First, here is what a user called cyphill claims on one forum:
Li-ion and Li-pol batteries must never be fully discharged! It damages them. So-called battery conditioning is done at the factory during manufacturing, when the battery is charged with a low current until it is full, and it leaves the factory in that state. The battery is then ready for normal use, and neither overcharging (the device takes care of that) nor deep discharging is desirable.
It is better to charge the battery ten times while it still has 50% left than to drain it completely once. This increases the number of charge cycles. Really, do not let the battery drop below 40% – 50%. If you do manage to get there, the battery should not stay at that voltage even for a short time. You should find a charger right away and start charging immediately.
These batteries simply have minimum and maximum voltage limits. Anything outside that range degrades them significantly, and as a result they lose capacity. The maximum voltage is usually 4.1 or 4.2V and the minimum is about 2.5V to 3V, depending on the type of battery. These values need to be respected very precisely.
DRAINING THE BATTERY ALL THE WAY DOWN IS A COMPLETELY WRONG MOVE! AND NEVER TURN THE DEVICE ON WHEN THE BATTERY IS ALREADY EMPTY, YOU CAN RUIN THE BATTERY COMPLETELY AND IRREVERSIBLY.
The difference between formatting and conditioning
Today’s batteries do not need to be formatted, but they should be conditioned with the phone, meaning the phone should learn to fully charge that particular battery and make full use of its capacity. This is done with the phone switched off and using a wall charger, not with the phone switched on or from a PC USB port. (again taken from the same forum, including the next paragraph).
Procedure for phones with an LED or that report a full battery
Drain the battery as much as possible, until the phone switches itself off, then charge it with the charger while the phone is off until the red LED turns green, then unplug the phone from the charger, plug it back in and charge again until the red LED turns green, and keep repeating this until the red LED turns green immediately after connecting the phone to the charger or within a few minutes. Do everything with the phone switched off and using a wall charger, not from a PC or a car charger. Some phones indicate charging and a full charge in a different way than by LED color.
Battery conditioning
In most cases, a laptop battery is not charged in the way that would best preserve its performance, but rather according to immediate needs. To ensure the best operating conditions for the battery, it is necessary to perform so-called battery conditioning from time to time, which means charging the battery fully and using it until the laptop shuts down on its own. Repeat this at least three times. (taken from
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More information on how to handle Li-Ion batteries can be found here:
http://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium-iontovy_akumulator#Jak_prodlou.C5.BEit_.C5.BEivotnost