Making the Most of Your Device’s Battery

There seems to be a lot of misinformation out there about the best way to care for the battery in your cell phone, laptop, tablet, or other electronic device.  It seems that most people have not been given proper instructions on how to best care for their batteries, and they end up wearing them out prematurely.  By taking care of your battery, you can make your device perform optimally for years.

Technology has changed quite a bit over the years, that’s for certain.  And so have the batteries that power our devices, and the chargers that keep them running.  Unfortunately much of society hasn’t been taught how to care for them to get the most out of them.  So let’s set the record straight.

Myth: I should let the battery on my device drain all the way down before charging it again.

Fact: This was true in the days we used NiCd rechargeable batteries in our devices.  Very few devices still use NiCds; they are heavy and hold relatively little energy.  Today, we use Lithium Ion batteries, and draining a Li-ion battery shortens its life dramatically.  In fact, in some cases when a Li-ion battery is drained all of the way it won’t accept a charge at all.  Bad things happen to Li-ion batteries when they are allowed to get too low.

For example, if a Li-ion battery is allowed to fully discharge, it will only accept a few hundred charges before it dies.  If a battery is only allowed to dip to 90% charge each time it is used, it will be good for many thousands of charge cycles.  A properly cared-for battery can last for many, many years.  A battery improperly cared for can become useless in under a year.

Myth: It is bad to leave my device plugged in all of the time.

Fact: For devices with really primitive charging circuitry, this is actually true.  These devices would overcharge a battery, and damage it. 

But those days are behind us.  Any modern cell phone, laptop, or tablet has intelligent charging circuitry that shuts off the charger when the battery is full, eliminating the need to unplug when the battery is charged.  You don’t need to unplug manually.

You may even see evidence of the intelligent charger.  If your device’s battery charge actually drops while plugged in, this is the intelligent circuitry doing its job, turning on and off to prevent unnecessary wear and tear.  Most devices hide this on/off cycle from you, though, so even devices that stay at 100% when plugged in are still managing your battery properly.

Myth: It doesn’t matter when I plug my device in, the battery is going to wear out in a couple years anyway.

Fact: Batteries actually do have a limited number of charge cycles that they can handle.  And each charge cycle holds just a little bit less energy than the previous.  But the loss in total capacity can be minimized by making sure that batteries aren’t drained any more than they need to be.  The way you handle charging your device can extend or shorten its life significantly.  Deep discharges wear out a battery faster than letting the battery drop just a few percent before plugging it back in.  To maximize the life of your battery, just plug in whenever you can.

Myth: It isn’t good for a battery to only let it discharge a little bit before plugging it back in.

Fact: The Lithium Ion batteries that power our devices actually last longer when they aren’t allowed to discharge much.  They last longer when their charge isn’t allowed to drop.  They “like” to be constantly topped off.  The old NiCd batteries we used years ago worked best when discharged fully before charging, but the Lithium Ion batteries we use today wear out faster when allowed to discharge.  So plug in to keep your devices topped off whenever you can.

Myth: Lithium Ion batteries are dangerous, and can explode, especially if overcharged.

Fact: Lithium Ion batteries are potentially dangerous.  If allowed to overheat they can catch fire –violently – and even explode.  Fortunately, reputable manufacturers place multiple failsafes into modern batteries to prevent this from happening.  The number of cases of batteries overheating or exploding has dropped dramatically in recent years.

But because batteries have to be designed and built properly to prevent overheating, fires, and explosions, you should avoid purchasing no-name aftermarket batteries.  You just can’t be sure if they’re built with the same level of protection as batteries from the original device manufacturer.  It just doesn’t pay to buy batteries from brands you don’t know you can trust.

Myth: All Lithium Ion batteries are the same, so it doesn’t matter if I buy a cheap no-name replacement.

Fact: Batteries are most definitely not all created equal.  Aftermarket batteries often hold less of a charge than the originals (even when labeled as if they held more), and very often aren’t built with the same level of protections against fire and explosion.  They also tend to wear out faster.  It generally isn’t worth it to buy batteries from anyone other than the original device manufacturer, or at least a trusted brand. 

Myth: The battery in my device can’t be replaced.  The cover can’t be removed.

Fact: We have certainly seen a trend in recent years for device manufacturers to take away the ability for owners to swap out a battery by removing access covers.  But in most cases, batteries can still be replaced by a qualified service center.  Don’t be tempted to throw away an old phone just because it doesn’t hold a charge very well.  Replace the battery and keep using the device, or donate it to someone else who can enjoy it.  (Reusing is better than recycling, and far better than discarding.)

