Battery Cycling

[ArtieTheOneManParty]

I use my X to stream music while at work. I do both local music and internet music (sirius). Obviously, this drains the battery pretty quickly.

My question is, is it better to allow the battery to drain, then plug it in, or to leave it plugged in all day? I wouldn't want to "burn out" the battery by charging all the time. Does anyone know if once the battery is charged, the phone would run off the power cord instead of the battery, so I'm not constantly charging (I think my old moto phones did this)?

 

[dookie.]

LI batteries prefer small discharge/recharge...ie: lots of topping off. they do not benefit from complete discharge/recharge cycles (like ni-cad).

 

[doctorlove316]

From what I've read, there were suggestions to run it down and fully charge the first few times, not to condition the battery, but to give the software the ability to show more accurate readings.

But as far as every other time goes, what dookie said is correct.

 

[DaRkL3AD3R]

Idk though.... from my personal experiences with my Zune HD and its Li-battery, the first couple of charges sorta sucked. It wasn't till after a week of letting the charge get real low, like <10% then charging it to full that it didn't seem to hold a longer charge. I also noticed this with my phone, it now holds longer charges.

I prefer not to put it on the charger whenever its not at 100%, and let it run down a bit. However once I see an orange battery indicator, if I have a charger available it goes back on. You should strongly avoid letting it hit red because once it hits red (15% or lower) you usually have around 5 minutes of use before it hits the big ugly power-off. So general rule of thumb which works great for me, you see orange, get her plugged in.

As for leaving it plugged in all day, I asked about this in another thread and no one really answered me. I too wonder what happens when you leave it plugged in for hours at 100%. Does it use the battery and just charge it as it sees fit, or does it only draw from the outlet? I really would like to know what affect leaving it plugged in at 100% AND using it for hours at a time would have on the battery.

 

[vor]

I'd tend to believe it just functions off the power connection as it no longer indicates its charging...but who knows