I’m using my cell phone (Motorola V330) more and leaving it switched on for longer periods of time. It needs recharging about every 3-4 days. Is this normal? Do most cell phone users really have to interrupt their lives that often to leave their phone sitting there, plugged into the wall, recharging?
This is fairly typical. Depending on the type and rating of the battery, some will last longer, some not quite as long.
I usually plug mine in at night and let it charge while I’m sleeping.
I’ve been wondering the same thing. My cell phone died last week, and my husband gave me his old one and bought a new one for himself. My habit is to charge up my phone and leave it on all the time, although I rarely make or receive calls. My old cell phone (may it rest in peace) was good under these conditions for about a week. My new one, which is much fancier, can only go for about two days. My husband’s new phone, fancier still, also only goes for about two days.
Stupid fancy-shmancy piece of crap phone.
Digital technology in cell phones has provided a dramatic improvement in power efficiency, therefore allowing longer time between charges compared to older analog phones. You must be young, my first cell phone needed to be charged about every day, but it was just so cool to have it at all I didn’t complain about it. (Actually my first cell phone didn’t have a battery, it was installed into the car. 
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If you are using your phone with any frequency to speak of, and only charging it every 3-4 days, then you are getting good service out of your phone. The manual that came with your phone has specs for how many hours of talk time and standby time you should expect with each battery charge.
If you charge it before the battery dies you can manage the charging schedule to avoid any life interruption (never thought of charging my phone as interrupting my life, but, whatever). It shouldn’t hurt to charge it daily. The old wisdom on batteries was wait until it was dead to charge it, but with some current lithium ion batteries it’s better to keep it topped off.
Do you have the same carrier for the new phone as the old one? The phone itself might not be to blame. If a cell phone is in a weak signal area, it constantly hunts for signal. This burns up the power very fast. I worked in an office building that had a lot of shielding, and my phone never had a signal when I sat at my desk. The battery would go down to zero nearly every day. It was a while before I figured out why. Then I just turned it off in my office. When I changed jobs the same phone went up to a week without a charge if I didn’t make a lot of calls.
That might be the problem. I guess I’ll just have to leave the darn thing off all the time. I can’t be arsed to turn it on and off very frequently.
I hadn’t thought of this. My office building has terrible reception.
I should research the physical limitations of batteries before bringing this up, but it just seems that, the pace of technical innovation being what it is, the life span of batteries should be doubling every 18 months or something. Dontcha think?
Good idea. I’ll have to get into this habit. Is it any harm to the battery if I charge it every single night (so as not to forget)?
I’m sexy, too. 
My phone lasts about 3 days. My old one would last about 5 days.
I guess beause it has a colour screen and other shiney features it drains the battery quicker.
It’s my understanding that charging regularly is actually desirable for lithium-ion batteries, which your cell phone most likely uses. The battery specifically should not be completely discharged, and loses its capacity with age, whether used or not. For other battery chemistries, consult the table in that link.
I’ve heard the complete opposite. That you should wait as long as possible before charging a phone. Something to do with ‘charge memory.’ But I could be talking out of my ass on this one.
I’ve heard of that too, with a cordless landline I had a few years ago. The handset batteries were running out far too often, and through the grapevine I heard that if you initially charge the battery for only, say, a couple hours instead of overnight, then the battery thinks it’s running out of juice earlier.
At the time, I thought this was the dumbest thing I ever heard, but now…
Hey, I know, I’ll Google. Hm. Link-e-dee, Link-e-dum. Wonder if they’re onto something.
Depends entirely on the battery type. Consult the table at the link provided for details.
This is interesting - I’d heard about this battery memory thing, too, and always let my cordless phones dishcharge completely before putting them back on the charger base overnight. My mother always keeps her cordless phone on the base, and constantly complains that if she’s on the phone more than 20 minutes or so, the battery starts beeping at her. I bought her new batteries for it, but she does the same thing - keeps it on the base, charging all the time unless she’s using it. I’ve told her to charge it up for 8-9 hours, and then leave it off the base and let the battery drain before charging it again, but she refuses.
She’s amazed that I can leave my phones off the bases for days at a time. It bothers her to come over and see the phones laying around and not on their bases, charging.
As for the OP, I can get 4 or 5 days out of a single charge. Granted, I don’t use my cell phone a lot, maybe 5 or 6 calls on a busy day. I do go into an area with bad service regularly, too, so it spends a lot of time searching if I forget to turn it off.
I do the same thing as with the cordless home phones - I let the battery wear completely down before I recharge it.
What UncleBeer said. Both of your links are about nickel-based battery chemistries. Nickel-cadmium (NiCd) batteries have severe charge memory effects, and Nickel-Metal-Hydride (NiMH), IIRC, improved on, but did not eliminate, this problem.
Got it. Thanks.
Many people have good luck with putting the cell phone on a charger next to their bed overnight, and taking it off (now fully recharged) each morning.