iPod touch Battery life question

[tijuanamiguel]

It seems apparent that the battery life is smaller than advertised by Apple. but for those of you who have it, how much does it last? how many films etc can you watch, how many hours of just music, and how many hours on safari and all that.

sorry if this has been asked like this before

 

[wpwj40e]

After 6 days here's my battery usage. Which I have been tracking as it seems this is one of the area's the IPT is pretty weak in...All are with full charge...And some standby is included to account for "turining down volume etc" Most of these were done several times - minimum of 3 over the past 6 days.

EDIT: This is using it from"standby" and not turning the IPT on and off. Truning the IPT on and off drains the battery and provides unreliable battery usage tests as there seems to be no rhyme or reason for how much battery power is left/used in the on/off process.

Safari Only - max life just browsing internet has been 2 hours 40 minutes - 10 minutes of standby - total time just under 3 hours.

Safari - listening to music - max life 2 hours 5 minutes - ~ 20 minutes standby - total time just under 2 hours 30 minutes.

Youtube Only - browsing/searching on you tube and listnening/watching youtube video - max life 1 hour 50 minutes - ~ 5 minutes standby - total time just under 2 hours.

Video only(wifi off) - watching movies/tv shows - mixture of handbrake encoded and itunes tv shows - max life 4 hours 30 minutes - ~ 45 minutes standby. Total time 5 hours 15 minutes.

Music only(wifi off - and screen off) - let run with headphones in - volume around 65% - 8 hours - no standby - run until dead. Ran this twice - no other usage - 1st pass 7 hours 55 minutes, 2nd pass 8 hours 10 minutes. WOuld average total max time to be 8 hours.

Mixed usage - video/music - (wifi off) - browsing among library, picking tunes etc - about 50/50 between video and music - 5 hours 35 minutes and 30 minutes standby. Total time just at 6 hours.

Mixed usage with wifi on - but not used - same conditions as above - 3 hours 50 minutes, ~ 40 minutes standby. Total time 4 hours 30 minutes.

Mixed usage - youtube, tunes store, safari, video, music - aproximately 45 minutes of each, 3 hours 40 minutes, 20 minutes standby. Total time 4 hours.

Real life usage - not measured - mixed usage of youtube, video, music, safari, tunes store - Obviously what was used and for how long is unknown - aproximately 3 hours 30 minutes.

Average life of battery using mixed usage without measuring has been for me around 3 hours.

Average life of battery without wifi on has been about 5 hours.

This is in keeping with the specific tests I ran.

YMMV....

 

[Windleaf2]

It will be very interesting to see what other owners are getting in regards to battery life. You may want to check out Walt Mossberg's column in WSJ, he gave playing videos about 4 hrs not 5 as stated by apple.

thanks to WPWJ40e for providing us with figures on what can be expected from the touch, hope more members will share their results.

 

[jmpage2]

In their recent review Engadget reported batterly life better than Apple's claims.

They reported 5.5-6+ hours of video playback.

 

[wildcardd]

I remember reading that with the 5G iPods that mp4 video would not drain the battery as fast as avc encoded files. This was due to less processor usage with an mp4.

I am curious if this is still the case or not with the touch. Anyone wanna test?

 

[dazz87]

Just got my touch (week 38) this past Friday. I went ahead and tested the battery life on this thing. With WiFi off I was able to get 6 hours on video playback. Volume was at 50% and Brightness was also at 50%. So far so good.

 

[wizzracer]

About four hours worth of movies. Nothing turned off. Then I get the 20% warning.

 

[Sweetbike40]

turning it on an off

Do you guys really think that turning it on and off drains the battery? Ever since reading that i've been keeping it in sleep mode more often. I just wonder it that is the right thing to do. For instance, if i'm not going to use it for like an hour, i put it to sleep. I'm just wondering if this is what been assumed based on what the battery levels shows at first when you power it back on or is it really the case.

 

[LordEntropy]

8 hours for music with Wifi turned off, surely this is not right. It is one thing for it to be a few hours below Apple's figure but going from 22 hours to 8 is shockingly bad.

I wasn't all that fussed about battery life until I read this but this is too much! Any one else have some battery test figures to compare this to?

