[Mark Rejhon]

Originally Posted by rhr

I don't understand my 7250 fast low battery

They both use the same battery.

It's because CDMA uses more power than GPRS for a continuously-open connection. CDMA has a bigger inability to 'sleep' during an idle connection than GPRS.

If you want long battery life, you have to switch to GPRS (by switching to Cingular or T-Mobile). But Verizon's reception can be better in many areas.

VeriChat only lasts about 8 to 16 hours on 7250.... but VeriChat can last 75 to 100 hours nonstop on a 7290.

[allial3001]

Has anyone else noticed that TeleNav drains your battery life very quickly? I have the 7520 and I keep the bluetooth on all the time. I make about 30mins of calls a day and about 10 emails and the battery barely lasts 12hrs.

But when I use TeleNav your talking about only an hour or two of battery life.

Anyone else notice this?

[Lio]

Originally Posted by Lio

I used a 7280 with ATT as the provider for over a year with great battery life (recharged on average every 3 days). Two months ago a switched to T-Mobile and a 7290 and battery life is awful (most times I have to recharge twice a day). Voice, SMS and email traffic has not changed. I have used two different new batteries (used on the 7280 before) so I can say that it is not a battery problem. I keep Bluetooth off since I don't use it. I know T-Mobile does not have as good a coverage as ATT/Cingular and there may be greater "search" time. Any suggestions? Do I need to preset something to be more efficient? like a different Message Service etc.? Thanks.

For the last week, the 7290 T-Mobile unit is giving me great battery life like I reported with the 7280 before, recharging every 3 days. What has changed? Nothing on my side. It must be how the provider (T-Mobile in this case) interfaces with the handheld units. I have not changed the operating system and traffic email/sms/voice has been the same as always. I wish someone couuld explain what's up. Thanks.

[rhr]

Originally Posted by Mark Rejhon

They both use the same battery.

It's because CDMA uses more power than GPRS for a continuously-open connection. CDMA has a bigger inability to 'sleep' during an idle connection than GPRS.

If you want long battery life, you have to switch to GPRS (by switching to Cingular or T-Mobile). But Verizon's reception can be better in many areas.

VeriChat only lasts about 8 to 16 hours on 7250.... but VeriChat can last 75 to 100 hours nonstop on a 7290.

I understand, Thank you, done
I wish SMS and BMM are very good long than Verichat. I want AIM add in BBM future?

[johnsonk2]

Originally Posted by sbass

Mark,

First of all, great site I really like all the great info I've found here. I'm a new Blackberry user after having gone through the trials and tribulations of various cell phone, smartphone, pocket PC, palm combinations and I can't believe how great this Blackberry 7230 is. I love it!

Quick questions on battery usage/life. I didn't do the inital discharge/rechange, but I've only had the device for a week or so. Is it a good idea to do it now, or just forget it and forge ahead? The device was at 55% when I first got it and I've been charging it each night.

Second question, I see references all over the place to "topping it off". I usually plug it in at my bedside at night and unplug it in the morning. Is this a bad practice? Should I only charge it for 10-20 minutes in the morning and that's it? Will charging it overnight degrade the battery life?

Thanks.

Shawn

Sorry if this was addressed, but I didn't see a response in the thread. Mark this is my same scenario...My first BB and have had about a week. could you answer both of the above a questions when you get a chance?

[myownminerva]

thats pretty good advice, ill start informing customers to discharge when they first buy their bb

[Halford1]

Yes, as a deaf person myself, BB is considered as a "cellphone" for the deaf. I brag all the time about the battery longevity... Many deaf people love Sidekick II (Danger) which has a very short battery life, you have to charge it every night!!!!! Not for me and my household! I gave my 11 year old daughter my old 7230 and I use 7290. My son wants 7105 and I plan on giving him one. Blackberry runs in our blood.

[CoYoT]

Originally Posted by johnsonk2

Sorry if this was addressed, but I didn't see a response in the thread. Mark this is my same scenario...My first BB and have had about a week. could you answer both of the above a questions when you get a chance?

Hi,

just got a BB 7290 and would like to know that, too. Would be great if someone could answer that post

Cheers,

CoYoT from Berlin

[dulcamara]

Does all this apply to the 7130? I'm following Mark's instructions, but am wondering if the 7130 needs the help. Battery life on this device has been very good so far, much better than the 7100g it replaced.

[DallasFlier]

Originally Posted by dulcamara

Does all this apply to the 7130? I'm following Mark's instructions, but am wondering if the 7130 needs the help. Battery life on this device has been very good so far, much better than the 7100g it replaced.

With all due respect to Mark, who's provided a wealth of extremely useful information here and is a great resource, his advice on initial charge/discharge requirements to properly "condition" a lithium-ion battery are incorrect. That used to be important with the older Ni-Cad and NiMh batteries, but does not help at all with lithium-ion, although it really doesn't hurt either. So if you didn't do that in the beginning, no worry, and no need to do it now either.

For more authoritative advice, one good site is Battery University.

[pierre15208]

I get about 3-4 days battery use out of my 7230. I don't make phone calls on it, and rarely use the backlight. I send and receive a fair number of emails, and do a lot of web surfing via the BB and Opera Mini broswers, and I have it set to shut off automatically at midnight and turn on at 10:00am on the weekdays. I could get better battery life, but I have apps like PicoNews which is an RSS reader that is set to push news and blog articles to me automatically, and that will draw down the battery charge some. I probably should top my battery off more, I tend to let it get down to the point where the radio auto shutoff kicks in before I charge it.

[mymitsu3kgt]

I've heard so many people say that they don't use their backlight. I don't think I'd like my 8700g too much without the backlight. That's one of the best features, the vibrant and colorful screen.

