Wireless Phone Batteries

Batteries, the lifeblood of your wireless phone, need to be small, lightweight, and rechargeable. Always consider how long the battery can last on standby (turned on, but not in use), and how much talk-time you have before it needs recharging. Although digital phones consume less power than analog phones, invest in a second battery, so you can have one charging and a fresh one in the phone at all times. Battery life refers to how long you can continue to recharge and reuse the battery before you have to replace it. Wireless phone batteries are like toothbrushes: most people should replace them sooner than they do.

Today's Wireless Phones use three main types of batteries. Nickel Cadmium work well, are cheap, and give 500 to 700 charge cycles before they die of old age, but they're not very good for cell phones because they need to be run down between charges. Nickel Metal Hydride batteries are similar to NiCd, but don't suffer the "memory effect" as much as NiCd and tend to have more capacity than NiCd batteries of similar size or weight. Nickel Metal Hydride batteries have a good power/weight ratio, and last between 300 and 500 charge cycles. Lithium Ion are the latest and most expensive rechargeable batteries, partly because they include electronic charge and discharge control circuitry. They have an excellent power/weight ratio, don't need to be discharged, and last for approximately 1,000 charge cycles.

Wireless Resource Center

Exploring Wireless Phone History will give you an appreciation of the dynamic forces that built cell phone infrastructure. You'll understand why the pace of technological change is so fast now, even though it took quite a long time to get us here. Many conflicting reports have focused on the issue of Wireless Phone Radiation. Did you know that you come in daily contact with hundreds of devices that emit radiation frequencies? (Computers, microwave ovens, and radio stations, just to name a few.)