Myth: It’s okay to use an aftermarket charger.

Fact: It depends on what type of charger you’re talking about.  If you’re talking about a charger that you plug into a phone or tablet, it may not matter what charger you use in terms of the life of your battery.  But if you’re talking about a charger that you insert a loose battery directly into, it can make all of the difference in the world.  Cheap battery chargers don’t often have the intelligence that they need to maintain a battery properly.  Stick to chargers from the original manufacturers, or at least a well-known and well-respected brand.

Myth: If I don't have time to fully charge the battery, I shouldn't plug my device in to charge because short charging cycles harm my battery.

Fact: False. Even short charging cycles are helpful.  Plug in whenever you can.

Myth: Using a charger with a higher milliamp rating than the original will damage a device/battery.

Fact: The milliamp rating on a charger is simply the maximum amount of current that it can potentially put out.  It doesn’t mean that it will force more current into a device than it can handle.  If a device is designed to draw 500mA, and you plug it into a 1000mA charger, the device will still draw just 500mA.  It is generally just fine to use a charger with a higher milliamp rating, so long as the voltage is correct.

Myth: I should never allow my battery to drain fully.

Fact: Okay, well, yes, you should never drain the battery all the way until your device shuts itself off.  That is bad.  But it is a good idea to drain your battery down to 10% or so a couple times per year.  Not because doing so is actually good for the battery, but because it is actually good for the device it is powering.  It is quite difficult for devices to figure out the charge level of Lithium Ion devices (it involves a lot of guesswork), and putting a device through a discharge / recharge cycle gives the device a chance to re-learn how your battery is operating.  You’ll be rewarded with a more accurate gauge of the amount of battery life you have left.

Myth: It isn’t worth it to do anything to improve the battery life of my device.

Fact: Because draining a Li-ion battery is bad for it, you can extend the life of your device’s battery by taking a few steps to reduce the amount of battery charge being used.  Things like changing the amount of time a device sits idle before automatically going to sleep, reducing the brightness of your screen, using Wi-Fi instead of a cellular connection, or closing apps you aren’t using can make a huge difference, and can extend the life of your battery dramatically.

Myth: It is okay to throw away a used battery in the trash.

Fact: Nope. Lithium Ion batteries should always be recycled.  It is easy to do; most electronics and office supply stores will recycle old batteries for you at no charge (pun intended).

Myth: Batteries perform differently based on temperature.

Fact: This one is actually true.  A warm battery doesn't output as much energy as one at room temperature.  Likewise, a cold battery doesn't output as much as one at room temperature.  Batteries operate most ideally at the same temperatures that we as humans do.

Similarly, batteries charge best at room temperature as well.  A cold battery won't charge as fast as one at room temperature.  And trying to charge a hot battery isn't a good idea.  So if your device is too warm or too cold, give it some time to return to room temperature before plugging it in.

Batteries which become too warm are also damaged by the heat.  A battery that overheats because the device is in the sun, or is hot because the electronics inside have gotten warm, can easily be permanently damaged.

Myth: It's okay to use a battery which has swelled up.

Fact: A battery which has been overcharged or overheated can sometimes swell up and become larger than it is intended to be.  These are potentially dangerous to use.  The act of swelling up can damage some of the protection circuitry inside.  Once a battery has swelled it should be properly recycled and replaced.  There is no way to repair a swelled-up battery.

Myth: You have oversimplified how to care for a battery here.

Fact: Okay, yes, I have oversimplified a bit.  I'm aware that my advice isn't 100% accurate.  I'm aware that modern electronics do push batteries harder than they maybe should.  But I feel my advice is still good because actual battery best practices are too complicated and nobody would ever actually attempt to follow those rules exactly.  We aren't NASA using devices that have to survive in space for a decade.  Nobody would be happy with the battery life of their devices if they followed actual best practices, nobody would take the time to monitor their devices that closely to maintain them perfectly, and any potential damage done by following my advice compared to ideal is for all practical purposes insignificant.  Device owners can benefit significantly from the advice here compared to how they are likely handling their devices now.  So I've opted to simplify the rules to make them easier to follow. So please forgive me for not over-complicating the matter.

Should I Wait for Windows 8?

