iPod touch So how's your battery holding up?

I bought a 32Gb 2nd gen. week they were available. Even though everything else worked as advertised, I noticed my battery just not lasting as long as it used to. Coast to coast flights were getting low battery warning playing Solitare and music only which never happened before. The touch also got fairly light usage since I primarily used it for travel only.

After testing found my eight month old battery was only holding around 62-66% of its original capacity. This equates to 20-24 Hrs. music playback w. wi-fi off. Took it to geni-ass #1 and he said it was working great. I should be happy I'm getting those numbers after eight months. Took it home, retested it and it certainly IMO wasn't what I expected from a $400 piece of hardware.

Made an appt. at another Apple Store and geni-ass #2 tried giving me the same bull. I asked him how it was tested and he said continually playing the album I loaded after restoring to factory settings was getting just under 24hrs. I then asked him if wi-fi was on or off. "Off of course" was his reply. I then asked him if he looked at Apple's claim for battery music playback. I was on hold for a good five minutes and was then told to come on in and they would replace it. He didn't want to revisit the battery claims in the least.

I also have a Nano manufactured about the same time and its battery was only getting 12 hours of playback vs. 24 claimed. It too was replaced at 6 months. I'm wondering how many early adopters of last newest Gen. iPods have this battery anomaly or am I just lucky? If the battery was user replaceable it wouldn't be a biggie but I surely don't expect to pay $80 bucks to have a battery replaced in under two years. Oh BTW, the replacement unit gets 42hrs. of music playback with wi-fi on.

http://www.apple.com/ipodtouch/specs.html

It wasn't easy getting it replaced but I think I was correct in claiming the non-replaceable battery should be at least 80% after one year.

atticus18244fsa said:

Mine is quite good. I got the 32GB 1st Gen the week it came out and use it everyday. It's held up very well. How'd you find the percentage?

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I calculated it using my playtime hours compared to Apple's specifications.

alphaod said:

I can get about 20 hours of playback out of my iPod touch if I disable WiFi and play from the dock port oppose to the headphone jack.

I also have a 1st Gen iPod, so that makes it 91% rated (20/22). And this thing was bought more than a year ago.

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That's what I would expect. I'm not sure why I'm two for two on Apples newest iPod batteries? Coincidence?
I know my last gen. chubby Nano still gets 20-22 hours and it's got to be close to two years old.

An update:

Travelled last week and played my solitare while listening to music during the flight. The battery indicator barely budged over 3+ hours. Continued to use it for another two days doing the same on and off without it needing a recharge. In short, I wasn't crazy and the battery in the new unit does indeed last nearly twice as long as my returned touch.

All those with Gen. 2's should be checking your battery usage before that magical end of warranty period is up.

iLoveMyApple said:

My first gen that I got 2 months after it came out, still has great battery life. It lasts all day.

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That's what I understand from others, too. Apple changed battery technology from gen. 1 to 2 and supposedly increased life but my experience has shown that it was great at first but degrades quicker - much quicker.