First charge of a new phone

paulboy83

Hi,

I've just had my new phone delivered. A few years back the advice was always to charge a new phone overnight before using it for the first time. I've not had this advice with the last few phones i've bought and was just interested to see if people still do this. Or if there really is no need anymore. I've searched online and as ever there are a lot of conflicting suggestions.

What do you do, do you think it makes any difference??

gjchester

paulboy83 wrote: »

What do you do, do you think it makes any difference??

Not really, todays lithium ion batteries are charged by the phone until they are full then the circuit will cut off, as the phone drains off some power the charging circuit will realise and switch back in.

Leave it on overnight if you wish, but once the phones charged it's charged, the rest of the night its just eating a little bit of power warming up the plug.

starlight_xx

I charged my Blackberry for a few hours when I got it, and wished Id left it longer, the battery drained at a rate of knots and it died on me. I was horrified how quickly. Thankfully it was only ever the first time that this happened and once Id given it a much longer charge its been great.

I must admit if I get another one in the future Id probably go for an overnight charge

staffie1

What does it tell you to do in the instruction manual..?

Exemplar

Most new phones dont need an initial conditioning charge. However I find that if you let the battery drain fully occasionally then it extends the battery life.

gjchester

starlight_xx wrote: »

I charged my Blackberry for a few hours when I got it, and wished Id left it longer, the battery drained at a rate of knots and it died on me. I was horrified how quickly. Thankfully it was only ever the first time that this happened and once Id given it a much longer charge its been great.

I must admit if I get another one in the future Id probably go for an overnight charge

It's really not needed. Lithium chargers charge till the battery is fuill, but do so by starting off at a high current, then as the battery gets full drop the current, so an hour may take the battery from flat to say 80% but it may take a few more hours to get to 100%.

Lithium battery chargers cut off when the limit is reached and won't cut back in until they batterys charge has dropped.

Older NiCad or NiMH which could fast charge by supplying a higher current until a set temperature or current peak was achieved then go to a trickle charge mode. Lithium cells don't like being trickle charged you run a good risk of damaging or destroying a Lithium based cell if you try (and they can explode if abused by overcharging.)

Don't worry phone circuitry won't try and do this, they are designed to charge safely, but I fly model planes and in that you tend to want to get power in or out of the battery quickly, and I've trashed a few Lithium batterys by abusing them when charging or discharging them.

Most likely the fact it went flat quickly was related to being new and playing with all the features, screens suck battery life, try playing with the phone all day (as you would when new) and you'll see the battery drop like a stone, my iphone does if I play Angry Birds a lot...

gjchester

alcot33uk wrote: »

Most new phones dont need an initial conditioning charge. However I find that if you let the battery drain fully occasionally then it extends the battery life.

You can't really do that with a Lithium cell in a phone. Most phones will report the cell flat at around 3V so theres always a safety margin before the cell is damaged. The cell will always self discharge and the phone may draw a little current but you will probably get home and charge it before it's damaged.

If you ever get the cell to drop below 2.7 to 2.6 volts then the cell is at risk of being permanantly damaged (see the comment about flying planes, if your not careful with the throttle and flight times you can drain them too far and thats it, game over for the battery).

Look at ipods, it's commonly known that if you flatten one and leave it in your pocket / bag uncharged for a month or so the chances are that battery is dead and needs replacing.