Why its necessary to charge new gadgets before use

A lot of people may wonder why its necessary to charge a new device; "after all they just bought it and it hasn't been used before". Well its advisable to charge a new device for 8 hrs before you first use!!

This is probably because the charge levels indicated when a new gadget is first switched on, may not indicate the true level of charge in the battery. If the actual charge is very low, when you switch on the new phone and start using it and also doing some other stuff like installing apps it may turn off in between; if not immediately. The manufacturers do not want you to have a bad first impression about the phone.

This instruction has its origin when nickel-cadmium (Ni-Cd) batteries, containing nickel oxyhydroxide (NiOOH) as positive electrode and cadmium as negative electrode, were used. These batteries are known to have a memory effect. In other words, the battery seems to memorise the discharge voltage and the depth of discharge of the previous cycling. This effect leads to the progressive loss of practical cell capacity at a fixed cutoff voltage and hence leads to large wrong estimation of the state of charge of the cell.

For some phones, you may be asked to charge it for 8 hrs, while for others, you may also be asked to just charge it till it gets full. Whichever it is, its best to just comply. After that just charge as you please.