I think an extra battery & dedicated charger is a must, even with a car charger and extra wall charger handy.
There is just no way I am going to set it down and not touch it for 24 hours.
I feel you on this. The only charger currently available is the one at Fommy.com
My 2 cents about general battery use/charging:
In my experience with high-power lithium cells, it is always recommended to charge before the battery reaches its lowest level. The sooner you can recharge before the low level is reached the better it is for the health of the battery.
Re-starting your phone over and over when the battery is dead is harmful to the battery.
The charge and discharge rates on a battery go down with time, so at some point the battery will need to be replaced, specially if you recharge it often.
Not all batteries are made the same. High quality battery cells deliver better and last longer but its hard to find out who is producing high quality cells. Going with Motorola cells would be the best bet for now until reviews come out on other "cheaper" batteries.
Extended battery lifespan should be longer since they are charged less.
Whether you let your battery charge to full or half, you won't affect the battery, but it is still unclear why some dealers still recommend charging for 24hrs when you receive it. IMO as longs as the battery reaches FULL you are good to go (tha manual hints at 3Hrs of charge - see page 3
http://www.motorola.com/staticfiles...tatic-Files/DROID_UG_Verizon_68000202474a.pdf ). Leaving it on the charger longer than that may help balance the current in the cells, but other than that it is not going to affect your performance if you don't.
FYI, here is the summarized info about Li-Ion batteries from Wikipedia for all those discussing the topic of battery chemistry and throwing around ideas that apply to Ni-Cad chemistry, not Lithium. I've highlighted the most important parts in red:
Advantages and disadvantages
Advantages
- Lithium-ion batteries can be formed into a wide variety of shapes and sizes so as to efficiently fill available space in the devices they power.
- Lithium-ion batteries are lighter than other energy-equivalent secondary batteries—often much lighter.[29] A key advantage of using lithium-ion chemistry is the high open circuit voltage that can be obtained in comparison to aqueous batteries (such as lead acid, nickel-metal hydride and nickel-cadmium).[30]
- Lithium-ion batteries do not suffer from the memory effect. They also have a self-discharge rate of approximately 5-10% per month, compared with over 30% per month in common nickel metal hydride batteries, approx. 1.25% per month for Low Self-Discharge NiMH batteries and 10% per month in nickel-cadmium batteries.[31] According to one manufacturer, Li-ion cells (and, accordingly, "dumb" Li-ion batteries) do not have any self-discharge in the usual meaning of this word.[21] What looks like a self-discharge in these batteries is a permanent loss of capacity (see below). On the other hand, "smart" Li-ion batteries do self-discharge, mainly due to the small constant drain of the built-in voltage monitoring circuit.
Disadvantages of traditional Li-ion technology
Shelf life
- A disadvantage of lithium-ion cells lies in their relatively poor cycle life: upon every (re)charge, deposits form inside the electrolyte that inhibit lithium ion transport, resulting in the capacity of the cell to diminish. The increase in internal resistance affects the cell's ability to deliver current, thus the problem is more pronounced in high-current than low-current applications. The increasing capacity hit means that a full charge in an older battery will not last as long as one in a new battery (although the charging time required decreases proportionally, as well).
- Also, high charge levels and elevated temperatures (whether resulting from charging or being ambient) hasten permanent capacity loss for lithium-ion batteries.[32][33] The heat generated during a charge cycle is caused by the traditional carbon anode, which has been replaced with good results by lithium titanate. Lithium titanate has been experimentally shown to drastically reduce the degenerative effects associated with charging, including expansion and other factors.[34] See "Improvements of lithium-ion technology" below.
- At a 100% charge level, a typical Li-ion laptop battery that is full most of the time at 25 °C or 77 °F will irreversibly lose approximately 20% capacity per year. However, a battery in a poorly ventilated laptop may be subject to a prolonged exposure to much higher temperatures, which will significantly shorten its life. Different storage temperatures produce different loss results: 6% loss at 0 °C (32 °F), 20% at 25 °C (77 °F), and 35% at 40 °C (104 °F). When stored at 40%–60% charge level, the capacity loss is reduced to 2%, 4%, 15% at 0, 25 and 40 degrees Celsius respectively.[35][citation needed]
Internal resistance
The
internal resistance of lithium-ion batteries is high compared to other rechargeable chemistries such as
nickel-metal hydride and
nickel-cadmium.
It increases with both cycling and chronological age.[33][36] Rising internal resistance causes the voltage at the terminals to drop under load, reducing the maximum current that can be drawn from them. Eventually they reach a point at which the battery can no longer operate the equipment it is installed in for an adequate period.
High drain applications such as power tools may require the battery to be able to supply a current that would drain the battery in 1/15 hour if sustained; e.g. 22.5 A for a battery with a capacity of 1.5
A·h). Lower-power devices such as
MP3 players, on the other hand, may draw low enough current to run for 10 hours on a charge (e.g. 150 mA for a battery with a capacity of 1500 mA·h). With similar battery technology, the MP3 player's battery will effectively last much longer, since it can tolerate a much higher internal resistance. To power larger devices, such as electric cars, it is much more efficient to connect many smaller batteries in a parallel circuit rather than using a single large battery.
[37]
Safety requirements
Li-ion batteries are not as durable as nickel metal hydride or nickel-cadmium designs,[citation needed] and can be extremely dangerous if mistreated. They may explode if overheated or if charged to an excessively high voltage. Furthermore, they may be irreversibly damaged if discharged below a certain voltage. To reduce these risks, lithium-ion batteries generally contain a small circuit that shuts down the battery when it is discharged below about 3 V or charged above about 4.2 V.[21][38] In normal use, the battery is therefore prevented from being deeply discharged. When stored for long periods, however, the small current drawn by the protection circuitry may drain the battery below the protection circuit's lower limit, in which case normal chargers are unable to recharge the battery. More sophisticated battery analyzers can recharge deeply discharged cells by slow-charging them[citation needed].
