Fix My Berry

If you are a new BlackBerry owner, or an old owner experiencing low battery issues, read through these tips:

First of all, modern BlackBerrys come with Lithium-Ion batteries, or Li-Ion for short. Some older models used Nickel Metal Hydride batteries, or NiMH for short.

MYTH: You do NOT need to break in the Li-Ion BlackBerry battery. Lithium-Ion battery do not require conditioning as you might have experienced with other cell phones and batteries.

• Don’t get in the habit of fully discharging the battery every time. Lithium batteries can be damaged with excessive deep discharges.
• When breaking in the battery, make sure you keep it plugged in long after the battery says it is fully charged (i.e. overnight).
• Lithium batteries LOVE to be topped-off. Plug it in whenever you have the opportunity and keep the battery life maxed out for those days you really need long battery life.
• Consider purchasing a car charger, or an office charger/cable. That way, you have more opportunities to top-off your BlackBerry battery.
• Searching for a signal will drain a battery quite quickly. If you must conserve the battery, turn the wireless or radio off.
• Keep your Bluetooth turned OFF when not in use.
• Keep your Wi-Fi turned OFF when not in use.
• Keep the backlight turned low or off whenever possible (rather than bright mode). A backlight setting of 60%-80% is wise.
• If you use instant messaging software, leaving it running in the background is a battery-killer. Sign off  and log yourself out when not in use.
• Big suprise, making a phone call made on your BlackBerry is the biggest consumer of battery life. If you make lots of phone calls for hours, then expect your battery life can be extremely short.
• Making phone calls in areas of weak reception will use up even more battery power.

What is running in the background of your BB? There are commonly 4-5 applications that will ALWAYS be running i.e. Messages, Phone, BBMessenger, Homescreen, and the Browser.

• Make certain that the browser is NOT on an active webpage (say with animated radar or a live webpage such as a news website that is constantly updating to the current news. Close it on the bookmarks page, which is static).
• Close any other applications that do not need to be running (like the camera or a game).

Not sure what going on behind the screen?

• Press Alt + Escape (the key to the right of the trackball) to bring up the Application Switcher and scroll through that list to see what is running in the background.  Close whatever is not neccessary.

This article was originally posted on BlackBerryForums.com and edited for content.