Charging to drain or not to drain

[droidborg]

I have been using my DX for a couple of weeks and have observed the battery will stay charged for a long time if I don't do much. Talking on the phone, standby, texting are reasonable but if I'm on the web of using navigation it goes down pretty fast. Not much I can do about this from what I have read but I have a couple of questions.

Is there a stronger battery available for the DX yet? If so is it thicker needing a different battery cover? Who sells it? How much better is it?

Also on phones in the past I had always had really good battery charge life and had always used the practice of letting the phone die every once and a while and giving it a complete powered off charge. I know you aren't supposed to need to do this with current batteries but it seemed to work for me. The X wants to be charged when it gets to 30% and I seem to have read somewhere that you weren't supposed to let it get really low. So what is the real story?

Thanks

 

[aminaked]

Have you worked around the droid x no sleep bug:
phone settings > location & security > use wireless networks > UNCHECK

(Or maybe you'll have to turn off GPS when done using, turn off WIFI when done using, reboot after charging)

Also, it's a good idea to dial *228 to update PRLs once in a while.

Yes, you can get an extended battery for the Droid X and I think they come with a new cover. You can get it through Verizon. I don't know how much better it is.

You usually don't want to drain the battery all the way, but when you get a new battery/phone you have to calibrate it. Drain it all the way and then charge it all the way. You actually want to do this about once/month.

 

[droidborg]

Have you worked around the droid x no sleep bug:
phone settings > location & security > use wireless networks > UNCHECK]

Well if I do that then open weather, radar or maps or anything that needs to know where I am they won't work until I go in and check the box again. So I gather that it is sucking battery if it is on. I don't really like the idea of being tracked either but I've given up a lot of privacy concerns with this phone. On my computer I hate letting google mine anything I do but on the DX that is nothing compared with what is watching every move I make. Oh well. The price of progress.

[Also, it's a good idea to dial *228 to update PRLs once in a while.]

Did it. Guess I need to do that if I travel to another city. Do I need to do it periodically in my home town too?

[Yes, you can get an extended battery for the Droid X and I think they come with a new cover. You can get it through Verizon. I don't know how much better it is.]

I'll wait for reports.

[You usually don't want to drain the battery all the way, but when you get a new battery/phone you have to calibrate it. Drain it all the way and then charge it all the way. You actually want to do this about once/month.]

The battery was at 10% this morning and after a couple of hours idle it turned off and when I plugged it in the battery app showed 0 battery. I left it alone until it was at 100% I hadn't done this before and the battery had never gotten below 20% so it was probably a good thing to do.

Thanks for the advice.

 

[lamarrk]

Li-on batteries do not have a memory, such as NiMH and NiCD batteries do. They do not require draining to 'condition' or 're-condition' them.

Top them off whenever you want.