What you need to know about Lithium-ion Batteries

Rechargeable lithium-based technology currently provides the best performance for all your technology toys and gadgets like laptop and notebook computers, mobile phones and RIM BlackBerry smartphones.

If you looked, I’m sure you’d find this standard battery technology in many other devices you own like your iPod, iPhone and digital cameras.

Like other rechargeable batteries, these batteries may eventually require replacement which leads me to this post on “What you need to know about Lithium-ion Batteries”.

Standard Technology

Lithium-ion batteries pack in a higher power density than nickel-based batteries. This gives you a longer battery life in a lighter package, as lithium is the lightest metal.

You can also recharge a lithium-ion battery whenever convenient, without the full charge or discharge cycle necessary to keep nickel-based batteries at peak performance.

lithium-ion Battery Charge Chart

Standard Charging

Most lithium-ion batteries use a fast charge to charge your device to 80% battery capacity, then switch to trickle charging.

That’s about two hours of charge time to power an iPod to 80% capacity, then another two hours to fully charge it, if you are not using your iPod while charging.

You can charge all lithium-ion batteries a large but finite number of times, as defined by charge cycle.

Charge cycles

In the above diagram, a charge cycle breaks down to using and recharging 100% of battery capacity which equals one full charge cycle.

A charge cycle means using all of the battery’s power, but that doesn’t necessarily mean a single charge.

For instance, you could listen to your iPod for a few hours one day, using half its power, and then recharge it fully. If you did the same thing the next day, it would count as one charge cycle, not two, so you may take several days to complete a cycle.

Each time you complete a charge cycle, it diminishes battery capacity slightly, but you can put notebook, iPod, and iPhone batteries through many charge cycles before they will only hold 80% of original battery capacity.

As with other rechargeable batteries, you may eventually need to replace your battery.

How to Maximize Power Use

The length of time your battery will power your device depends on how you use it.

For instance, watching a DVD will use up your notebook battery’s power more quickly than simple word processing and email.

Next I’ll go into a couple quick tips that I personally do to help maximize my laptop battery for my Sony VAIO.

For proper maintenance of a lithium-based battery, it’s important to keep the electrons in it moving occasionally.

I highly recommend not leaving your laptop or notebook plugged in all the time.

An ideal use for a Road Warrior like myself who uses their laptop a lot while traveling is run on battery power as much as possible, then plug it in at the office, hotel or at a coffee shop, etc. to charge. This helps keeps the battery juices flowing and happy.

If on the other hand, you use a desktop computer for your geekery most of the time and save your notebook for infrequent travel, I would recommend charging and discharging its battery at least once per month.

I would also recommend the same thing for your mobile phone and other hand held devices such as an iPod, iPhone, BlackBerry, etc.

Happy mobile computing