 

[Rapmastac1]

I haven't really noticed my battery as of yet. I use it at work, at school, watch videos, play music, browse a few sites, and even some bit of a full lenght movie, and I have never gone down below half full, I'm always charging it when i get the chance so I don't really care for the life of the battery, obviously it's enough for my needs.

I do want to get a battery pack to hook a battery into to charge the ipod. Does anyone know if the "mint container" hack will work with this ipod? Where you take a container of mints and somehow hook a battery in it and modify a dock connecting cord for it to work.

 

[cubbie5150]

After 6 days here's my battery usage. Which I have been tracking as it seems this is one of the area's the IPT is pretty weak in...All are with full charge...And some standby is included to account for "turining down volume etc" Most of these were done several times - minimum of 3 over the past 6 days.

EDIT: This is using it from"standby" and not turning the IPT on and off. Truning the IPT on and off drains the battery and provides unreliable battery usage tests as there seems to be no rhyme or reason for how much battery power is left/used in the on/off process.

Safari Only - max life just browsing internet has been 2 hours 40 minutes - 10 minutes of standby - total time just under 3 hours.

Safari - listening to music - max life 2 hours 5 minutes - ~ 20 minutes standby - total time just under 2 hours 30 minutes.

Youtube Only - browsing/searching on you tube and listnening/watching youtube video - max life 1 hour 50 minutes - ~ 5 minutes standby - total time just under 2 hours.

Video only(wifi off) - watching movies/tv shows - mixture of handbrake encoded and itunes tv shows - max life 4 hours 30 minutes - ~ 45 minutes standby. Total time 5 hours 15 minutes.

Music only(wifi off - and screen off) - let run with headphones in - volume around 65% - 8 hours - no standby - run until dead. Ran this twice - no other usage - 1st pass 7 hours 55 minutes, 2nd pass 8 hours 10 minutes. WOuld average total max time to be 8 hours.

Mixed usage - video/music - (wifi off) - browsing among library, picking tunes etc - about 50/50 between video and music - 5 hours 35 minutes and 30 minutes standby. Total time just at 6 hours.

Mixed usage with wifi on - but not used - same conditions as above - 3 hours 50 minutes, ~ 40 minutes standby. Total time 4 hours 30 minutes.

Mixed usage - youtube, tunes store, safari, video, music - aproximately 45 minutes of each, 3 hours 40 minutes, 20 minutes standby. Total time 4 hours.

Real life usage - not measured - mixed usage of youtube, video, music, safari, tunes store - Obviously what was used and for how long is unknown - aproximately 3 hours 30 minutes.

Average life of battery using mixed usage without measuring has been for me around 3 hours.

Average life of battery without wifi on has been about 5 hours.

This is in keeping with the specific tests I ran.

YMMV....

That's pretty much been my experience too. Obviously, I'm not all that impressed w/ battery life, but then again, my expectations were minimal. Since this is my first iPod, I'll have to buy an A/C charger for traveling purposes since I don't want to carry my MBP w/ me solely for recharging my iPod!!

 

[LordEntropy]

to be honest if it was say only 15 hours for music only that would be acceptable but less than half is appaling. Is this everyones experience? If not do some have faulty batteries? This is putting me off a bit frankly.

 

[madmaxmedia]

to be honest if it was say only 15 hours for music only that would be acceptable but less than half is appaling. Is this everyones experience? If not do some have faulty batteries? This is putting me off a bit frankly.

Online reviews have varied, but I don't think anyone got that low battery life for music. IIRC most of them got close to Apple's numbers, and at least 1 site reported better than Apple's numbers.

Keep in mind Apple's numbers are based on just playing music straight through, no or minimal use of screen to change songs, browse Coverflow, etc. With that big pretty screen, if you are constantly using Coverlow then your battery life will take a hit.

 

[wpwj40e]

There were some questions onthe battery life - just listening to music. So ran two more tests yesterday with my itouch (week 37 - eventually going back for screen issues) and my son's friend (week 38 - what a difference on the screen!). He let me keep it overnight.

