I have a Galaxy 10 Pad that I use like a Kindle for reading books. I often use the charger as I am reading and it charges and then asks me to remove the charger. My wife says that is bad and I should let the battery run down and then do a full charge with the Galaxy turned off. She says it is bad for the battery to charge while I am reading. So, what does everyone here think is best for the charging of my Galaxy?
I think the old NiCad batteries of yesteryear were the ones that benefitted from being fully discharged occasionally. With Lithium ion batteries, discharging reduces the battery life so you’re better off topping up frequently, before they get too discharged.
LiIon batteries are complex beasts. Totally discharging them will reduce their life (but that’s what they’re for, right?) Sometimes, though, a complete discharge is necessary to “remind” the charging circuitry about the true capacity of the battery. On the other hand, I understand that keeping the battery fully charged and hot (like when you use it with the charger plugged in) will also reduce its life.
I’ve heard that the best strategy, ideally, is to keep the battery around a 50% charge. And keep it somewhere cool (if it’s removable, the refrigerator). But that sort of defeats the purpose, doesn’t it? Why sacrifice useful battery life now just to preserve a little bit of useful life two years from now?
And even if you use every possible trick to preserve the battery, you’d still need to replace it in (say) three years. In comparison, if you used it without worrying about it, you’d need to replace it in two and a half years.