All gadgets require power. And today, we demand that our devices run on rechargable batteries, its greener, cheaper, and easier. However, keeping those batteries charged can be a juggeling act, depending on how much you use your gadget. There’s a lot of confusion going around both with regards to charging the batteries, preserving their maximum capacity and maximizing the play time per charge. Read on for more.
Charging: rumors and misconceptions
99% of all the rumors and misconceptions surrounding batteries for any electronic device have to do with charging them. A lot of “rules” on how to charge batteries are still around from the “old days” where electronics used completely different types of batteries, and has nothing to do with the reality today. Any modern MP3 player with a rechargeable battery will have a lithium based battery in it. Why this doesn’t say much, it’s very important when it comes to how the battery behaves. Most people have heard that you need to charge the battery for 12+ hours when you get it, leave it alone while charging, discharging and fully charging as often as possible etc. This is complete and utter nonsense when it comes to lithium based batteries. We’re talking a completely different battery technology, one which has a whole other set of rules. Here are some:
Lithium batteries don’t care when you charge them or for how long. All night, fine. 5 minutes at a time, fine. 10 times a day, go ahead.
There’s no priming needed, which means the first time you charge the battery is no different from the 100th time you charge the battery. You don’t have to charge it for an insane amount of hours, as the battery will shut down charging when it’s finished fully charging anyways.
Fully discharging the battery isn’t good for the battery. In most cases nothing bad will happen, but there’s a chance- especially if it’s stored for extended periods of time with no charge- that the battery won’t charge back up afterwards. The only reason to discharge it in some cases is where it will reset the battery’s ability to estimate the amount of charge left.
A lithium battery charges 70% of the capacity in 1/3 the total charge time, if charging from a fully discharged state. There is only one way to charge batteries, so quick chargers and promises of super charge modes are simply marketing. Some chargers even skip the last 30% to appear to charge fast, but that isn’t really the case. Sony is only such company which advertises fast charging on Walkman players, where 3 minutes of charging gives you 90 minutes of playback. This isn’t a Sony technology; it’s simply how lithium batteries work. Just do the math; If a player has 40 hours of battery life on a full charge, total charge time of 3 hours, and we know that it charges 70% in 1/3 the total charge time, that means 1 hour of charging gives you 28 hours of battery life. 3 minutes is 1/20 of an hour, and 1/20 of 28 hours is roughly 90 minutes.
There are technically ways to make sure the battery last for a long time (more recharge cycles), however the bottom line is that the benefit of most these tricks doesn’t justify the work. Avoid extreme temperatures both hot and cold and just charge the player when you need to. For 99% of consumers the battery will outlast the usage period anyways.
There are also other things to consider, but that are less important to the average user. If you want to geek out with battery information, take a look at the info over at Battery University. I especially recommend people take a look at the “do and don’t do” comparison chart for various battery types. They also have some info specific to lithium batteries that is interesting.
That brings us to what you can do to prolong the battery life of your player. The short answer is to let it do its thing with minimal interaction from your side, as tinkering with it draws a lot of power. If you turn off sound enhancements and leave it in your pocket to do its business you will get more battery life without compromising too much. If you’re wondering about switching audio formats or bitrates, turning down the volume or buying lower impedance headphones you could do that, but it frankly wouldn’t be worth the trouble. However, at some point you have to choose between getting extra juice out of the battery and using the player to its fullest.
Does it matter?
Luckily, players have enough battery life these days to last until you can reach a USB port or wall outlet, at least for audio and some video players. This is further augmented by portable USB batteries, car chargers and USB AC adapters to make it easy to charge the player any time you need to. Personally, even my Sansa Clip+ has enough battery life to get me through a full day at work and that is really all I need it to do, as I can just plug it in when I get home. I make sure I have gadgets or accessories that let me do whatever I want without having to worry about running out of battery, as otherwise there wouldn’t be a point to having a device capable of doing advanced things to begin with. I’d rather have the features I want and just enough battery to use them than have only the most basic features and enough battery life to get bored of them. Sure, 40 hour battery life is better than 20, but is it really that much of a hassle to plug the player in after you’re done using it for the day? With lithium batteries, such charging doesn’t hurt it one bit- in fact it’s recommended, so there really is no reason to insist on the player lasting a week per charge just for the sake of not having to charge it even if you could.
There are of course exceptions; people who forget simple things like plugging it in, people who travel a lot and don’t want to bring cables and chargers, people who are outside or away from things to charge with and so on. If you’re out in the forest for 2 months, you don’t want to have to charge the player every day- in theory. There are solar chargers that can hang on a backpack during the day, charge an internal battery, and then let you charge off it during the night. Normal external USB batteries do the same thing for travelers, without the solar charging part, so even on a plane you should be able to do whatever you want with your device as long as you plan ahead. Some people have what can only be described as unhealthy relationship to AA batteries because they want the ability to switch out batteries easily and carry spares. AA and AAA batteries aren’t really used much anymore simply because they are bad for the environment, expensive and require a lot of space. Not only do the batteries take up more space than the equivalent rechargeable lithium ion or lithium polymer battery, but it also has double inner casing to add to the bulk; battery compartment and battery walls. This means that the player will be a lot bigger than it should simply to hold the batteries. The argument that you can buy such batteries anywhere is also often used, however in my opinion that “perk” doesn’t make up for all the downsides of using an outdated source for power, and you can easily plan around any such circumstance by using external batteries.
Battery lifetime
Another thing people like to obsess about is removable batteries. Another thing left over from the days of expensive electronics with bad types of batteries, people like the idea of being able to switch out the battery somewhere down the road when it starts to degrade. Again, is there any point?
Removable batteries is a nice concept, however not a very useful one in today’s society. Between portable universal battery packs to provide extra power (compared to carrying spare proprietary batteries), the expected lifetime of a battery and the cost of properly replacing the battery at the end of the battery it simply isn’t something many people will do- and that’s why manufacturers don’t make special arrangements to make it possible.
Bottom line
The point of this is to get some pieces of misinformation set straight and put some things in perspective. With lithium batteries, the best thing you can do for your battery is to completely ignore how and when you charge the battery and just make sure you have enough power when you need it. Lithium batteries are made to serve the user, not the other way around, and the “tips and tricks” that are left from the old days of other types of batteries actually hurt lithium batteries. As for battery life per charge, I give the same advice as for charging; use the device as you want to, and make sure you have enough battery power in some form or another to do so- but don’t let the fear of running out of power stop you from using a device to the fullest.
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