Window 8 becomes available in retail in just a little less than 4 weeks.  With computers still shipping with Windows 7 until then, and most vendors not automatically covering the $15 upgrade charge, does it make sense to buy a Windows 7 computer now, or wait a few weeks and get on with Windows 8 from the factory?

I’ve been using Windows 8 a bit here and there since the first preview release nearly a year ago, and I was given access to the final release version of Windows 8 back in August.  So I’ve had a little time with it now and have had a chance to formulate an opinion on it based on actual hands-on time rather than just by reading articles on the Internet.  I haven’t used it as my primary operating system, but I have spent quite a few hours with it.

So instead of making you read a long drawn-out article that covers every little change that has been made, let’s just get down to brass tacks.  Should you wait for a computer running Windows 8?  Let me answer that question with two of my own: Does the computer you are looking at buying have a touch screen?  And would you be happy running a tablet-style interface?  If the answer to either of these is “No” then sticking with Window 7 is likely your better option at this point in time.

But isn’t Windows 8 supposed to be the latest and greatest version of Windows?  Isn’t Microsoft betting the farm on it?  Yes, and yes.  And while they changes they have made give them the opportunity to provide the best experience on a tablet device, they’ve really sacrificed ease-of-use on computers that are still going to be used primarily with a mouse and keyboard.  The user interface they’ve created is just awkward with traditional input devices, even if it is very well designed for touch-friendly devices.

For those not familiar with what I’m talking about, Windows 8 completely ditches the Start menu that we’ve become used to since it first appeared in Windows 95 just over 17 years ago.  If you’re used to launching your software from the Start menu, you’re in for a real shock as you discover that your precious Start menu is completely gone, being replaced by an entire Start Screen with very large tiles to start your applications.  Even on a large, high-resolution monitor, you’ll only see a few dozen tiles at best.  On a smaller screen, you’ll have to scroll horizontally to find anything that doesn’t in the initial view.  And scrolling is kind of a problem… the only way to scroll efficiently on the keyboard is with the Page Up/Page Down keys (which many laptops have now abandoned), and the mouse’s scroll wheel doesn’t scroll horizontally either.  So you have to use the scrollbar at the bottom of the screen, which is a little awkward. 

Once you’ve started a traditional Windows app, the way to get back to the Start screen to launch another just isn’t apparent.  There is absolutely no visual indication on-screen for how to get back.  Only if you know to move the mouse down to the very bottom left corner of the screen can you figure out how to get back to the Start Screen from the desktop.  It’s mind boggling to me that something so necessary to efficiently use the computer has no button or other visible way on-screen to get to it.  You’ll get used to it, but it seems weird to me that Microsoft didn’t provide even a single button to navigate to the most important part of its interface.  Odd choice.

The good news is that once you’ve gotten used to the strange new interface, that Windows 8 is very fast.  There is as much of a speed improvement going to Windows 8 from Windows 7 as there was going from Vista to 7.  Yep.  It’s just that much faster.  One one of my computers, running an SSD, I was able to get Windows 8 to boot in under two seconds.  I’m not talking about waking from a sleep mode of some kind, I’m talking about a full reboot.  Once the computer got past its system check screens, and the Windows 8 logo first appeared, the login screen was visible and fully usable in under two seconds.  Most computers won’t see that kind of performance, but boot times in less than 10 seconds will be common.

Microsoft has also done a great deal to speed up performance in third party software as well.  They’ve completely revamped all of the graphics code, so everything draws on-screen much faster than it has in the past.  They’ve also done a lot of work to temporarily shut down (or at least pause) programs that run in the background so they don’t slow you down in the software that you’re actually using.  They’ve also dramatically cut back on the number of programs that have to run on the computer in the background for Windows to provide all of its standard functionality… there has been a lot of simplification and consolidation to make sure that everything you need is still there, but that it runs more efficiently.  As a result, your computer will run faster under Windows 8 than it ever has before, and that computers will perform better with less memory (RAM) than they have in the past.

The other nice thing that Microsoft has done is to drastically reduce the price of Windows 8 as compared to previous versions.  If you already have a computer running Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7, the upgrade price is just $40.  If you purchase(d) a computer after June of this year, the upgrade is $15.  So if you do decide to go with Windows 8, at least it won’t cost you that much.

Bottom Line

So bottom line is… if you’re comfortable with Windows 7 and don’t want to struggle with a completely new user interface, and you aren’t going to be running it on a tablet anyway… and the computer you’re looking at buying is already plenty fast, I’d skip Windows 8… at least for now.  You could always pay the $15 to buy a license for it, but not actually install it just yet. 

