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cmtrekker

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 10, 2007
13
0
Washington, DC
In the past I've received various and often contradictory advice about how to properly charge my cell phone so that the battery life is maximized. I've heard that it's best to regularly keep the battery as fully charged as possible. I've also heard that keeping the cell phone on the charger after it is already fully charged (as I always did charging my cell phone before going to sleep each night) is bad for the battery and will suck many months of life out of it. And I've also heard the opposite (use as much battery as possible before charging).

Now that I've ordered my 160 GB iPod Classic with its classically fused and unswitchable battery, can someone provide some definitive advice about iPod battery charging? Does it matter if you leave your iPod on your iPod speaker, which also happens to be a charger, for a week or two straight? Is it good/bad to use your iPod (if you can help it) until it's almost dead before recharging it? Does each charge take the iPod ever closer to battery heaven (thus discouraging daily charges)? etc.

And out of curiosity, is your advice generally applicable to any and all portable electronic gadgets.
 

Wolfpup

macrumors 68030
Sep 7, 2006
2,925
105
The cell phone info you got was bad/outdated. NiMH or :eek: NiCd batteries need to be fully drained before they're fully charged to get the most life out of them. Lithium batteries are the exact opposite-they last longest if they're always kept topped off, and (almost?) all cell phones ship with lithium batteries now.

Normally it won't hurt a lithium battery to be kept on the charger, as it shuts off when it's full. The exception is I have seen some junky phones from LG (and I'm sure there are others) that continue charging even when it's full, which would hurt it a bit.

The iPod has a high quality charging system that does correctly shut off when it's full, so you're not hurting anything by keeping it plugged in. If you've used it at all, you really should plug it in when possible.
 
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