Extended battery or cheap replacement battery

[nka]

It amazes me how poeple say every smartphone has bad battery life... compared to what? a regular phone.. well yeah, all regular phones do is make calls and text.

It's like saying a Corvette has bad gas mileage... compared to what? a Prius?... compare Oranges to Oranges, the Droid has average battery life for a smartphone.

That being said, your always suppose to drain your battery 100% on its 1st usage. So when you get the phone, kill the battery and then charge it up completely.. it will hold a charge longer, charge faster and have a longer life.

My Iphone holds up at least double the amount the droid does with heavy use.

The Iphone doesn't multitask

It does if you Jailbreak then install Cydia, then Backgrounder app. ;-)

[thremix]

Then maybe apple is on to something...

[djbis]

Looking forward to the extended battery. Or a holster that carries an extra battery.
I have looked but i cannot find anything like that, so here it goes:

• Would you buy a holster with a small pocket for an extra battery?

[djbis]

I looked and looked and there aren't any non OEM batteries out there. I actually got an OEM battery from verizon for $39 with free overnight shipping. It's the best deal out there. Now if they could just come out with a charger to charge the battery so I don't have to charge them both in the phone.

Ebay is full of OEM and non-OEM car chargers. I have used non-OEM's that have the chip in them to prevent overcharging and I have never had a problem. I say go with the cheapest one possible, since IMHO they are all the same. If anyone thinks differently, please let me know.

Ebay

It is my understanding that the phone, NOT the charger handles all electrical management while charging, not the charger itself. A chip regulating voltage/charge on the charger seems unlikely for such a small charger/device.

Can anybody confirm this?

PS: In addition the battery contains another voltage protection system...

[djbis]

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/...000202474a.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].

[macarunni]

I don't want to buy an extra battery that I will not be carrying with me. I'm leaving my Motorola Droid on a car charger at work so that I can use it all day. Any word on when someone might make an extended battery for it?

Tip: Use Task Killer and power management to turn off apps you don't need running all the time (such as GPS and WiFi). This has helped my battery life some. But still would buy an extended battery if available.

[Rikybob]

Lithium Battery For Motorola DROID a855 - Motorola Batteries

I ordered one the other day......300 mah less than standard but for 9 bux.........seriously. It ships from Hong Kong so I will let you know how it works sometime in January

UPDATE: It came today. I will be derned! It is plugged in and charging! I will know more in two hours!

[Aquabach]

Lithium Battery For Motorola DROID a855 - Motorola Batteries

I ordered one the other day......300 mah less than standard but for 9 bux.........seriously. It ships from Hong Kong so I will let you know how it works sometime in January

UPDATE: It came today. I will be derned! It is plugged in and charging! I will know more in two hours!

You posted this in December. Any review on it now that it's the end of February?

[snowman]

nka , yes the first charge when brand new it only charges about 60%
run it almost all way down then charge , the first 5 cycles
then and only then it will take and hold a full charge
then about once a month run it down not quite dead and re-charge it
but normally only let it get about 1/2 down before charging it.
this is the best cycling for Lit-ion and will get the most life out of a battery

[modmadmikee]

From my understanding the Motorola Droid stock battery is a Lithium-Polymer, which shares many of the traits of Lithium-ion but is not the same. At least my battery is a Li-Po, but they might have cut costs with the newer models and used a Lithium-ion. Lithium-Polymer batteries are able to hold a higher capacity in a smaller package.

Edit: I think the correct terminology is what is written on the back - "Lithium ion polymer battery"