Hi Fox,
Thanks for the mail!
Didn't know that. In fact my own phone shuts down on itself on a regular basis and never really had problems with this. Good to know though.
Won't let it happen again
No problem. I say you should use your battery gauge much the same way as you use the gauge on your gas tank for your car.
You wouldn't think twice about putting gas in the car as it approaches empty, lest you want to find yourself to be stuck on the highway with no gasoline. I know I sweat bullets when my car tells me 0 miles till empty. That 0 miles till empty indicator on our cars is actually telling us we're now using the reserve tank thats left behind before we're completely empty and we're lucky if we may be able to get ten or fifteen to 30 miles before it sputters to a stall.
Well, when your phone says its at 15% and says "connect to charger", it's essentially telling you the same thing. In other words, that last 15% is your reserve tank and you should really consider the usable portion of the charge to be between 100% and 15%, and consider 15% as empty, leaving that last 15% as a reserve to give you time to find the nearest charger.
So why would you then let your phone battery run till it's 'dry' if you wouldn't do the same with your car? Well the simple answer is because you're not as dependent on your phone as you are in your car, such as for transportation as an example. However, the more we become dependent on our phones for everyday communications, business, personal, safety, etc., the more important it is that they are on 24 / 7.
Fortunately for you, your meter and battery are apparently in good sync so you haven't had a problem. Still, it's risky business with these phones to allow that to happen.