Nexus 7 battery care

[steve_1979]

What's the best way to extend the battery life on my Nexus 7?

It uses a lithium-ion battery. From what I understand it's best to keep the battery topped up above 50 per cent all the time and once every 30ish cycles do a complete discharge/recharge cycle so the battery can recalibrate its 'digital memory' to provide a more accurate reading.

However 90% of the time that I'll be using it is when sitting at my desk at work so a perfectly convenient option would be to leave it plugged into the wall all the time. Would this be the best way to extend the battery life?

 

[daveh75]

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2011/02/ask-ars-what-is-the-best-way-to-use-an-li-ion-battery/

Presumably why the Nexus tells you to plug in the charger when it gets to 20%, I definitely wouldn't leave it charging all the time.

FWIW, I've had mine since they were released and charge it when it tells me to, and unplug when fully charged and my battery life is as good as the day I got it. Still get around 9 - 10 hours of screen time on average.

 

[RobinKidderminster]

So many opinions. My best guess after a lot of googling is to keep them between 40/80%. I use this regime but who knows??

 

[bigboss]

Li-ion batteries don't need conditioning unlike Ni-Cd or Ni-MH. From Wikipedia:

Conditioning controversy

There is a belief that Li+ batteries need to be "conditioned" before first use. One is told to plug the battery/device into a charger and leave it there for seven or eight hours, even if fully charged.[105] But this may simply be a confusion of the battery software calibration instructions with the "conditioning" instructions for NiCd and NiMH batteries.[106] The software of a typical smart phone, for example, learns how to accurately gauge the battery's life by watching it discharge, and leaving it on the charger produces a series of "micro discharges" that the software can watch and learn from.

Lithium ion batteries do not need the "conditioning" of being fully discharged and charged the way NiCd and NiMH batteries do. In fact, there is a similar debate over whether discharging an Li+ battery as low as the protection circuit allows will cause the very sort of problem that is "fixed" by doing so with the older battery types.

I don't bother with conditioning. I just use my phone / tablet normally. No deterioration in battery life.

 

[steve_1979]

Thanks for your replies.

Here's a good web page by Isidor Buchmann, the CEO of Cadex Electronics, a Canadian company that makes battery-testing equipment. Clicky