I might be getting an iPod touch in a week or two, so I've got a couple of questions about it beforehand. First of all, how is the battery life really like on it? I've heard people say that the battery life is not nearly what they expected, but I'm pretty sure they had wi-fi on all the time. Secondly, is it easy to turn the wi-fi off and on? I hope that it would increase the battery life only using it when needed; does it? Finally, are people still having issues with the screen quality? I won't have too many movies on the touch, but I would like them to look good if and when I do.
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iPod touch iPod touch Questions
- Thread starter menthol moose
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During the day I listen to about 3 hours of music, surf the web for about an hour, and not watch much video at all. This brings the battery down about 20% on average. The boasted 5 hours of video and 22 hours of audio is somewhat hogwash, and I'd say it is more like 12 hours about of constant audio with skipping songs and changing playlists and NO safari at all. It is safari and wi-fi and videos that kill the battery life.
It isn't the best method ever, you have to go into the settings and turn it off and on. A few other ways of decreasing battery life is lowering the brightness and keeping the auto-feature OFF so the sensor doesn't have to work either, and don't watch too much video, particularly through YouTube, which is a double whammy. But really, if you charge your iPod (or dock it like I do, everyday) you can get through a whole day pretty satisfied.
The screen quality has gotten a lot better with firmware updates, and the video looks pretty good. Definitely download videos formatted for an iPod for maximum experience.
the battery life is not that great, but nothing that will leave you without music at the end of a normal day.
if you listen to it in the car, and aren't a bit song flipper, locking it will cause the screen to go black and make the battery last much longer. i'm unfortunately constantly skipping songs or repeating them, so it's hard for me to do that unless i'm listening to a comedy album, about the only thing i'll play straight through.
i REALLY wish it just had an auto-dim feature like the video does, where the screen goes dim after like ten seconds but comes back to life when you touch the click wheel.
if you listen to it in the car, and aren't a bit song flipper, locking it will cause the screen to go black and make the battery last much longer. i'm unfortunately constantly skipping songs or repeating them, so it's hard for me to do that unless i'm listening to a comedy album, about the only thing i'll play straight through.
i REALLY wish it just had an auto-dim feature like the video does, where the screen goes dim after like ten seconds but comes back to life when you touch the click wheel.
are you referring to the automatic lock? because that's extremely inconvenient. that lasted about a day on mine before i turned it off.
No he is referring to the:
Settings > Brightness > Auto-Brightness > ON/OFF
feature.
R-Fly
No he is referring to the:
Settings > Brightness > Auto-Brightness > ON/OFF
feature.
R-Fly
isn't that to dim it when it's dark?
WiFi will definitely suck batteries as will a bright screen. But so will some applications. So there are three things you need to consider:
1. Learn to manage Wifi
Shut it off when not in use. Simple as that. Turning it on and off requires going into Settings > WiFi and tapping it off. If you have a Jailbroken device, then get the WiFiSwitch app and leave it on your Dock. A single tap toggles WiFi on or off making easy to manage.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Putting the iPod Touch in standby (by pressing the top power button once as opposed to turning it off by pressing and holding the power button and then sliding the power-off slider) DOES NOT shut off WiFi. It remains on when in standby mode, so this WILL affect how fast your battery drains. I've left WiFi on accidentally over night, and awakened to an iPod Touch with a drained battery requiring a restore. (Note that I do have OpenSSH installed, so that may have something to do with it, but all I know is that I can successfully and continuously ping my iPod Touch when it is "sleeping".)
2. Determine what level of brightness you really need
For "lighted room" conditions, I keep the brightness at about 1/8" from the left of the brightness slider. In dim or dark room conditions, I have it down even further. I personally don't like the scale apple uses, because for me, the higher brightness positions are simply too bright, and it's sometimes difficult to manage the brightness at the low end of the scale. I almost wish they would have implemented the "roller" UI widget instead of the slider. As for the Auto-Brightness, I've played with it, but haven't had much success. I'm using a Belkin Silicone skin with a cutout for the light sensor, but it still may be covering the sensor.
3. If you are using a Jailbroken device, some applications can really drain the battery, simply because they use lots of CPU power. An example of this is the EvolutionRGB game. I was REALLY bored one morning, and specnt about an hour just mesmerized by it, and I noticed that the battery had drained about 50%. But that is probably a huge exception. You don't need to worry about most apps, as they are mostly static.
I'm more than satisfied with screen quality. I've used many PalmOS PDAs over the years, and the iPod Touch screen excels on all counts in my opinion.
I don't think I'll be jailbreaking it if and when I do get it, so third-party apps are unlikely to be a concern for me. Otherwise, thank you for the advice. Now to persuade my parents.
woah... what did i miss.... click wheel? where is it? on the back?
do you mean the screen, or.....?
battery life on my ipod is good, lasts 6 hrs, on and off with wifi on, and SSH running, with scattered videos, as for brightness, always cranked down, or really close.
i throw mine in my purse daily and i have no scratches on the screen. it's glass so it shouldn't scratch very easily. i just have an incase protector that covers the back and sides, the back is what scratches, and without a case it's a little too slick to hold onto securely.
1. Battery - when i first bought my iPod, the battery seemed to last forever. I bought it the night before a 12 hr plane ride and it lasted me the entire way there for movies, music, etc.
After 2 months of use, the battery life has been reduced... Turning off WiFi saves a lot of batteries, but overall, it only goes a few hours of video. If you just use it for music, it can still go much longer than with video, but I still worry about the future declining battery capacity.
2. Scratches. It is sturdy, the screen doesnt scratch that easily, but hey, better safe than sorry. Get a screen protector and some kind of case, because you never know what might happen! Plus I found the iPod to be very slippery and I felt like I was going to drop it all the time before I got a case.
After 2 months of use, the battery life has been reduced... Turning off WiFi saves a lot of batteries, but overall, it only goes a few hours of video. If you just use it for music, it can still go much longer than with video, but I still worry about the future declining battery capacity.
2. Scratches. It is sturdy, the screen doesnt scratch that easily, but hey, better safe than sorry. Get a screen protector and some kind of case, because you never know what might happen! Plus I found the iPod to be very slippery and I felt like I was going to drop it all the time before I got a case.
Thank you; do you have any recommendations for cases? I've never needed an iPod case before.