Until new nano lithium technology comes in later in 2009, mobile phone batteries are still notoriously flakyJust when you need to make an important call the battery indicator tells you the charge is all but extinctYou may have conditioned your battery in line with all of the advice and old wives tales floating around but still have to re-charge yours every dayShort of buying a spare and keeping that charged what can you do?

There are several types of battery in use at the present time and each must be treated differentlyThere are Nickel-Cadmium (Ni-Cad), Nickel-Metal Hydride (NiMH) and Lithium-ionNi-Cad is old technology and hence only found in ancient handsets, so I will not be covering them in this articleNiMH batteries perform much better than Ni-Cad, typically giving 30% more talk time, but Lithium are thinner and give even higher performanceI will be concentrating on Lithium-ion as it is the most used modern mobile phone battery to dateCheck which type of battery your phone has before following any of the following.

First of all let me dispel some battery charging myths.

• Memory effect will reduce the life of a batteryModern Lithium-ion batteries do not suffer from memory effect, although it does occur in Nickel-Metal Hydride (NiMH) units when charged from levels other than 0% of battery capacityIf the (NiMH) unit was fully charged when initially at say 20% capacity, the resulting available capacity would only be 80% of the factory originalOf course every time you charged the battery, the total available capacity would reduce and eventually your mobile phone would prove to be increasingly uselessNearly all new electronic devices are now powered by Lithium batteriesYou should always condition your (NiMH) battery from new.
• If you interrupt the charging process it will damage the batteryYou can interrupt the charge without damaging the lithium cell.
• You cannot use the phone whilst initially chargingYou can use the phone whilst charging even during the initial charge with no damage to the battery.
• You need to fully charge the battery each timeIn fact the battery life-cycle will be extended if only partially charged each timeThe battery will be placed under stress if fully charged each time.
• You do not need to fully charge the battery first timeNew or dormant batteries can have reduced capacity, so fully charge the battery initiallyIn fact all new batteries should be fully charged and fully discharged the first few cycles to give optimal performance - even Lithium-ion.
• The battery will over-charge if left attached to the chargerThe battery stops charging automatically when full, so it will not over chargeIf the battery is left on charge too long it is possible that heat will damage the battery.
• The battery will re-charge a little if placed on a hot surface, like a radiatorNever place a mobile phone battery on a hot surface! There is a significant chance of explosion with extreme heatA modern Lithium battery becomes less efficient the warmer it gets.

So from the points I have raised above we can see that we no longer need to condition the battery in the way we did with the older Ni-MH cellsHaving said all of that, you should always check your manual for battery advice and especially initial charge times.

Here are ten ways of improving your battery capacityYou do not have to implement them all, but the more you do effect the less time you will spend with your valuable mobile phone plugged into the wall.

1Using your mobile phone in 3G or Dual Mode drains the battery much quicker than just GSM modeSomewhere in the manual for your phone will be listed the battery times separately for GSM and 3GOn modern mobile phones, the GSM only life-cycle can be up to 50% more efficient.

2Turn off all off all unnecessary sounds (key tones, alerts etc).

3Decrease your screen brightness setting to 50%.

4Turn your backlight setting down.

5Turn off Bluetooth and Wi-Fi when not using them.

6Close applications when you're not using them.

7Keep your phone/battery at cool temperaturesIf storing, make sure it is at 40% charge for best results.

8Don't let your battery fully dischargeIf you let your battery die frequently, you are putting extra strain on the batteryMost companies recommend discharging the battery once in every 20 charges or so.

9Always charge new phone batteries for at least 16 hours for the first charge

10Don't use the vibrate function on your phone as it's a huge on powerI actually prefer to turn the ringtone off and have the phone on vibrate; it makes a noise on a hard surface and you can feel the buzz when in your pocketBut vibrate definitely uses more of that precious battery power
All power to you my friend.