I disagree... that was the case for NiCad and NiMH, but not so much for Li Ion/LiPo's... high heat will degrade the phone's battery, but there are safeguards in the charging system to prevent excessive heat... one to maintain a healthy battery, and two, to keep it from going boom (and yes, that is the technical term).
oh man, you guys are on the right track but no one mentions the real difference between Ni-Cad/Ni-MH and lithium ion/polymer. NiCad and NiMH batteries have memory, in other words, when you dont discharge and recharge them to empty and full respectively, they 'remember' (in reality, the non-charged portion changes its physical state and prevents the cells from charging/discharging) and for the most part will never be able to charge more than that (much worse for Cad than for MH) - if you charge one that was at 20% to 80% you now have 60% battery, very often forever. Enter lithium batteries - no memory. the trick with these is that each individual cell has a certain amount of charges before it cant be recharged anymore. the average lithium ion battery has 500 charges before it reaches its half life and 1000 before it dies. if you constantly charge lithium ion/polymer batteries, say you never get below 60%, then you are only killing the top 40%. so, for general longevity of your lithium battery, its recommended to discharge to no less than 15% and always charge to 100% leaving it on the charger for an extra hour or so to get a full 100% charge. i know a lot of you don't have the convience of being near a charger for 3-4 hours when your batteries would get to around 15%. i think that each of us needs to do what is most convenient to us - if you need to charge it constantly because you always need to have access no matter what and never really know when you'll be near a charger again, then do it, just know what you are doing and the consequences associated with charging it that way. and stop complaining that batteries havent kept up with other tech - if you want laptop specs in your 1/15 the size device, than you can expect the same loss in battery life - except that you get better battery life than that with smartphones.
just out of curiousity, when some of you say that you have charging all day at work, does that mean that you are constantly taking it off the charger and putting it back on? or are you leaving it on the charger all day? because when im at work, i have a computer in front of me that i can use the google all i want, plus im at work so using my phone for gaming isnt exactly what im getting paid for....if youre not at a job with a computer most likely youre not allowed to be using your phone or at least not the extent where it needs to be on and off the charger constantly. i go to work with anywhere from 100-90% and when i leave i still have at least 60% usually 70% i still text often and all my email is forwarded to gmail so i get push notifications all day. 60% is enough for the rest of the day because, and lets ALL be honest here, whether its work, home or even out, there are computers everywhere and as large as a 4.3" display is for a phone, wouldnt you rather a bigger screen with better resolution and a larger keyboard to use? im not saying that i dont enjoy using my x or that having a droid isnt really convenient, im just saying if im standing ten feet from a computer i can use, unless its just to use the internet for less than a couple minutes, if im going to spend any real amount of time online, or gaming for that matter, i want to use the computer over a cell phone any day, 4g or not