Quote:
Originally Posted by Traditional_Ale
Sorry I'm nitpicking, because you're mostly right, but that being said...
A Li-Ion battery has approximately 200 "life-cycles", essentially means you can plug it in to charge about 200 times before the capacity (run-time) begins to drop off. There is no memory effect with lithium, so you can charge whenever you like, but as soon as it's been plugged in about 200 times your run-time will drop-off very quickly.
Usually.
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Yeah, there is no memory effect with Lithium Ion (as in you don't need to drain it fully before charging) and over a year's time, the total charge it will hold will degrade when going through all those charging cycles like you say. 200 plug-ins is not very much. Maybe half a year. It's also best to store lithium ion batteries at around 50-60% in a cold environment. Leaving them at full charge will also slowly degrade the total charge that they will hold. Heat also damages their efficiency. I realize that is not an option for an iPhone but that is what I do with my spare batteries for my laptop and digital cameras and other phones. If my laptop is going to sit plugged in on my desk for a few days, the battery gets drained to 50% and removed and stored.
I wonder if the new iPhones will move to Lithium Polymer though, like the new iPad 2's use. Somehow I think they might not due to safety concerns with phones in your pocket, etc.