[CBCListener]

...500 recharge cycles, that is.

I've had it since Day One (19 April 2011) so clearly its monitoring software counts a cycle differently than how many times it's been in a cradle...and in a cradle it goes every night, doubling as a bedside clock/radio, using Today's Alarm clock that I've mentioned before as a nice application, perfectly suited to the device's form factor and sound quality.

While I've had my PlayBook since Day One, though, I've only had Battery Guru for something like two years. When I first launched Battery Guru, I already had some 230-some cycles, and, somewhat disparingly, battery health was already "down" to 85%. I figured that if that's a straight-line deterioration, I'd be down to 50% by now. But I'm not.

It fluctuates between 83 to 84%, even now, so there will still be plenty of life left in this marvelous device. No, I don't care that it will never get BB10...it does everything a tablet should do well, and if/when Heins and company figures out what comes after tablets, I'm all in. And if, by chance, the Next Big Thing doesn't come before this PlayBook becomes unusable, I have another 64GB PlayBook, with only 10 recharge cycles (and 100% battery health) waiting in the wings.

So, here's to my PlayBook. May yours be as healthy, and serve you well.

[just_luc]

Make sure you charge your backup playbook every now and then.. as much as charge cycles deteriorate a battery, dormancy will deteriorate it even faster.

[CBCListener]

To put a finer point on it, according to Peter Hansen, author of Battery Guru, as well as other references I've seen about the care and feeding of Lion (and NiMH) cells, it's better to have it in the range of 40, maybe 50% to no more than 70% charged for long-term storage.

And yes, I do keep an eye on it, since it's a real chore to have to resurrect a PlayBook that's gone over the edge, and needs a "stack charge". Ugh.

[dazzleaj]

I have noticed that most devices now come with 50% to 60% charge. They used to come almost completely discharged.
I have read you should still run the battery through 2 or 3 full cycles to bring it up to full capacity though.

[jpash549]

Make sure you charge your backup playbook every now and then.. as much as charge cycles deteriorate a battery, dormancy will deteriorate it even faster.

Have you got a reference for this statement? My reference from Battery University indicates that LiPo batteries should be stored with 50-60% charge at temperatures preferably 55-75 degrees F. That would be the expected charge when shipped from the factory. Since under the best of circumstances all batteries lose charge over time a unit that has been in the box for two years could have considerably lower charge.

If you do not use the PB every day or so the best thing to do is to shut it off after use with about 50% charge not place it in standby. If you do want to use standby close all apps but maybe Battery Guru and put it in airplane mode. Even under these conditions the PB will be using 5 to 10% of the battery daily.

http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/

Sent from my Nexus 7 using CB Forums mobile app

[3yE]

I am on my 203 recharges My PB still has a long life ahead to live and to serve LOL
Btw, I am wondering how the Recharge counts are calculated? Anyone...

[FF22]

I am on my 203 recharges My PB still has a long life ahead to live and to serve LOL
Btw, I am wondering how the Recharge counts are calculated? Anyone...

From Peter's website:

Battery Guru

"How does 'recharge count' work?

This value, as with all the others, is provided by the Tablet OS itself. This value represents roughly the number of times you've charged up the battery but, since you may not always drain or charge it fully, it will sometimes change at unexpected times, or not change when you expected it to. Consider it an approximation, since that's all that really matters here anyway."