Conditions of test:
From a full charged battery, unit was NEVER turned off from full charge.(Turning on and off drains the battery and provides unpredictive battery usage)
Loaded the same ten albums all encoded at 256, ran these as a single playlist. (aproximately 15 hours of music) Turned brightness to 50% and wifi to off - attached apple earbuds and ran volume at 50%. The music was started and then the screens were turned off. No other interaction ocurred during the tests. (Please note that this would NOT be reflective of real life usage and should give a "best" results - not real results!)Ran tests twice - concluded this am.

Results:

iTouch wk 37:
Pass 1 - 8 hours, 37 minutes until dead
Pass 2 - 8 hours, 53 minutes until dead

iTouch wk 38:
Pass 1 - 8 hours 54 minutes until dead
Pass 2 - 9 hours 6 minutes until dead

So week 38 was ever so slightly better, given that the variance was under 5% - would chalk it up to variance in units and batteries unassociated with build week. Also note that the results of the wk 37 iTouch ( the one I tested originally) were slightly better than previous, without redoing the tests I would chalk it up to the difference in headphones used. When tested earlier (see prior post) I was using Koss Pro's and had the volume slightly higher, with this testing I used the earbuds. Would assume that the earbuds may use slightly less power than the koss pro's headphones.

Either way - clearly this is not 22 hours of music - and in real world usage it will be less than 8 hours due to using the screen, browsing, changing tracks etc.


YMMV

 

[madmaxmedia]

Thanks for the detailed test results!

Something has to be going on, there is way too much difference in battery life between Apple's specs and what a lot of people are getting.

What's odd is that Ars tested music battery life, and their unit still had 1/3 battery left after 15 hours of playback-

http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/The-iPod-meets-the-iPhone-a-review-of-the-iPod-touch.ars/6

 

[wpwj40e]

Thanks for the detailed test results!

Something has to be going on, there is way too much difference in battery life between Apple's specs and what a lot of people are getting.

What's odd is that Ars tested music battery life, and their unit still had 1/3 battery left after 15 hours of playback-

http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/The-iPod-meets-the-iPhone-a-review-of-the-iPod-touch.ars/6

I had read their results as well. Given that my battery life is so abysmal - really thought it was an issue with my unit. Unfortunately - on the Apple discussion boards and with others - the battery life is very similar to mine. Now having done two sets of testing on different touches....no way do I believe what ARS has said.

In fact - I now questions several things regarding that review. But their cliam that with wifi on and doing other things they got 14 hours of battery life is really "wacked!". They had to be smoking something funny or in some kind of time warp - there is NO way using wifi or having it on will let you have that kind of battery life. Just get an itouch - turn on wifi and watch your battery drain. Trust me, its like watching discovery channel do a fast motion of grass growing - you can "see" it happen!

I am pretty happy with the IPT in other respects - it has the typical apple rev 1 software glitches - but anymore I expect those
The screen if you get a good one is outstanding. And the ease of use is nothing short of amazing.

The battery life is...well...just not good. AM researching options like the javoedge for a backup battery for when I am not near a computer.

Also wish it had come with an ac adaptor like the iphone as with the IPT - its just about mandatory to have a charge within siight.

Oh...welll....still playing and still liking my IPT...warts and all

 

[Evangelion]

Now having done two sets of testing on different touches....no way do I believe what ARS has said.

Are you saying that they are lying? That is a pretty big claim to make.

 

[TonyHoyle]

Are you saying that they are lying? That is a pretty big claim to make.

They're reviewers.. they say nice things about their advertisers and the people who give them freebies. It's just business. Not really a lie, just reprinting what they've been told to say verbatim.

14 hours of battery life with wifi enabled? Not a chance. Ever.

 

[madmaxmedia]

I had read their results as well. Given that my battery life is so abysmal - really thought it was an issue with my unit. Unfortunately - on the Apple discussion boards and with others - the battery life is very similar to mine. Now having done two sets of testing on different touches....no way do I believe what ARS has said.

I don't think Ars has any reason to lie about their results (just as obviously you have no reason to lie about yours.)

If that one threw you for a loop, then check iLounge's results (you're going to do a double take if you haven't seen their numbers before)-

http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/ipod/review/apple-ipod-touch-8gb-16gb/P3

Their review is largely negative, I doubt they would make false claims either. And I don't think Apple set out to purposely mislead people either, as their iPod battery numbers usually underestimate actual battery life.

