iPod touch iPod touch 6th Gen: How's the battery life?

I bought my iPod Touch in late 2012 and use it primarily on nature hikes for taking pictures and videos, a function that serves me very well. Inevitably, though, this device will one day drop dead. Therefore, I plan to buy a new Touch for camera backup in the near future, assuming that Apple is likely to phase this product out with no more hardware updates. I am hoping that the new Touch's battery will not drain any worse than the old Touch's which has gotten worse of late.

Is there anyone here who also uses the Touch for its easy-to-carry-and-use camera, and can comment on battery performance for the later model? I take up to 100 pictures and around 10 videos during a 2-4 hour hike, occasionally opening up a nature guide app as well. I can't see myself using any other camera device, I really like the Touch.
 
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LauraJean said:
I bought my iPod Touch in late 2012 and use it primarily on nature hikes for taking pictures and videos, a function that serves me very well. Inevitably, though, this device will one day drop dead. Therefore, I plan to buy a new Touch for camera backup in the near future, assuming that Apple is likely to phase this product out with no more hardware updates. I am hoping that the new Touch's battery will not drain any worse than the old Touch's which has gotten worse of late.

Is there anyone here who also uses the Touch for its easy-to-carry-and-use camera, and can comment on battery performance for the later model? I take up to 100 pictures and around 10 videos during a 2-4 hour hike, occasionally opening up a nature guide app as well. I can't see myself using any other camera device, I really like the Touch.
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[doublepost=1472009070][/doublepost]Yes, the 6G touch makes for a small & convenient camera. I have one and take some photos, but mostly other uses. It's only a sample of one, but if mine is typical I think you may be pushing its limits if you expect 4 hours of field use on a charge. I get about 3 hours with the brightness set at 30%. In the sun, you will need higher brightness to see the viewfinder.

It's too bad because except for the abysmal battery it is a terrific device. You could consider taking along one of the smaller auxiliary battery banks to get you through some of the longer sessions.
 
Reno Raines said:
Get the gold one. It is a limited edition according to the Apple Store rep and looks great. Hope you enjoy your new iPod touch!
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The Gold is not a limited edition one. It took the place of the 5th Gen Yellow or as I called it Lime green one. The only limited edition one is the Red made by Product(and Apple). Like all the shirts that Bono from U2 started. I got one yesterday. However, I have to say even though these posts are a year old and so is this 6th Gen Ipod Touch. I still say the 5th Gen is much better. The battery life is way better. I bought the 32GB Blue 6th Gen on from Walmart...it was dead to start off with. No big...I charged it. In one week even after shutting off anything I didn't need. I had charged it 4 times. My fiance got my 5th Gen and only charged one time. Which is normal for the 5th Gen. Took that one back to Walmart (different one) and got another one...and again dead to start off with. Fully charged..did all the same things. And after 2 hours and 21 min of just sitting there it was down to 51%. Plus it wasn't downloading most of my videos I had purchased. So called tech support. She could not get it to run a diagnostic test to it. 5 times we tried. Found a Apple store close by (didn't know there was one). He couldn't exchange for a different color because I didn't buy from there. They didn't have the blue in stock. So went to Walmart, returned it. Went back to Apple. Bought the Red limited edition. It was fully charged. However, even using their software to DL first. My videos still did not want to download and no one there knew what to do. Great...appt set up for phone tech support again. HOWEVER, just looked at the battery usage..only 11 min of actual usage and almost 6 hours of standby? WTH? So it will still be draining my battery and not even connected to my WiFi at home yet. So there is something wrong here. Hope they can find out the issue. This is my 3rd one. Getting frustrated

***UPDATE***
I returned the ones I got from Walmart. And bought one at the Apple Store directly. I got the Product Red One which is the only Limited Edition color. It came fully charged. I since then did not experience any of the issues that I did previously. However, the better processor and slightly bigger battery on this 6th Gen makes not one bit of difference. It holds a charge about the same length of time as the 5th Gen. It is a little faster but nothing noticeable. And there is no way it will be faster than any smart phone out there. Including the IPhone 6. This is the only Apple product that I own and that is because all the other MP3 players do not have the features or a touchscreen display like this does. If other MP3 players offered this like the IPod I would surely have one of those over this. I never can get Apple support to continue help on the phone. So I still have Purchased videos that have not downloaded. They get close to DLing all the way and then says unable to download. The Apple Store couldn't figure it out. And had a tech support person on the phone helping me. When I went to call her back she never returned my call. Tried for 2 weeks. And it is frustrating as this is money I spent on Itunes.
 