As for me, I’ll be keeping one computer around with Windows 8 so I can test my software on it, but other than that I don’t plan to upgrade any of them, and I don’t have any plans to buy a computer with Windows 8 on it.

The other thing to be aware of is the new Windows RT tablets that will be available at Windows 8 launch.  It’s important to know that Windows RT is not Windows 8, and these devices cannot run traditional Windows software.  They can ONLY run Windows RT apps (sometimes also called Windows 8-style apps), so you’re talking about a completely new investment in software, very little of which will be available for a little while yet.  Try thinking of Windows RT as “Not Windows” because it doesn’t even remotely resemble the Windows you are used to.  The software you already own won’t work on it no matter how hard you try.  If you need to run Windows software on a new tablet/computer, Windows 7/8 are your ONLY options.

Amazon Kindle Fire

The Amazon Kindle Fire shipped this week as their answer to a need for a color e-reader.  And, if you look at it from a certain perspective, as their answer to the iPad.  But it's really something somewhere in between.

Amazon has set a very aggressive price for this device at $199.  They’ve created a device that is essentially a tablet, but at a price that undercuts their competition by a pretty wide margin.  Why not? The whole point of the Fire is to sell you more Amazon content, so they can more-or-less count on making their profits on the content you buy rather than the hardware itself.  Everything about the Fire is designed to entice you to purchase content from Amazon… not just books, either.  It also plays music, movies, TV shows, lets you purchase apps to run on the device, and it even comes pre-installed with an Amazon shopping app, already linked to your account.  In a way, it’s genius.  You’ve just got to resist the urge to go crazy with content purchases.

Reviews on the Internet have been all over the map.  Some are praising the Fire as an iPad killer (it’s not).  Others are essentially saying it’s the worst piece of electronics to come out in a long time (again, it’s not).  Like so many opinions out on the Internet, the truth lies somewhere in between.

There are a lot of things I like about the Fire.  It’s pretty easy to use.  It’s a nice size and it isn’t too heavy to hold for long reading or video watching sessions.  Amazon’s $79 per year (via Amazon Prime) access to a substantial streaming video library is quite intriguing.  The screen is very good.  It provides a low-cost point-of-entry into the world of Android apps.  But, on the other hand, it also provides a low-cost point-of-entry into the world of Android apps.  Yes, that is a backhanded compliment.  It lets you install Android apps, but I’m not so sure this is a great thing.

Until fairly recently I was open to the possibility of the Android platform being a decent alternative to the iPhone and iPad of the world.  That is, until I used an Android device.  While some who complain about Android do so because they’re purchasing $49 phones, I used two different high-end models to take the hardware out of the equation.  And I was not impressed.  Not in the least.  Every Android device I’ve tried now is clunky, generally sluggish, and incredibly inconsistent in the way it works.  Having apps pause and stutter is just the normal way of doing things on Android devices… you have to expect it.  And because there are no standards for how apps should look, feel, or work, everything is all over the map.  One application might use on-screen touch buttons to get around.  Others rely on the Back button.  Some use an iPhone-like hierarchy of commands, others do everything through flat linking.  Some apps look like the launcher that HTC has created, others like Samsung’s, others like nothing else.  I can’t believe how incredibly fragmented and inconsistent things are under the Android OS.  I am not impressed at all.  Frankly, I am actually stunned that anyone could love their Android phone… I have to chalk it up to lack of knowledge of alternative choices.  I may have gotten spoiled by my Windows Phone, but I really don’t believe how bad Android is, and have a hard time understanding how anyone could get excited by it, let alone put up with it.

With that, back to the Fire.  Even though the Fire uses the Android OS at its core, Amazon has tried to isolate its users from it.  To some degree it has done it fairly well.  If you stick to the Books, Videos, Music, and Docs libraries, everything runs great.  The device is responsive and (mostly) easy to use.  The reader is everything you’d hope for in an e-book reader (aside from the e-Ink paper-like display), and videos play smoothly.  If you’ve been populating Amazon’s music cloud with your own content, the music player is alright (although I will contend that anything larger than a phone is just too big for playing music).  Pretty much everything in those areas of the device is great.

That is, until you get to the Apps library.  The way Amazon has this setup is that don’t use Google’s App Market, but rather they have their own Android app store.  And the Fire can run nearly everything in that store, within the inherent limitations of the device (you won’t be making phone calls, for example).  Shopping for apps is pretty easy (although I would like to see more filtering capabilities to narrow down searches) and purchasing is even easier.  There are, of course, a broad range of apps available for free, but since Amazon is in this to make money they don’t do much to make these super easy to isolate. 

