The Storm - much like other smartphones - uses a lithium-ion battery, which does not have the "battery memory" effect the older batteries did (Ni-Cd, Ni-Mh).
So, feel free to recharge anytime you want for as little or as long as you want.
Any lithium based battery has it's longest life at around 40%, while most people charge them to 90%, and other things such as temperature reduce overall battery life. plus batteries die a little every time you charge them because they are based on Battery Cycles, most batteries lose around 10% of thier total capacity per ~600 cycles, which is a few thousand full charges, but if it's running while charging it's generally just taking power right off the plug.
I've had my Storm for about 5 days and I'm only getting about a day if I'm lucky from the charge. I'm good about closing apps and such. I used to get days on my Curve. How is everyone else's battery life with the Storm? Any suggestions to improve mine?
I have found that if I use mine a lot(which I do), it goes dead in a day or less. This is my replacement storm and it is no different than the original. I don't mind as I have a mobile and home charger.
I get terrible battery lif, on my 2 charge today. I put all the settings for the back light lower as recommend on the forum. I close out apps and only made 4 calls today, a lot of text thoughm
I have weather bug installed. Is that the problem or do I have a bad battery?
Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com
While it's true Li Ion batteries don't suffer from memory like nickel based batteries, they do still have a finite number of recharge cycles. It's different for every battery, but you can expect it to be somewhere between about 500-1,000. After that it will start losing capacity, and it will start losing capacity FAST. Within 2 months of it hitting that magical point of no return, you will be lucky if you get much more than an hour's worth of use out of the thing on a full charge.
So, just from the standpoint of preserving the battery for as long as possible, I would wait until it's at least below 50% before charging it, and really you'd probably be best off waiting until it's down around 25% before charging it. You don't need to wait until it is exactly 25%, just charge it at night if it's between about 15-35%.
That should help keep your battery going for at least 2 years, probably longer. By then you should be eligible for a new phone.