[adamlau]

Backlighting set to 10%, 10 seconds, Automatic Backlighting turned On.

[wibbly]

Originally Posted by DallasFlier

advice on initial charge/discharge requirements to properly "condition" a lithium-ion battery are incorrect.

As a conditioning measure, I'd agree. But as a method to recalibrate the battery meter it may help. I'm finding my 8700 battery is showing a lesser % life left than it used to, essentially under the same conditions. It used to just go down to 85% during a day - now it gets there after 1/2 a day. I guess the battery may be getting tired after only 3 months (?!) but I'm hoping a discharge cycle will recalibrate the meter. Already tried battery out etc.

[adamlau]

Originally Posted by wibbly

...a discharge cycle will recalibrate the [battery display] meter.

A excellent reason to cycle charge lithium ion batteries every now and then.

[Aqualung]

So the Battery University article talks about the danger of overcharging, from the perspective of heat:

Limit the time at which the battery stays at 4.20/cell. Prolonged high voltage promotes corrosion, especially at elevated temperatures. (Spinel is less sensitive to high voltage than cobalt-based systems).

Does the BB cut the voltage when it senses the battery is full, thereby avoiding this problem, i.e. if you charge it overnight? As in this 'standard' feature, not sure if BB has it:

Much attention is focused to avoid over-charging and over-discharging. Commercial lithium ion packs contain a protection circuits that limit the charge voltage to 4.30V/cell, 0.10 volts higher than the voltage threshold of the charger. Temperature sensing disconnects the charge if the cell temperature approaches 90xxx176;C (194xxx176;F), and a mechanical pressure switch on many cells permanently interrupt the current path if a safe pressure threshold is exceeded. Exceptions are made on some spinel (manganese) packs containing one or two small cells.

My battery typically only goes down a bar or so at the end of the day but I plug it in every night to top off, so it's charging for at least 6 hours.

[wibbly]

I think products with lithium battery technology have to be designed properly. We've all seen the reports of them catching fire when things go wrong!

Even left on charge, they don't get warm in a BB. So no problem in leaving it to charge whenever you get the opportunity - which should give you better overall life from the battery than deliberately letting it discharge more before charging again.

IMO the ONLY thing to avoid is habitually reconnecting the charger without ANY discharge in between. Then you risk, perhaps, damaging the battery a little whilst the charging circuitry 'works out' what to do. Even this is theorhetical and may not in practice be an issue.

For a device like a BB, which is in contant use, just

1. Charge it/top it up when you have the opportunity, and leave it on charge whilst it's convenient to you.

2. Deliberately discharge the battery completely only if you notice it seems to be losing capacity. Full discharges are actually NOT good for lithium cells in the overall scheme of things, but the discharge can have the effect of recalibrating the battery meter, so it more accurately reflects the true state of charge of the battery.

3. Lithium batteries really don't need to be "looked after" in the same way as older battery technologies. Just relax and use your device. Worse case you may wind up replacing the battery a *little* earlier than otherwise, but this will be in exchange for hassle free use of your device - a good compromise.

4. DON'T go buying a spare 'just in case' or for 'stock'. Lithium cells have a shelf life, even if they're not used. Best to get a newly manufactured one when you actually *need* it...

[Aqualung]

A couple of weeks ago I loaded up w/ games for my kids to play w/....and have noticed that my battery seems to drain a lot quicker -- NOTE: I'm NOT referring to when the games are being played, rather when I'm using the phone for real work -- like this AM. I got home yesterday and my kids had been playing some games on the car ride home. Battery was very low, so I plugged it overnight. I had switched over to the home screen to check the battery life, didn't 'close' any games. My BB also turns off at 11pm, and on again at 7am.

This am, got to work, battery shows 100%. Made 2 calls on it (my office has a signal repeater so I'm at 100% signal strength) and read a few emails, but basically it's been sitting in its case all AM.

Now, at 1pm EST, the battery is down 3 bars. So I went in and looked at the games -- some were in 'suspend' mode, and so I physically closed them thru their menus. Note that for the past 2 mos, the battery has barely moved a bar at the end of the day w/ similar usage at the office, just not all the games (being played)

So my question is do the games that go into "suspend" mode still suck up CPUs and thus, drain the battery? Or are they truly suspended and would not be impacting the battery life?

I'm going to test this tonite/tomorrow as I'm now charging the BB, and will charge overnight again, and then try to use it as minimally.

UPDATE:

Over the past few days I watched my BB carefully and am pleased to report that it's back to 'normal', i.e. at the end of the day the battery has only decreased one 'bar'. This was even with making a few more calls than before. So I'm inclined to believe that the games in suspend mode definately have a negative impact on battery life.

Just FYI the games are: KA-GLOM, Meteorcrusher, Circlepopper, RV, Raging Rivers, Rooster, & Bass Assassin. I believe my kids were mostly playing KA-GLOM and Circlepopper.

[podbay]

I appreciate all the info on this discussion thread, thank you. My dilemma is, I am using a 7250, and today the battery drained itself slowly over a 10-hour period, even with the BB powered off most of that time. This has never happened before. It was fully charged overnight. I did have the auto on/off enabled, but disabled it after waking up. I'm in transit between flights at an airport, without my charger. The BB is dead. Has anyone else experienced this before? I have no idea what has happened. It's a CE battery in a 7250 I've been using for about two months.

Google Local is on it, but not running unless I use one of the browsers.

Any ideas?

Thanks - Randy

[slickitysly]

Glad I stumbled across this thread. I have yet to charge my BB, and will certainly endeavor to let it drain the first few times as you recommended. My battery has been on for a week so far...this thing lasts forever!