Thank you! I can hardly wait!

[RatCracker]

Huge THANK YOUs to ya'll that helped me select a new phone. It arrived in the mail this morning, and the box has been staring at me all day!

My old phone was an enV Orange. Loved it! The new phone is a D3...

Currently, (now that I finally have the time) I have it plugged in. I've inserted my old microSD card from my enV and installed the battery.

Reading the forum, I understand I need to condition the phone by fully charging it before use. Then, I need to run it "dry" so to speak and do this for a week or so? Then monthly after that? Just want to make sure I do this right.

Should I also take out the SIM for battery length?

As I haven't turned it on, yet, and am anxious to play, is there anything I should do once I get it on and set up? (I'm not sure if things have changed since the original D3 posts in July.)

Again, thank you, thank you! I really appreciate all the guidance and tons of info this forum has. It's been a huge help.

 

[doogald]

Reading the forum, I understand I need to condition the phone by fully charging it before use. Then, I need to run it "dry" so to speak and do this for a week or so?

In my opinion, that's being excessive. Charge it up full - you can use it while it's charging - and just use the phone. Perhaps one time the first few days try to use it for a full cycle (but not to the point where the phone shuts off - when you get the first low battery warning is good enough to plug back in) and let it recharge fully, if you can. Yes, doing that once a month or so is helpful to train the battery circuitry - but if you miss a month or something, don't sweat it. If you are like most Android users, your battery will be used quite heavily that it will be rare that you recharge it while it is relatively full.

This is a pretty good table for how to manage your battery (which is of the Li-ion type, or the one in the last column of the table): Explaining the Do's and Don'ts of Battery Charging - Battery University

(In that table, by the way, "Storage" means how best to store a battery that you have taken out of the phone - meaning that a battery at a 40% charge is the best way to do that. It should not be mis-interpreted that it's best to keep the battery in the phone at 40%.)

 

[spillner]

"You've taken your first step into a larger world"

Kudos to anyone who knows who said that

 

[Fr33dom]

Reading the forum, I understand I need to condition the phone by fully charging it before use. Then, I need to run it "dry" so to speak and do this for a week or so? Then monthly after that? Just want to make sure I do this right.

Yes. It isn't being excessive, your phone needs to know where full charge is and if you turn it on at the half charge its at, then it will consider that full charge.

I would only fully discharge it once. The battery is at stress during full charge and full discharge and it has a limited number of full discharges until its life is basically forfeit. So once, and then anytime you have a consistent problem with battery strength after that. Some folks say once a quarter, but I've never done it that much and not had problems.

As I haven't turned it on, yet, and am anxious to play, is there anything I should do once I get it on and set up? (I'm not sure if things have changed since the original D3 posts in July.)

I would pull the SIM card. Then simply take your time to learn about the phone. You could start adding apps, but it will take about a week for the phone to get to know the battery completely and you'll have a better feel for how apps affect your battery if you resist. That said, I would change the launcher to something like ADW after the first couple days. Some people like the default launcher (Blur) but most indicate that it makes the phone a bit laggy.

As far as must have apps, I'd say a good camera app like Camera FX and a gallery replacement like QuickPic. It all depends on how you want to use your phone, but the Android Camera app is laggy and the gallery that comes with the phone favors social network pictures over any that you take.

And while I'm on the subject, the social networking apps that come with the phone created lots of issues for people before the update. I'm not sure how they are now, but you may want to get the default social networking apps if you do FaceBook and such.

 

[Chukee]

Lol. Yeah that's being excessive but it won't hurt letting it charge before u use it. Now on the other hand unpluging it and using it before it fully charges for the first time may give u problems. I have used new phones plenty of time while they was charging for the first time with no issue.

Sent from my ADR6400L using DroidForums

 

[Fr33dom]

Perhaps we all have our own opinion about what constitutes "excessive". But it isn't extravagant, inordinate, exorbitant, or unreasonable to charge your phone all the way before using it. In fact most documentation that comes with most rechargeable batteries tells you to charge it fully before first use. So if you count doing what is normally suggested as excessive, then have at it.

 

[doogald]

Perhaps we all have our own opinion about what constitutes "excessive". But it isn't extravagant, inordinate, exorbitant, or unreasonable to charge your phone all the way before using it. In fact most documentation that comes with most rechargeable batteries tells you to charge it fully before first use. So if you count doing what is normally suggested as excessive, then have at it.

Just to be clear, what I called excessive was this statement: "I understand I need to condition the phone by fully charging it before use. Then, I need to run it 'dry' so to speak and do this for a week or so?". Full charge before use? Sure. Run to battery warning once, to calibrate the smart circuitry in the battery? Yes. Doing these cycles continuously for a week? I think anybody suggesting that is basing their suggestion on guesses and voodoo rather than real battery science.

Just to be anecdotal, when I bought my D3 it was powered on and activated at the VZW store by the tech there and I walked out with a battery that was at 40% charge. I charged it in the car while I drove home, to between 70 and 80 percent, used it the rest of the evening until bedtime, then did the first full charge with the phone on.

A week later, I bought an extended battery. That night, I powered off the phone, popped in the new battery, charged it with the power off overnight, powered on with power still on, and used the battery until about 25%, the following evening.

Battery life for the extended battery is exactly proportional to battery life with the standard at the same ratio as the mAh of the extended battery to the standard, despite the fact that I used the standard battery "wrong" on the first day. My phone does not "think" that a 40% charge on the standard battery is full. I think people overthink this. Read that stuff at Battery University that I linked earlier. I'm not a battery engineer, but I trust their analysis, for it seems that guy is one.

Here is another link there about priming batteries: How to Prime Batteries – Battery University

To the OP, do what you will, but at least read that so you know what people who know what they are talking about suggest. But don't worry about constantly cycling your battery for a full week - that's probably worse for the battery in the long run.

 

[Erikbal]

You can pull the sim card? I've never heard of this! What exactly is the benefit to this? If you have your phone set to cdma what's the benefit of pulling the sim card? I'm ALL about extending battery life however I can and can't believe I haven't heard of this. EDIT: sorry lol, to the OP congrats man I know how exciting it is going to your first smart phone, especially a pretty sweet one! You're going to love it! I love mine and have had great luck with it hopefully you end up the same way! Good luck!

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