How to tell charge level?

[VooDooCC]

I got my Rezound today woo and yay. I plugged it in, but wanted to see how charged it was. So, I pressed the power button like I do on my motorola's and the phone turned on and went through it's initial set up and everything, then while it was still syncing stuff, it came up and said 10% or less, so I turned it off to charge it completely. My question, though I don't feel the brightest asking, is how do you tell the charge level, while the phone is off? Or do you just wait until the orange light goes out? I would really like to be able to see percentages.

 

[Bochoa]

Congratulations on you're new rezound, while the phone is off I don't think you can see the percentage, but I know the notifaction light will switch from orange to green, that's how I tell at least, sorry hope this was helpful

 

[Xander Crews]

There are apps you can install that will show the battery % in the notification bar. I use zdbox, which does a lot of other stuff as well.

 

[VooDooCC]

Thanks Bochoa, so I guess it wasn't as dumb of a question as I thought.
Cprice, I'm wondering about when the phone is off. I haven't really had the phone on enough to start customizing things how I want yet.

 

[vatothe0]

I came from a DX and kind of miss this feature as well. It charges pretty fast on a wall charger though so I'd say you gain at least 1%/minute.

 

[Xander Crews]

Thanks Bochoa, so I guess it wasn't as dumb of a question as I thought.
Cprice, I'm wondering about when the phone is off. I haven't really had the phone on enough to start customizing things how I want yet.

Aside from the notification light, I don't think there is a way.
The phone is off, so nothing is running to tell you it is fully charged.

You don't have to turn it off to fully charge it every time anyway. That's like a once every three months deal when you are testing to see if your battery needs reconditioned...and that's only if you are having battery live issues...or so I have read.

I have the extended battery, and it took about 2.5 hours or so to fully charge on a wall charger.

 

[MrSmith317]

cprice is correct, the notification light will turn green when the phone is done charging. The Rezound uses a full lithium ion battery and doesn't require any of the "conditioning" that people usually do. You will see a hit in battery performance somewhere in the 20,000th charge range. Other than that, just enjoy your phone.

 

[LoudRam]

cprice is correct, the notification light will turn green when the phone is done charging. The Rezound uses a full lithium ion battery and doesn't require any of the "conditioning" that people usually do. You will see a hit in battery performance somewhere in the 20,000th charge range. Other than that, just enjoy your phone.

I'm at 20,003 charges and I don't have any problems.

j/k

Sent from my HTC Rezound infused with ice cream goodness using Droid Forums.

 

[Xander Crews]

cprice is correct, the notification light will turn green when the phone is done charging. The Rezound uses a full lithium ion battery and doesn't require any of the "conditioning" that people usually do. You will see a hit in battery performance somewhere in the 20,000th charge range. Other than that, just enjoy your phone.

So, do lithium ion batteries need occasional conditioning or not?
I'v heard both yes and no answers from pretty legitimate sources...or at least I thought so.
One site will say yes and one site will say no.

Right now, I'm pretty confused. I'm not a battery expert, so, like most folks, I rely on others for info, and the info out there varies greatly and is quite contradictory.

Questions I now have...
- Does charging when the phone is powered down help to more fully charge the battery?
- Does leaving it on the charger for two hours after it hits 100% help battery life?
- Should you avoid draining the battery down to 0%?
- Is the proper way to use a battery to run it down to about 15%, then charge it to 100% and then leave it on the charger for an additional two hours?
- Does it hurt the battery or battery life to charge it overnight, every night, regardless of how much juice is left in the battery?
- Does it hurt the battery or shorten battery life to charge the battery when it's only down to, say, 70%?

I originally thought, (before reading in a few places about battery conditioning), was that a healthy and properly functioning lithium-ion battery is supposed to have a set number of charges before battery life will degrade.
So if the set number is 20,000 as Mr. Smith says (that sounds really high to me), and I charge it every night, then the battery should in theory be fine for 20,000 days, or 54 years. (We all know batteries don't last that long.)
But if so, then why is it that a smart phone's lithium-ion battery will rarely run at peak performance longer than a few years?

I can only assume that the 20,000 cycle specification has to be under optimal conditions with nothing running that will get the battery hot, be a big battery sucker, outside elements playing a factor (left in a hot car), etc. I imagine the average real world cycle number is probably around 1000-1500.

In short...what is the f*cking truth about lithium-ion batteries in smart phones? :biggrin:

This question should probably go in a different forum...but this is the way the thread went, so...

 

[LoudRam]

Cprice12 hopefully this will help.


So, do lithium ion batteries need occasional conditioning or not?
I'v heard both yes and no answers from pretty legitimate sources...or at least I thought so.
One site will say yes and one site will say no.

>> No they don't. The 15% draining you see talked about in here is to calibrate the phones battery meter not to condition the battery

Right now, I'm pretty confused. I'm not a battery expert, so, like most folks, I rely on others for info, and the info out there varies greatly and is quite contradictory.

Questions I now have...
- Does charging when the phone is powered down help to more fully charge the battery?

>>To a point but it does help to keep the battery meter better calibrated.

- Does leaving it on the charger for two hours after it hits 100% help battery life?

>> No and it doesn't really hurt either. The phone has built in protection against over charging.

- Should you avoid draining the battery down to 0%?

>>Absolutely Yes

- Is the proper way to use a battery to run it down to about 15%, then charge it to 100% and then leave it on the charger for an additional two hours?

>>You can take it off the charger when it's done charging.

- Does it hurt the battery or battery life to charge it overnight, every night, regardless of how much juice is left in the battery?

>>No it might actually help the battery more than hurt it.

- Does it hurt the battery or shorten battery life to charge the battery when it's only down to, say, 70%?

>>No (see answer above)

The battery that comes with you phone should under normal circumstances last the life of your contract and then some.

Sent from my HTC Rezound infused with ice cream goodness using Droid Forums.

 

[HowardZ]

I use a free app - battery widget.
It displays the battery's % and battery's temperature in the notification area.