So I have a tendency to play with the droid during the day at work, usually by the end of the day the power is around 60-70%. Knowing how much I'll probably play with it the next day, I'm always tempted to charge it that evening so it's full again. I don't want to be without a phone, you know? So is it bad to charge it so often--for the battery?
What about those Motorola Multimedia Droid stations? Those encourage people to charge every night, all night when you're using it as an alarm clock in the dock. Bad for battery? I've heard all sorts of different information...
I charge my phone every night and have never had a problem. I think if you were to leave it on charge for a LONG time, like several weeks or months, then it will kill the lithium ion battery. As for the docking station for the Droid, I too am wanting one. They have been so popular that they are sold out online and at several stores. I have been told by my local store that they should receive another shipment around 12-10-09. I would just keep checking online or with your local VZW store.
I play with mine also. I tend to charge it most of the time I'm not using it.
I bought a dock a few days after it came out - they sold out the first day. When I went a few days later I was lucky enough to be there when they got the shipment from fedex and they had ONE dock which I bought immediately.
A few days later I ordered the second dock from Verizon over the phone and got it in 2 days.
LOVE the dock. It charges the phone AND acts and a clock/alarm etc... I sleep with it next to me and have one next to my computer.
For those who don't have the dock there is a home button when it's active so you can use the phone when its in the dock and when you're done you press home and you're back to dock mode.
the battery for the Droid is designed according to the Motorola website to last between 350 and 700 Complete charging cycles. So it should last until the new every 2. Over time it will take a little longer to charge and hold a little less of a charge that is the nature of Lithium Ion batteries (or well in reality all rechargeable batteries). I was a little surprised to read the number so low most batteries now are designed for 1000 or more. Then again I guess cell phone batteries are less likely to be in a device for years. The batteries are pretty easy to find fairly cheap for that kind of thing. The battery for the Droid even in the verizon store is $40 so I am not really that worried about it. My phone is usually around 20-30% in the evening so I recharge it but I do a lot of playing on it and I leave GPS on all the time and Syncing is on all the time and sometimes I have GPS and wifi going at the same time and sometimes I keep the screen fairly bright though I find a fairly low brightness is fine so my screen power consumption has gone from 50% or so to more like 30-40% depending on how much I use it and for what. LOL. When I get a car mount I will probably plug it up in the car a good bit and run navigation and Pandora. Navigation uses battery like nobody's business especially if you leave the screen up.
My point is don't worry about it. Leaving it plugged in doesn't really hurt it much except if you leave it plugged in for extremely long periods. For instance my laptop battery is worthless cause it has almost never been used consistently on battery. Right now Droid batteries are full retail most places but in a year or two, when your battery is nearing its power cycle limit you will be able to get them cheaper at a number of aftermarket sites.
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