I had a brief look through the forums and couldn't find anything conclusive
Was wondering what everyone's thoughts were on battery care.

Keep it on constant charge?
Run it to empty and charge?

Would love to hear people's thoughts

My method: Never let it completely die.

Charge it to 100%.
Use it until it gets to the red (around 20%, then 10, 5% pop-ups I believe).
Then full charge to 100%.

But in between these two times, just plug it in whenever you can. Unplug when full.

Same as a laptop battery I'd imagine.

That doesnt sound quite right. You should always *if possible* use a battery till it runs out of power. The reason for this is so that it keeps its true full capacity power and does not develop a memory problem.

This is because, if you do not let it fully discharge till it runs out of *actual* power then the battery starts to develop a memory overtime and believes that the point at which you started charging it again was its empty state. Such overtime you will loose usable power. The *memory* phenomenon is not as prevalent in todays world as it used to be. With the current LI-ION and LI-Polymer batteries the risk is reduce but still will occur overtime.

Rule is to never let it continue to charge when it says its full and always use till it switches itself off.

Note: Im not sure if the iPhone has it, but many new phones automatically switch of charge to the battery when they are full and then just run on the AC power not utilizing the battery. But it may be worth checking up.

This is the same as with laptop batteries and for laptops you can get various programs that show the health of the laptop battery. i have had my laptop for 1.5 years now and used this method all along. My battery health status is still at 100% after 482 charge cycles, whereas my friend who just charges whenever he is near the charger, his battery has been replaced twice. The current one he has had for about 2 months and he is already at 92% health after 30 charge cycles.

Always try and run down fully and then charge up fully without unplugging.

Hope this helps

I always thought the opposite. I run my phone till dead then give it a full charge. As I recall the battery has a 'memory' and if you constantly charge from say 30% it thinks that that is it's full capacity.

Using this method my results have been great.

Gave it a full charge at 12 last night and have been using wifi, 3g and at least 60min of music and the battery is still showing full.

Edit: Remigi beat me to it

.... It's got a Battery? Seriously, is this, "Battery Memory " thing, an issue with current battery technology?

Are you kidding me? Run the iPhone on battery until it is dead, each and every time? Wrong.

No memory effect. That is old-school batteries.
The iPhone stops charging when full.

The page specifically for the iPhone and iPhone batteries, from Apple themselves:
Apple - Batteries - iPhone

Perhaps we can agree a feasible way to manage battery is to use till it's 'low' instead of flat
then charge to full etc?

I personally don't fancy power cycling

I'm just waiting for the first exploding iphone on an aircraft so they get banned from flying. Only a matter of time.

batteries with memory are old technology. charge it whenever you want, run it flat, dont run it flat, leave it on charge always...whatever, makes no difference!

party on

Is there any way you can get a percentage of battery remaining, or do you just have to go with the little icon in the top right corner?

Keep it charged as much and often as possible. Batteries have limited cycles, and these cycles are full charge-discharge cycles. So, by keeping it on the charger as often as possible, you don't use one of the batteries' cycles.

However it is recommended to completely discharge the battery once every few weeks to the battery meter is as accurate as possible.

from Apples site
For proper maintenance of a lithium-based battery, it’s important to keep the electrons in it moving occasionally. Be sure to go through at least one charge cycle per month (charging the battery to 100% and then completely running it down).

Apple are not quite correct as the iPhone battery is hi-tech lithium, and they left out the timing part of the process.

Taken from Do's and don'ts at Power Marts site, Power mart are Australian and make all sorts of replacement batteries, bookmark the site in case you ever need a new portable device battery.

I won't post the entire article as it is too long, but here's the url and a snippet of the article.

Enjoy!

Power Mart - Australia's Best Online Battery Shop

Battery Charging Information
Battery Types, Performance, and Charging Tips

If you need battery care information or Mobile phone battery tips, or want to learn how to improve battery performance, see below:

Mobile Phone Battery Tips:
Lithium-ion Batteries


It is important to learn battery care information for Lithium-ion batteries to enhance the performance and extend the useful life of the battery. Because they are the newest technology batteries, they offer several advantages over NiMH and NiCd batteries. Lithium-ion batteries are preferred for their lighter weight and higher performance. Lithium-ion batteries are typically 20-35% lighter and will provide 10-20% better performance than a NiMH battery of equivalent mAh rating. Lithium-ion batteries are also unique in that they are not susceptible to the "memory effect".

A new Lithium-ion battery will benefit from an initial "conditioning" of the battery. For the first 3 charge cycles, fully charge the battery overnight and allow it to fully discharge before recharging. Once conditioned, Lithium-ion batteries will perform best when charged at a rate somewhere between a conventional slow charge and a rapid charge. When rapid charging, Lithium-ion batteries require a charger designed to charge Lithium batteries. To achieve a true full charge when rapid charging, the battery needs to be slow charged the last 10-15% of its charge cycle. Most "intelligent" desktop and Lithium-battery rapid chargers provide this capability. A Lithium-ion battery may be damaged by extensive overcharging (continuously on a charger for more than 24 hours).

... and on and on and on.....

google is your friend

I posted this in another thread, but no one replied:

What's the consensus on using the iPhone to take calls or SMS whilst it is charging? I did this tonight and I'm wondering if it is a good thing for battery life?

Relax, the iPhone 3G battery is easy to replace. When it's dead it's dead (after a couple of years I guess, sooner if you're unlucky), and you put a new one in.

Cheers
Steffen.