An article I just received from Sprint in an e-mail claims that the Lithium batteries in their phones degrade after only 80 charge cycles and that I should "only charge it when the battery is almost empty."
That goes against everything I've ever heard/read about Lithium based rechargeable batteries. Here are two sources I grabbed quickly:
From BatteryUniversity.com:
The battery prefers a partial rather than a full discharge. Frequent full discharges should be avoided when possible.From the Laptop Battery blog:
it is better to recharge more often; avoid frequent full discharges.Perhaps their marketing folks were reading from old spec sheets on Nickel-Cadmium based batteries which would actually benefit from this advice.
If anyone sees other resources to substantiate or refute this claim from Sprint, please post a comment.
4-3-2009: I found another couple of references to good discussions:
http://spicygadget.com/2006/12/24/guide-getting-the-most-out-of-your-lithium-battery/
http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/lithium-ion-battery2.htm
Posts
It's always been my understanding that LiIon batteries don't like to be completely discharged and can handle many more charge cycles than 80.
ReplyDeleteMore likely, Sprint has found a manufacturing flaw in these batteries that cause them to die prematurely and rather than stepping up to replace the defective batteries, they are passing it off as operating normally.
I could be wrong though.
KE7YUP