Where things really break down is actually running and installing these apps.  It’s really a mixed bag.  Most of the problems aren’t Amazon’s fault, so we have to give credit where credit is due, but it still doesn’t make for a great experience.  Among my complaints…

• As mentioned, the sluggishness of Android is fully present here.  The majority of apps are affected.  Scrolling and navigation is clunky most of the time.  It isn’t at all uncommon to tap something on the screen and not see any sort of response for as much as a second or longer.  On a modern consumer electronics device, this is unacceptable.
  
• Most of the apps are written for phones, not something the size of the Fire.  Very few apps have been designed to take advantage of a larger screen.  This means that one of two things tends to happen: either everything on-screen is small (sized as if it was being displayed on a screen 1/3 the size) and it shows more content to you, or everything is blown up much larger than normal as if you were using a phone with a 7” screen.  Neither experience is ideal. 
  
• There are many first-rate apps in the store, but there is a lot more junk.  There are a lot of no-good apps to sort through to find the gems.
  
• While Amazon’s Android App Store does have a lot in it, there are still a lot of popular Android apps that aren’t in it.  You can, if you choose to, install other apps if you have access to their .APK files, but there isn’t really a good online repository of them.  Most people who run Android get their apps from Google’s App Market (and as such, there hasn’t been much need for another repository), but that isn’t available here.  I was able to find .APK files for several apps missing from the Amazon store (Skype, Zinio, for example), but only once I was willing to wade into some rather seedy areas of the Internet.  I do not recommend doing this to the faint of heart.  If an app isn’t in Amazon’s store, skip it.

So overall my thoughts on having the ability to install apps are mixed. Yes, you can install third party apps on the device, as if it were a full-fledged Android tablet.  The real question is, are you really sure you want to?

Things are a little more muddy when it comes to the built-in web browser.  The browser seems to do a decent job rendering most web sites.  Better than the iPad in most cases.  And since it supports Adobe Flash you can view many sites that the iPad can’t handle.  But the trouble is, the browser is based on, you guessed it, is the Android WebKit browser.  So it’s slow.  Amazon has tried to speed it up by using their high-power cloud servers to accelerate the experience, but several online tests, and my own experience, show that this actually slows things down, and the feature should be turned off.  Even something as simple as scrolling a page is slow and clunky.  As if you’re the device to do something it doesn’t want to do, like asking a child to leave a toy store.  You can absolutely browse the web.  But not if you’re in a hurry.

I find it a little odd that Amazon is only offering a WiFi version of the Fire.  If any of the Kindles screams “I need 3G” it’s the Fire.  It’s the only model that has a supported (non-“experimental”) web browser, and the only model that can play music and videos from Amazon’s stores.  We can speculate as to why there is no 3G model, but the fact remains that if you want to access Amazon’s stores or the web while away from home or the office, you need to either find or bring your own WiFi hotspot.

I hope Amazon works out some of the little kinks, because I really think the Fire has a lot of potential.  I’m not saying that I dislike it, because it does do what it is supposed to do, it doesn’t crash or lock up, and at $199 it’s a steal for what it is.  I’m just disappointed that Amazon has selected Android and all of its required baggage to run the thing.  They could have done so much better.

My overall rating for the Kindle Fire is “good enough.”  It isn’t a stellar device, but it really isn’t bad either, especially if you aren’t interested in the ability to run Android apps, or browse the web quickly.  As long as you stick to the other libraries (Books, Video, Music, Docs) it’s excellent.  Just don’t have high expectations once you wander outside of the Amazon-created areas of the device.  You don’t have to use Android Apps on the device, and you don’t have to browse the web… as long as you consider those two features to be a bonus you’ll be very happy with the Fire.  But if you buy it specifically for those features, you’re likely to be at least a little bit disappointed.

It is not an iPad, but it isn’t intended to be, and it costs, depending on the model you’re comparing it to, between 24% and 40% of what the iPad does.  For that, you can make some compromises.  A $20,000 Honda isn’t a BMW, either.  If you’re happy with a Honda or Ford, you’ll probably be happy with the Fire.  If you prefer to shop at Target rather than Nordstrom, you’ll be happy with the Fire.  The Fire is a Honda sold at Target.