Hi
This is an observation that appears to go against general understanding everywhere of how these cells operate.
Firstly, charging these cells at constant current to a constant voltage (4.2v) then cutting off at a pre-determined current depending upon C of the cell is my general understanding. The constant current and cut off is controlled by the device being charged in combination with the current limits of the charger.
I have a Nexus 4 phone, a Nexus 7 pad and an eCig that are regularly charged.
e.g. When I charge with the cheap wall plug USB adaptor supplied with the phone, it will eventually show 100% charge after a period.
When I charge from a higher power charger (but the current should still be controlled by the charging device - the phone in this case) it also shows 100% after time.
However, when discharged through use, the device runs down quicker when charged to 100% from the wall power thing compared to being charged to 100% by my in-car USB charger.
I am aware some chargers charge to 4.1v to prolong life, but even taking that into account, it doesn't add up. I am talking about 50% reduction of use timewise.
A different chemistry I know, but I have some 2800mAh AA NiMh cells where it said in the instructions that you need a heavy duty charger to charge them and not a cheap Supermarket NiMh charger to maintain their capacity. I have a Revolex charger and this seems a correct statement as I get the best out of them charging them at C/2 as opposed to C/10.
Our battery experts at work say this isn't possible, but this doesn't seem to be the case. I am using experience against so called science.
No detailed solutions but would be interested in a basic explanation or observations from others.