My guess is that there is some software glitch that is making the CPU or hardware overall work overtime and eating up battery life unnecessarily. I am hoping that a firmware update will remedy this.

 

[madmaxmedia]

They're reviewers.. they say nice things about their advertisers and the people who give them freebies. It's just business. Not really a lie, just reprinting what they've been told to say verbatim.

14 hours of battery life with wifi enabled? Not a chance. Ever.

Ars and iLounge are big websites with good credibility. Most web sites like theirs have a clear policy on freebies and reviews. iLounge gave the iPod Touch a largely negative review anyway.

Could someone report fake numbers? Of course, it's happened before. But I doubt they have.

And what you're saying actually would be a lie- read their reviews. They are not saying "This is the battery life you should get per Apple's specs", they are saying "These are the battery life numbers we actually got when we tested these units."

 

[wpwj40e]

Wow. (re ilounge battery results!)

Never made it to the audio portion of their review. Your right - was blown away! trying to think if there was anything I had running....just can't understand the difference in audio playback....The video from ilounge was in line with what I expereinced....It's their audio results that are really high.They said they used different bit rates - so that might explain some of the difference - but not 3 times the difference!

All my albums have cover art - but the screen was not being used - so that would not explian it either - unless the IPT thinks the screen is on even when it is off....


Realy puzzling...agree that my results don't jive on audio (the others are pretty close - so audio seems to be the only real discrepency - leaving ARS out of it).

Hmmmmm....gonna play some more with it in the next few days - I am noticing slight improvement in the battery life the more full charges it has - but it is slight - not soemthing that would be really noticeable unless you had been tracking like I have. ALso wonder if maybe I am getting a different "full" charge due to the USB's ports I am using (back of the 24"iMac) than maybe an ac charge or powered hub.

 

[madmaxmedia]

Yeah, it's odd. I mean I doubt you're doing anything wrong that would take such a big hit off battery life.

The possibility about your charging method and whether perhaps you're getting a full charge is a good one, OTOH you got reasonable results with video playback. That should indicate that your battery really is pretty full when you do your tests.

I think there's got to be something unnecessarily draining your battery during music playback. Not something you're doing, but something the iPod is doing. If you think about it, it makes no sense that your music playback time would only be a little longer than video playback, since video playback is definitely more power-consuming.

 

[wpwj40e]

The only real variable I can think of is how I have stuff stored/encoded in my iTunes and the method I use for syncing. (I use manual)

It could be the difference in iTunes itself as I find it hard to believe there is anything I am doing on the IPT that would be all that different than theirs. There are just not that many options on the IPT for music playback

Have a macbook and due to it having lower storage - typically don't keep that much on it. Gonna just strip it down to my "itunes" purchases of music and set the IPT to auto sync with it. That should alleviate any encoding overhead, syncing wierdness or other variables as I would be using straight iTunes purchases most at the lower bit rate and "out of the box" kinda settings.

If it were just my IPT - would chalk it up - but having two different ones - the ONLY similiarity would be my source content and mechanism....


I know - not really obsessing - but want to "understand" the issue. Why I used to like DOS so much - never cared for playing the games and such - just the 30-40 hours it took to get soemthing working.

Nowadays - just want the stuff to work....hence switched to Apple

But can't let go of a good puzzle

 

[madmaxmedia]

And if you never do figure it out, you should be able to replace the Touch due to much less than spec battery life.

That is, if and when there is resolution to the issue- do all units have batter life like this? Only some? Same sort of questions as when people first started noticing the bad screens.

 

[wpwj40e]

And if you never do figure it out, you should be able to replace the Touch due to much less than spec battery life.

That is, if and when there is resolution to the issue- do all units have batter life like this? Only some? Same sort of questions as when people first started noticing the bad screens.

Yea...Did some searching around the net today re battery life and those that have gotten over the screen issues are now just checking into battery issues. I have uncovered about 20 different users (well maybe 20 different posts - who know they could be the same users!) where the best audio only playback seems to be 12 hours. Most are getting under 10 hours. That is in keeping with wwhat I am expereincing. Video seems to be between 4-6 hours and wifi is about 2-3 hours.

Until more reports come in - just won't know.