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Terrible. Now granted I use my iPod for all social media apps, etc but still the battery shouldn't be as bad as it is. I have to charge 2-3 times a day.
 
It's a great device, with solid battery life, IF YOU DON'T USE WI-FI! :)

Actually, the trick is to NOT leave Wi-fi on! Turn it on; fetch some email or news stories; updated some apps; download X and Y; and THEN switch it OFF immediately.

It's really a shame. I'm tempted to pass it along to a family member and pick up an iPhone SE (without phone service), just use it as an iPod Touch 7!

(Or, perhaps enroll it as a GoPhone, $9/month, so I'd have it all.)
 
Saturn007 said:
It's a great device, with solid battery life, IF YOU DON'T USE WI-FI! :)

Actually, the trick is to NOT leave Wi-fi on! Turn it on; fetch some email or news stories; updated some apps; download X and Y; and THEN switch it OFF immediately.

It's really a shame. I'm tempted to pass it along to a family member and pick up an iPhone SE (without phone service), just use it as an iPod Touch 7!

(Or, perhaps enroll it as a GoPhone, $9/month, so I'd have it all.)
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Right?!! I saw best buy was having a $100 or $150 off refurbished SE and I was tempted to make that my iPod.. Either that or upgrade to the iPhone 7 and use my 6S as an iPod. The iPod 6 is a great device but the fact that it drains so quickly is a shame.
 
I find the battery to be OK, but the tip from a poster above is a good one: switch off wi-fi and bluetooth when you don't need them.

I also found out that answering phone calls is quite battery hungry, but it's a feature I wouldn't want to miss as quite often I'm listening to music on the Touch while my SE is in a different room.
 
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Battery life was terrible after updating to iOS 10 a week ago, then suddenly better and back to normal in the last two days.
 
My iPT6 has been getting horrendous battery life lately. Have to charge it multiple times a day. I get that I'm on it alot and social media uses up battery, but still. Charging at least 4-5 times a day isn't ideal. Should last longer.
 
I purchased a 6th gen iPod Touch (128 Space Gray) the day they were released. Using the native music app and shuffle on, I get roughly five hours of music playback. That's with wifi OFF, Bluetooth OFF and the screen OFF. No other apps running in the background. I've tested this multiple times after a full charge, until it shuts off... always within a few minutes +/- of five hours.

I've never been more disappointed in an Apple product. My old 64GB 3rd gen iPod Touch used to get 20+ hours when new and that was with the screen on and other things running (IIRC). The fact that they have "Up to 40 hours" Music Playback Time on their website is ridiculous. I can get 40 hours of music playback too, if it's plugged in for the first 35.
 
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KyNY said:
My old 64GB 3rd gen iPod Touch used to get 20+ hours when new and that was with the screen on and other things running (IIRC).
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Mine 3rd gen still rocks 16 hrs playback but I have to look for a replacement. I borrowed 6th gen 128 for a month and been very disappointed with battery life. So I went further and bought a modded old 7 gen Classic, 512 Gb SSD, 2000 mAh battery with awesome playback time. Best choice I've ever made for a music player
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I Feel your pain, KyNY. I also would have expected at least 20 hours of playback with the display off with the 6G Touch. 5 hours is a sad testament to Apple's design.

