About Mobile Batteries

1. WHAT IS NI-MH,NI-CAD,LI-ION AND LI-POL?
ANS: These are battery types which indicates the materials used inside the battery.
Ni-MH= Nickel Metal Hydride.
Ni-Cad= Nickel Cadmium.
Li-ion= Lithium Ion.
Li-pol= Lithium Polymer.
Among these types, Li-ion and Li-pol batteries are widely used in small electronic devices like mobiles, camera's etc. Li-pol is much better than Li-ion in terms of safety and capacity but price is relatively higher.

2. WHAT IS THE mA VALUE FOR?
ANS: mA means Milli Ampere per hour. It indicates the capacity of the battery. For example, a fully charged 600mA battery can provide 600mA current continuously for an hour.

 3. WHAT IS THE LIFE SPAN OF A BATTERY?
ANS: No one can give an accurate life span of batteries as it depends on the usage of the battery. But technically a Li-ion and Li-pol battery lasts for 500 to 800 charge cycles(charge and discharge).
 4. WHAT IS THE IDEAL SYSTEM OF CHARGING?
ANS: This is a very important matter when it comes to battery life. If you want 100% efficiency from a battery, you must charge it when it is fully discharged. That means discharge the battery completely & recharge fully time to time. This is the accurate charge cycle to ensure maximum operating time of a battery. Though in modern busy life style, it is almost impossible to maintain the above cycle but try to wait until it shows BATTERY LOW signal to start charging at least for 8 cycles for a new battery.

5. WHAT IS THE PROCEDURE OF CHARGING A NEW BATTERY?
ANS: It is boldly published and strongly recommended by the battery manufacturers that a new battery should be charged continuously for 8 hours. Its really necessary to follow this rule to obtain the maximum life cycle of a battery. But let me focus on a fact here. Almost every mobile phone has an internal charging device and a voltage switching system. When a battery reaches at the peak level of voltage in charging state, the system disconnects the charging line and shows battery full on the display. Normally it takes 2-3 hours to reach this level of full charge. Now even if you keep the charger connected for 24 hours, no charging current will reach the battery until the battery voltage goes down to a certain level. So, there's no point on charging 8 hours in mobile phones(at least I think so). But the real process is to charge the battery with seperate constant voltage charger outside the phone for 8 hours continuously when using a battery for the first time.

6. WHAT TO DO IF A BATTERY SWELLS?
ANS: Swelling of batteries is a common problem now a day as there are plenty of poor standard battery manufacturers out in the market. Even some Nokia batteries were found guilty of swelling a few years ago and they immediatly announced free replacement of these batteries. However, swelling occurs in faulty and poor quality batteries. And if a battery swells, it is advised to avoid using it any longer. Because swollen batteries can cause explosions according to battery experts.

7. HOW TO SELECT SUBSTITUTE BATTERY?
ANS: As most of the batteries used in mobile phones are same in voltage(3.6/3.7v), it is very easy to select a substitution without concerning the model. The only thing you have to look at is, the position of the three terminals of the battery whether they are same as the original one. If it is accurate, then choose any battery which fits to your phone casing. Nevertheless, keep an eye on the mA rating also. As I've stated above, the more the mA value, the more the operating time. But, a higher mA battery will take longer time to charge fully.

8. WHY THERE ARE 3 TERMINALS/OUTPUTS IN BATTERIES?
ANS: Most of the mobile batteries have 3 terminals. These are POSITIVE(+) terminal, NEGATIVE(-) terminal and a THERMAL SENSOR. The arrangement of these terminals varies on different manufacturers and models.

IMPORTANT NOTES:

*** Dont use any desktop charger for charging the battery outside the phone. A poor quality desktop charger can damage/explode the battery.

*** Only use the original charger provided by the phone manufacturer. Be aware of fake chargers available in the market which looks very much like an original one.