Thanks for the sarcastic replies guys! But with the problems some people have reported with their batteries only lasting 6 hours whilst others last significantly longer, means I want to make sure I perform the "best" charge procedure. Normally, I'm not so paranoid about these things, but for some reason this is different and I can't explain why.

PS. Going to switch it on anyway now!

No.

To be specific:

1) If the N900 battery is discharged it will be difficult to charge the N900, if the battery is dead it will be impossible. This is because the N900 actually boots to a 'charge mode' even when 'off', because the charging is managed by software. Re. some other threads here from folks ending up in a catch-22 situation. EDIT: Read Phantasm's more accurate post two postings below - the catch-22 occurs only if you happen to need reflashing at the same time as the battery runs out. (Which can actually occur together though - battery running out due to a problem needing reflashing. So keep the thing charged anyway.)

2) You don't know the initial charge of the battery when the N900 arrives, except that it is probably low. So, the first thing you shall do is to start charging your new device. Either let it charge to full before switching on your new N900, or, if your're impatient, give it at least half an hour. Then keep charging it after you've switched it on.

3) After that, charge it when you get a chance. The lithium battery won't mind. And it doesn't need regular deep discharges or anything like that. EDIT: Another posting made me understand that 'when you get a chance' could be misunderstood. I didn't mean to charge it every five minutes. What I mean is that there's no reason to be in a habit of always let it run down before you charge it (my niece does that with her phone and as a result always run out of juice at the most possible inconvinient time, as when travelling and needing a problem sorted out).

4) The occasional run-down to when the device starts warning you about low battery doesn't harm, but heed the warning and charge it.

Lithium ion batteries do not need any conditioning whatsoever. You can start using it at any point, stop charging at any point etc. You don't have to care about how to use the battery.

No... The phone will get power from the charger to start itself up to start charging the battery.

The only case in which there will be a problem is if the phone is unable to start itself (needs reflashing to fix that) AND battery is dead. Then you don't have the battery to reflash it and you can't start it as it can't boot to allow charging.

a) Lithium batteries are shipped at 40% or 60% charge as per chemistry recommendations, not "unknown level". The reason is that they incur least damage under this charge. 100% is bad for Lithium (cool for Lead-Acid, like your car battery)

b) You can "charge" your phone for a million hours. The charge circuitry as well as internal battery protection will cut the juice once the battery reaches final voltage and the charger voltage depresses. Leaving it there is pointless, as pointed out by the green light. If you insist on leaving it plugged forever, the battery will eventually self-discharge and the circuit will top it up under 4%, where it's safe. It's called trickle charge, generally speaking.

c) Info provided in the link is solid. Read the about on the site and know the people who recommend this, they are not a forum for a reason, the information is not open for debate. I have verified a lot of that with people who design professional chargers.

d) Lithium batteries in their current incarnation are -let's say- organic in nature and as a result they sort of rot. Sort of. Normally it takes some 10 years so rot under ideal conditions (60% charge, 4 deg C), about 3 under normal conditions (phone, pocket) and about 3 months when heated and charged (40-45 C, 100% charge) or overcharged, like in laptops. Holding a laptop in bed with sheets blocking vents and with a charger plugged is why some people cry batteries start to lose effectiveness in "new" laptops.

--

In 3 years, you'd get roughly 1000 cycles which is good for a battery carried around in a pocket and discharged at god-knows-what levels from 1/4C (flat in 4 hours) to 1/30C (30 hours), sometimes randomly combined.

So basically, charge every day means that in about 3 years, your battery is going to be visibly damaged (50-70% capacity) whether you charge every day or not. You lose very little if you set it to charge every day (or night). Leaving it in the charger does little to no damage.

There's another batch of advice floating around, saying that charge-every-time-you-get-a-chance is a good strategy. While true that small charge cycles aren't counted, they are SMALL charge cycles, under 5%. If you charge more than 4-5%, that's a cycle in most Lithium chemistries. I'm not pointing fingers or invalidating the advice, I'm just saying, it only works for like 5 minute sessions.

Note that discharged batteries charge at a higher rate than charged ones, a Li chemistry pulls 50% of charge in the first 20 minutes and the rest of 50% at a slowly decreasing rate in the next 50 or so. 10 minutes at near-empty is NOT a free cycle.

If you have no choice, charge. Other than that, nightly charge and hold-you-all-day usage is the best balance between conservation and utility.

Hope I helped.

@ndi
The info you supplied is helpful - although I am at a loss to know what link you refer to. It got missed?

Maemo 5 - representing step 4 of 5 - "Missing Link" - sorry, I'm going mad waiting for my N900 to arrive (FedEx says it out on the truck for delivery!!!!)

Has anyone heard of an inductive charger setup for the N900 yet? I wanted to go that route to minimize the times I plug into the port. As with any mechanical connection, it will eventually wear out with enough usage. Plugging in 10 times a day is got to limit the life of the device.

Thanks. Updated my post.

scientific answer ...........................

Battery University (Google)

Heard? Possible. Applicable? No.

Induction is not magic. You have two copper coils that run AC through it. If they are close enough to each other, the electromagnetic effect of one induces current in the other.

Point being, one coil has to be in the charger, one in he device.

If this is built in (the receiver coil and stabilizer) then you're golden. If not, you have to add it, and the only way to do that is via charging port. And, unless you plan on dragging the coil hanging from the port, you need to remove it.

You might have noticed it's no dream deal. Adding a coil is doable but the N900 is really crammed and you might have to sacrifice something (in addition to warranty).

IMO, it's not something that "just works" and modding the device to preserve it is like screwing for virginity.

They said the thin charger with N80 was flimsy and several people destroyed it. Careful insertion means I got 3 years of worry-free charging before retiring the device. Just use care and don't leave it where people step on it.