I am having a really tough time figuring out whether I should leave it off or on. I am also trying to find out how long it should take for my phone to fully charge. In a few hours, it doesn't go up at all. It stays partially charged all the time when it is on charge. I just got this phone, and yesterday My dad put it on charge for 5 hours (it said so somewhere in the instructions) and it was partially charged all day. We activated it at about 7:45 last night. This morning, I woke up and texted my best friend telling her that I had a phone, and she called me. In the middle of our call, my phone beeped and said low battery. Then, I turned off my phone and put it on charge at like 9:00 this morning. Should it be charged by now? It is 11 AM right now. Help please!

Sounds like the phone had a bad or weak battery with it even though it is new. Try taking the whole thing back to the store where purchased and tell them that you want a NEW battery as the one that originally came with the phone is defective. No amount of charging will revitalize a bad battery.

You can charge you phone anytime on or off. Newer phones have battery charge cutoff circuitry that prevents overcharging and phones now use newer LCD displays that don't suffer form burn out.

I have always been advised when I have brought a new phone to charge it over night for the whole night.

Try switching it off and charging it over night, if you still have the same problem then it is an issue with the phone and needs to be taken back to the store where it was brought.