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iPod touch I tested battery life (using video)

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dave1812dave

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
May 15, 2009
858
0
Apple specs say 7 hours for video.

I tested that out today. Screen 50%, audio 50%, wifi OFF

I got 6:23 when the 20% warning came on. I got another 15 minutes before it shut down. not quite 7 hours, but pretty close. I tested my 2G touch when it was new and got 35 minutes MORE than the rated time. The 4G goes longer than my 2G did, but it doesn't go as long as Apple claims. Does that bother me? no way--I know battery life ratings are a crapshoot.

so...how long does your touch run videos? before it hits the 20% warning?
 
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applealex

macrumors regular
Apr 11, 2009
141
0
California
It's great that people take time out of their day to test these things and confirm them for us, so Thanks

I've never tested any of my iPods to see if they match Apple's given times, the iPod usually gets about an hour or so less than what Apple says it will. I'm always home anyways so if the battery runs out I can charge it
 
alust2013

alust2013

macrumors 601
Feb 6, 2010
4,779
2
On the fence
No idea what my touch will really do anymore, video wise. If I want to watch something, I usually have my computer. But nearly 7 hours of video is pretty darn nice.
 
S

SlamJam12

macrumors regular
Sep 1, 2010
220
0
Circumstances

Are these conditions that you tested with your iPod touch, the conditions that you would use all the time when playing with the device?
 
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SoraLimit

macrumors regular
Jul 10, 2010
242
0
SlamJam12 said:
Are these conditions that you tested with your iPod touch, the conditions that you would use all the time when playing with the device?
Click to expand...

These are the conditions that Apple has done in order to give us a indicator of how much the battery will last. A controlled variable, if you want to call it that.

I would think that there would be fluctuations in battery life depending on what your settings are.
 
vanzantapple

vanzantapple

macrumors 6502
Aug 26, 2010
290
37
USA
dave1812dave said:
Apple specs say 7 hours for video.

I tested that out today. Screen 50%, audio 50%, wifi OFF

I got 6:23 when the 20% warning came on. I got another 15 minutes before it shut down. not quite 7 hours, but pretty close. I tested my 2G touch when it was new and got 35 minutes MORE than the rated time. The 4G goes longer than my 2G did, but it doesn't go as long as Apple claims. Does that bother me? no way--I know battery life ratings are a crapshoot.

so...how long does your touch run videos? before it hits the 20% warning?
Click to expand...

I don't know man.......

Were they Apple approved videos?
 
I

izimzis

macrumors member
Aug 2, 2010
85
0
Actually I believe that apple is the company with the most precise battery life claims, I also have read it in a magazine a couple of month ago.
Sometimes it's better as they say sometimes just a little worse, but I've never heard of a device which was extremely worse then their claim.
 
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dave1812dave

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
May 15, 2009
858
0
SlamJam12 said:
Are these conditions that you tested with your iPod touch, the conditions that you would use all the time when playing with the device?
Click to expand...

for viewing a video, I'd use airplane mode, a bit more brightness and the same volume. OBVIOUSLY, this has NOTHING to do with using it for web based apps.

vanzantapple said:
I don't know man.......

Were they Apple approved videos?
Click to expand...

:) I ripped American Beauty from my DVD, encoded with handbrake to 800+x resolution. file size was just under a GB. (forgot the bit rate). I used to encode movies for my older touch at 480 res, but wanted a new video file to test the quality of the 4G for movie watching. it's EXCELLENT!

izimzis said:
Actually I believe that apple is the company with the most precise battery life claims, I also have read it in a magazine a couple of month ago.
Sometimes it's better as they say sometimes just a little worse, but I've never heard of a device which was extremely worse then their claim.
Click to expand...

You want to see some wild battery claims, look no further than laptop mfgr claims. the only one I've seen personally that's accurate are Acer's claims for their netbooks. Using a 6 cell battery, my wife and I get over 7 hours on a charge (using wifi).

alust2013 said:
No idea what my touch will really do anymore, video wise. If I want to watch something, I usually have my computer. But nearly 7 hours of video is pretty darn nice.
Click to expand...

the point was to check out my NEW touch to be sure the battery wasn't a dud. I always do that with my ipods. So far I haven't gotten a unit with a "bad" battery, but over the years the batteries have pooped out on a 4G and Mini, and two of our 2G Nanos. I just checked to see how much I've spent on ipods--a whopping $2300!
 
fswmacguy

fswmacguy

macrumors 6502
Aug 12, 2009
266
0
izimzis said:
Actually I believe that apple is the company with the most precise battery life claims, I also have read it in a magazine a couple of month ago.
Sometimes it's better as they say sometimes just a little worse, but I've never heard of a device which was extremely worse then their claim.
Click to expand...

I have to agree.

I had a Nano that ran much longer than Apple's claim. And my iPod touch 2nd generation ran for days on end with games and wifi, the whole sha-bang.

My mother purchased a PC notebook which said got 4 hrs of battery life (with a 17-inch display?). It only managed a little over 1hr 30mins.
 
M

MicroByte

macrumors 6502
Jul 10, 2008
335
15
Thanks for doing this, good to know that it get's close to the rated battery life.

One thing to consider, did you have any apps running in the background maybe (with OS4 multitask)? Not sure if this would case some impacts also.

Either way, thanks again!
 
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dave1812dave

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
May 15, 2009
858
0
MicroByte said:
Thanks for doing this, good to know that it get's close to the rated battery life.

One thing to consider, did you have any apps running in the background maybe (with OS4 multitask)? Not sure if this would case some impacts also.

Either way, thanks again!
Click to expand...

nothing but the video player running.

applealex said:
It's great that people take time out of their day to test these things and confirm them for us, so Thanks

I've never tested any of my iPods to see if they match Apple's given times, the iPod usually gets about an hour or so less than what Apple says it will. I'm always home anyways so if the battery runs out I can charge it
Click to expand...

you're welcome. it wasn't a big deal to test it: the movie I chose runs 2 hrs, so I didn't have much trouble with going back to the touch and restarting the movie when the movie was running the credits, so my test of the battery was 6+ hours of CONTINUOUS movie playing. Had the movie been an "odd" running length, it would have been more of a chore to remember what time to restart the movie.
 
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