Mobile Battery first charge question

qBot

Hi,

I got a question about the supposed 12 hour charge your supposed to give your new phone once u get it.. I bought a 3200 today and asked the sales person whether it was still necessary for such a charge. After all it's a lithium ion battery and afaik they charge for the same amount of time on any charge. The twelve hour rule was for nimh or ni-cads i thought. Plus i couldn't find any documentation to suggest otherwise. I know that the twelve hour charge is most likely unnecessary but i'm just after buying the phone and i'm a bit paranoid and i don't want to mess up the battery. Does anyone know for sure?


Also, i have a charger from my sisters old 3310, can i use this charger safely to charge my new 3200?

Edit: And surely it's ok to use the phone while it's charging for the first time?

weemcd

i think the normal charge is quite enough, and it would be ok to use the phone while it charges. The only thing i know has ever effected my battery life was when i charged my phone every night, which meant the battery didnt last as long in the long run. Still tho that was a few years when i had the nokia 3210 and mobiles have advanced a lot since then

qBot

your probably right... i just want to make sure though..

flywheel

give it a long charge first time, Nokia say in the 3200 manual you can use it while charging but i leave it alone while a device's battery is charging the first time - it will usually take a couple of charge cycles to 'break in' and give optimum performance

p.s. - some info here thay me be of interest: How to prolong lithium-based batteries

BrianG

qBot

ya... i gave that a read alright.. i found the site when i was researching battery use for my iPod..
However... that site doesn't say anything about the mythical 12 hour charge. In fact it hints at not needing it. Lithium Ion batteries don't suffer from a memory effect and prefer not to be fully discharged before recharging. Also, the fact that they can be partially charged without effecting the life of the battery tends to suggest that u don't need the overnight charge either..

One more point though.. surely once the phone charge indicator displays that it's finished after 4 hours then whether u keep the power lead in or not afterwards has no effect on charging as the phone has stopped itself.

flywheel

just going on the general guidance for the different devices i use that have lithium ion batteries - they all say give it a long charge first time and most only say to turn it on after it's been fully charged

nowhere have i seen a manual say it's ok to only charge a battery partially the first time, they all say to give it a full charge and most now highlight the fact that the battery only performs well after the first few charge cycles - after that i keep the charge topped up when available (i.e partial charging)

as for the battery guide saying it's full, i just follow the time it says in the manual using the supplied battery and charger, if it indicates it's full and the manual says leave it in for x hours more i leave it in for x hours more (even though it's difficult as you want to start using it asap )

BrianG

qBot

cheers m8..

ya, sorry was a bit liberal with the whole partially charge thing... It doesn't say anywhere in the manual about an overnight charge...

think it's best to leave it though... and use tomorrow..

flywheel

yeah 12 hours seems a bit general, the important thing is to fully charge it the first time, so best to err on the side of leaving it in longer...

just had a flick through some of the manuals here to see what they say for their specific batteries: the T610 and P900 say to give it about 4 hours, the XDA II says 8 hours - they all say to wait until this time period is over before before turning it on the first time - and that a new battery will have a reduced capacity the first few times it is used / charged

BrianG

The Real B-man

once the fone says battery full was ok for me and battery lasts for ages & ages i have a 3200 the battery is a 3.7v unlike most earlier nokia fones

qBot

thanks for the response lads...

btw anyone know the best way to get a cable for this thing.. i want to start downloading ringtones:D

ebay i'd say?

bp_me

Ebay if you want a cable, but the 3200 has IRDA built in.

ZENER

Many lithium based batteries use an electronic gauge circuit to tell the host device what charge is remaining. The resolution of this gauge is not great and it's possible to confuse it by only giving it short duration charges which increase the charge on the battery which is less than the fuel gauge can respond to. The effect is called digital memory.

ZEN