calibration i have no idea did she calibrated it corectrly (i know those new batteries dont need to be calibrated but i still do that just for sake of my conscience) as for firmware i think she updated it to latest version.

@WarCow WoW, i didnt think network coverage can have that much impact on battery life, basicly what ur saying is if im somewhere in midle on nowhere and tower is quite far... my phone is gonna drain dramaticly more battery?

[WarCow]

@WarCow WoW, i didnt think network coverage can have that much impact on battery life, basicly what ur saying is if im somewhere in midle on nowhere and tower is quite far... my phone is gonna drain dramaticly more battery?

Yeah, it will increase the power of it's receiver trying to grab the fainter signal, until it loses the signal completely. Also, if it loses the signal and keeps searching for nearby towers, it can use a lot of battery too. Not sure how much exactly it influences the battery, but on my phone the cell radio part is a significant part of the battery usage, according to the standard Android battery usage menu.

[TheyCallMeMrGlass]

Coming back to the main point of the thread (ie what is the best method of actually charging a phone battery for a longer healthier life span), I remembered another thing the salesman told me not to do.

He said dont over charge the phone...ie, if the phone is fully charged, dont leave it still charging. Has he got a point with this? Are we shortening our battery life span if we leave it charging? I though modern battery/battery chargers have a switch off mechanism to prevent this.