My usage case is different. I don't do lots of playback, but do keep the screen on at about 30% brightness when I'm actually looking at it. Otherwise, it is off. Mostly some iBook reading, internet searches (no video), light email and remote control for my audio system receiver. Always keep it in Airplane mode when not connected to anything. Typically only get 3 hours between charges. I'm not happy either.
 
I had wanted to upgrade to the 6G Touch because I had outgrown the 64GB on my 3rd Gen and the battery was shot. If their battery claim was honest on their spec page, I wouldn't have bought the 6G Touch. The $400 I spent on the 6G would have been put towards a different option. (a used phone, iPod classic, etc.).

Music is important to me. My music collection is huge in both CDs and digital. I've never owned a smart phone so I don't have a used one for music duty. If the DDOS attack last Friday teaches anything, it's that relying on the cloud (even for streaming music) is foolish. Yes I know, first world problems... but that is why the iPod Touch *should* work for me.

Even occasional web browsing or taking a few photos will quickly eat through the battery. My situation probably isn't the norm any more, but I feel duped.
 
I received my 6G touch as an unexpected gift and have been using it for streaming my music collection from the cloud via the google play music app as well as running apps that might not be available on my trusty lumia 650 smartphone.

It does the job well but oh MAN the battery life is pretty terrible. In fact today I took it off the charger today at around 8am and after streaming music and using imessage a little bit for around 3 hours it was already at 20% battery. The 1040mah battery just does not cut it when it comes to powering the device through a day. The battery life is better with the wifi off but that doesn't make up for an overall abysmal performance on the battery front. The device itself is great, really smooth and responsive but the horrible battery is a real large blemish on the device. You're really going to want to carry around a portable battery pack if you're planning on using it a lot on one day.
 
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KyNY said:
I purchased a 6th gen iPod Touch (128 Space Gray) the day they were released. Using the native music app and shuffle on, I get roughly five hours of music playback. That's with wifi OFF, Bluetooth OFF and the screen OFF. No other apps running in the background. I've tested this multiple times after a full charge, until it shuts off... always within a few minutes +/- of five hours.

I've never been more disappointed in an Apple product. My old 64GB 3rd gen iPod Touch used to get 20+ hours when new and that was with the screen on and other things running (IIRC). The fact that they have "Up to 40 hours" Music Playback Time on their website is ridiculous. I can get 40 hours of music playback too, if it's plugged in for the first 35.
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God, I have been thinking of buying one for podcasts and movies for outdoors as I use my Ipod Classic inside only to function as my music library but if this battery situation is widespread then forget about paying $199 or $159 (current Target sale) for 16 GB's.
 
The battery life on mine continues to be quite decent even nearly 15 months after I bought it. I have not updated it to iOS 10 and I still only use it for music. With this, it can last me around 4-5 days before needing to be charged again (it's usually used for a few hrs a day).

Not sure if it's just because my usage is light but I'm still happy with it.
 
Some data. Over the past year, I've been getting between 5 and 9 hours of use, depending on how much WiFi I use.

Now, I typically run in Airplane mode -- and, during the day, with brightness at 1/4. (One gets used to lower brightness pretty quickly!). At night, I use it for ebook reading with colors inverted and the backlight barely on.

When I turn on WiFi to fetch news, the battery can drain 8-14% in only 2-3 minutes of use!

It is a shame as it undermines an otherwise fine device.

--------------------------

BIG TIP: One of the gurus in the Apple forum recommended leaving it charging for a full 6 hours-- well past the point it first gets to 100%. The IPT 6 charges quickly, but apparently the gauge is off-- it needs to be charged longer, much longer than first hitting 100%.

That has helped-- some WiFi sites now barely register on battery life.
 
Yeah, my battery life sucks still. I might have Apple send me a replacement device too because apparently they said my Bluetooth failed the diagnostic.
 
Reno Raines said:
Get the gold one. It is a limited edition according to the Apple Store rep and looks great. Hope you enjoy your new iPod touch!
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The Gold one is not a limited edition. It just replaced the Lime Green One. They still sell the Gold one. The one that was Limited Edition was the Red one. As it is part of the Product Red Line.
 
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