How to interpret the current (mA)

Q: How to interpret the current (mA), and how it translates into remaining battery, etc?

A: Positive values means the battery is charging, negative means discharging.

The measured mA is the amount of energy taken out of (or added to) the current capacity every hour (measured in mA). 

The battery has a total capacity measured in mAh, 1500 mAh on many recent phones, ~3000 on tablets.

 

For example a consumption of 150 mA will lasts 10 hours on a 1500mAh battery, a consumption of 3mA (sleep-mode) will lasts 500 hours on the same battery.