I recently got a Galaxy Tab 4, 8 inch model from my local Best Buy. The only one they had in stock that day was an open box item, so I don't know it's history. I think it had an 85% charge when I got it home, but don't remember for sure. Plugged it into the USB port in my PC. Let it charge overnight while it was doing it's updates and restoring my Google backup.
The next morning I got up and used it to read my email. By the time I'd read half a dozen quick emails, the battery was down to 85%. Android device should not discharge so quickly, but the rest of the day it seemed to behave normally.
It occurred to me that maybe my PC's USB port wasn't putting out a full 2 amps. So the next night I used the factory wall charger. Again, the next morning the battery dropped from 100% straight to 85 as soon as I started using it. But after that, it dropped to 84, 83, 82... and discharged normally. Rats, I got one with a bad battery.
At this point I got the flu, then got swamped at work, so I didn't have a chance to return it to Best Buy. So I kept on using it. The next morning, the battery dropped straight to only 90% as soon as I started using it. By the end of the week, it would start at 100%, then drop to 99, 98, 97... like a normal Android device.
I've played with laptops and other things that had Ni-Cad batteries, so I'm familiar with batteries developing a "memory" (for you youngsters, if you only partially charge a NiCad to X%, then after awhile they will only hold an X% charge and everything over that is lost). I know Lithium Ion batteries aren't supposed to have a "memory", but that's sure what this battery acted like. It seems to be behaving now, so I went ahead and kept it.
Had anyone else noticed this problem? Do I really have a bad battery, or did it just need to be fully charged a few times? I have Power Saving turned on, does that feature need to establish a power history for a few days before it starts to work properly?
The next morning I got up and used it to read my email. By the time I'd read half a dozen quick emails, the battery was down to 85%. Android device should not discharge so quickly, but the rest of the day it seemed to behave normally.
It occurred to me that maybe my PC's USB port wasn't putting out a full 2 amps. So the next night I used the factory wall charger. Again, the next morning the battery dropped from 100% straight to 85 as soon as I started using it. But after that, it dropped to 84, 83, 82... and discharged normally. Rats, I got one with a bad battery.
At this point I got the flu, then got swamped at work, so I didn't have a chance to return it to Best Buy. So I kept on using it. The next morning, the battery dropped straight to only 90% as soon as I started using it. By the end of the week, it would start at 100%, then drop to 99, 98, 97... like a normal Android device.
I've played with laptops and other things that had Ni-Cad batteries, so I'm familiar with batteries developing a "memory" (for you youngsters, if you only partially charge a NiCad to X%, then after awhile they will only hold an X% charge and everything over that is lost). I know Lithium Ion batteries aren't supposed to have a "memory", but that's sure what this battery acted like. It seems to be behaving now, so I went ahead and kept it.
Had anyone else noticed this problem? Do I really have a bad battery, or did it just need to be fully charged a few times? I have Power Saving turned on, does that feature need to establish a power history for a few days before it starts to work properly?
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