First charge on a new cellphone

B

BDG2010

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Hi Guys,

Im getting my new Motorola atrix 4g this week. I was wondering does anybody know for sure what the deal is with a first charge on a cellphone?

Do we run the battery dead then charge? Do we charge first? Do we charge for 3 hours, 6 hours?

What is the correct way?

Always appreciated. Thanks
 
there is a HUGe amount of urban myth surrounding charging a Li-ion battery and all of it is utter nonsense. charge it and when the atrix says its full unplug it and use it until you need to charge it again. Then charge it full. none of this 16 hour BS that shop attendents drown us with. It will probably get to a full charge in a hour.

I have a few links i will find and post them here which detail how proper battery charging works.
 
Edduck said:
there is a HUGe amount of urban myth surrounding charging a Li-ion battery and all of it is utter nonsense. charge it and when the atrix says its full unplug it and use it until you need to charge it again. Then charge it full. none of this 16 hour BS that shop attendents drown us with. It will probably get to a full charge in a hour.

I have a few links i will find and post them here which detail how proper battery charging works.
Click to expand...
Agreed charge until its full no longer and ya the 16 hour story is bs
 
I've always initially charged 24 hours just in case but I'm a paranoid son of a gun so yeah it's also my understanding that it's no longer needed and it's just charge till full.
 
The manual for my Omnia said nothing about a 16hr-charge or anything, so just charged it until it said full, and started using it, that was almost three years ago, haven't had an issue with the battery (might be aging a bit now tho', can't really tell, just charge it when I need to).

From what I've understood, Li-Ion batteries do not have the same sort of "memory" issues that older type batteries did have.

B
 
the long charge (12-16hrs) was for old Nickel Metal Hydride batteries (memory problem). All batteries on new phones come with a factory charge, ideally let that run down and then charge for around 3-4 hours on a new Li-Ion battery. Li-Ion battery dont suffer from the "memory" effect as the old NiMh batteries, but also have fewer charge and discharge cycles before the batteries capacity starts depleting.

So best practice try and run your battery as flat as possible before charging and then try and charge it fully before using. And then try avoid using a car charger as your main charger (difficult I know with most Smartphone's today not lasting very long :) )
 
The use of car chargers causing problems has now past into the passages of time!

The use of car saver/chargers causing damage really only revolved around Ni-Cad and early NiMH batteries!

All modern cellphones have on-board regulation for charging and once "Full Charge" occurs... That's it!

Li-ion type batteries have a finite amount of charge cycles, documented to be circa 500. So if you are going to use a car charger, then it really makes sense to ensure that it's not just for 10 minutes but rather go for as nearer full charge as is possible...
 
Actually overcharging is worse than 1st charge mith's out there, but lucky for us electronics have sensors that detects if a battery is full and stops the charge, same with overheating.

Just follow 3 rules
1. Dont charge phone when its hot
2. Dont ever let it run completely dry (Mostly prevented with sensors)
3. Dont overuse when it hot esp over long periods. When you play games on phones you can feel the battery get warm, dont do this all day, every day as it will reduce its lifespan.

As other mentioned above, charge till full, unplug and enjoy.
 
JimM said:
The use of car chargers causing problems has now past into the passages of time!
Click to expand...

I bet any number of those car chargers that you buy at the traffic lights will not pass standard automotive load dump tests. It's still a risk....
 
kayvee said:
I bet any number of those car chargers that you buy at the traffic lights will not pass standard automotive load dump tests. It's still a risk....
Click to expand...

All modern cellphones have on-board regulation/protection so the charge voltage/current supplied by the charger is irrelevant provided it's within reasonable parameters! If it's outside of these parameters the phone will not charge and will usually give an error message.

Li-ion & Li-poly batteries have a finite number of charge cycles, circa 500. So plugging a cheap car charger into you phone causes no harm in itself but rather the constant short charge cycles eating away at the 500 or so available.

1. Dont charge phone when its hot
Click to expand...

The handset should prevent this. That's why most batteries have three or four pins, the spare ones being the BSI or Battery Status/Size Indicator.

2. Dont ever let it run completely dry (Mostly prevented with sensors)
Click to expand...

Can happen as many phones still partially run while switched off i.e. Blackberry. Charging within a week or two should result in no problems except that it could take a good while before you get a charge indication on the handset. Left for many months in 0volts condition could result in battery damage.

3. Dont overuse when it hot esp over long periods. When you play games on phones you can feel the battery get warm, dont do this all day, every day as it will reduce its lifespan.
Click to expand...

This is a myth! Provided the battery is drained without doing something like short-circuiting the cell, no harm will come to the battery. If your handset gets hot from playing games it's usually heat from the display or the PA if playing online games!

All you really need to remember with modern cellphone batteries is to keep in mind that a part charge should be considered as a wasted charge cycle.
 
BDG2010 said:
Hi Guys,

Im getting my new Motorola atrix 4g this week. I was wondering does anybody know for sure what the deal is with a first charge on a cellphone?

Do we run the battery dead then charge? Do we charge first? Do we charge for 3 hours, 6 hours?

What is the correct way?

Always appreciated. Thanks
Click to expand...

Shout when you get your Atrix! Have some questions. Thanks!
 
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