* Modern BlackBerrys come with Lithium-Ion batteries, or “Li-Ion’ for short.
* Some older models used Nickel Metal Hydride batteries, or “NiMH” for short.
Li-Ion battery are best kept topped up regularily. A battery that has been left flat for a long time will benefit from being fully-charged and then fully discharged a couple of times, but there is no advantage to doing this to batteries in regular use.
This article (below) was originally posted on BlackBerryForums.com by its author, Mark Rejhon
Battery life is known to be excellent on many BlackBerry models, such as the model 7280. However, other models such as the 7750 and 7100 often have shorter battery life. There are some scattered reports of new 7250 users having extremely short battery life. Try this if you are a new BlackBerry owner.
1. You need to break in the BlackBerry battery. Charge-discharge it fully about 3 times. This will max the battery life of a fresh, new Lithium ion.
Note: once you do that, don’t get in the habit of fully discharging the battery everytime — to prevent wearing it out — lithium batteries can be damaged with excessive deep discharges like a car battery can be…. When breaking in the battery, make sure you keep it plugged in long after the battery says it is fully charged (i.e. overnight), you really want to trickle-charge your BlackBerry to top-off your battery.
2. Lithium batteries LOVE to be topped-off. In regular use (After initial first-use conditioning), plug it in whenever you have the opportunity. This will also help keep the battery life maxed out for those days you really need long battery life.
3. If you are constantly starved for battery power, avoid continuously realtime software such as BBToday software; it uses a lot of battery power.
4. Is your BB constantly searching for a signal, such as in an office building or other low-signal area? Searching for a signal will drain a battery quite quickly. If you must conserve the battery, turn the wireless or radio off.
5. Keep your Bluetooth turned off when not in use.
6. If you use JiveTalk, Verichat or other instant messaging software, leave it running in the background or quit it when not in use. Also, stay logged off the networks you do not use much.
Keep Verichat running in the background when it is not in use. This puts the software in a low-power state by reducing the frequency of contact-list refreshes (signoffs/signons/away mode/etc) Using fewer instant messaging networks also saves battery power. For example, if mainly use MSN and AIM, log off the ICQ and Yahoo networks.
7. When using your BlackBerry, make sure you keep the backlight turned low or off whenever possible (rather than bright mode).
Most BlackBerry screens (except 7100) is very readable with the backlight turned off, especially in bright office lighting and outdoor lighting.
8. Some BlackBerries have an extended battery available, such as the Nextel 7510. There may be an extended battery product for your specific BlackBerry product.
9. There’s the novelty factor of using a BlackBerry for the first time; we tend to play with them much more heavily at first. So your usage may normallize after you get used to it.
10. If you haven’t bought a BlackBerry yet, you should be aware that the GSM/GPRS BlackBerries have the longest battery life. Battery life is longer on GPRS BlackBerries than the CDMA and iDEN BlackBerries.
11. Phone calls made on your BlackBerry is the biggest consumer of battery life. If you make lots of phone calls for hours, then your battery life can be extremely short. Making phone calls in areas of weak reception will also use up more battery power.
12. Consider a car power kit, or an office charger/cable. That way, you have more opportunities to top-off your BlackBerry battery.
As noted earlier, it’s always a good idea to top-off the battery in a BlackBerry anyway, even if it’s not almost dead. It is not necessary to follow the age-old advice of using up the battery before charging, and can wear out modern lithium-ion batteries if done on a constant basis.
13. Your battery may be defective or worn out. Compare your battery life to other people using the same model of BlackBerry.
If you have been using your BlackBerry for a long time, it may be time to replace your battery. If you purchased your BlackBerry as used, you may want to replace the battery with a new one. For best battery life, it is generally best to use genuine brand-name batteries rather than inexpensive aftermarket batteries.
14. Occasionally, it may be a BlackBerryOS issue if you are having unusually short battery life all the time. Early versions of BlackBerryOS on the 7100 tended to use a lot more battery life than newer versions of BlackBerryOS. Upgrade to a newer version of BlackBerryOS.
See if all of these works. For me, I am able to run the newest Verichat for about 72 hours nonstop, or running WebMessenger for 100 hours nonstop. I am using a model 7280, which is well known to have a very good battery life (albiet with a very dim backlight).