iPod touch Is the battery issue widespread?

[deanshu]

Title says it all. For those iPod touch 2G owners, what is your thought on the battery life? I see a lot of posts on iPod touch forums about how the battery had significant issues or did not even approach the advertised time with the appropriate settings in brightness, wifi, push, etc.

I'll set up a poll.

 

[sgtboy]

While I can't give you an exact figure, I have had no problems with my battery life. I always turn Wifi off when not in use (listening to music/playing a game). It lasts longer than my 1st Gen touch for sure.

I have a 32G ordered from Apple on the keynote day

 

[BennyK]

Not trying to be rude but the question does not match the answer, I want to answer the question, "Is battery life a widespread issue?" with No, but the No answer states there are battery issues. Answering the question "Is battery life a widespread issue?" with Yes then states that it does not disappoint. So I am confused on how to answer this one...

 

[HLdan]

I didn't know there was a battery issue. I watched 2 three hour football games while playing games I downloaded from the App store and played music and surfed the web and by the time the football games were over my iPod Touch 2G still had over half of the battery life left. Works great for me. No issue here.

 

[deanshu]

Not trying to be rude but the question does not match the answer, I want to answer the question, "Is battery life a widespread issue?" with No, but the No answer states there are battery issues. Answering the question "Is battery life a widespread issue?" with Yes then states that it does not disappoint. So I am confused on how to answer this one...

Thanks for pointing that out, I'm not offended at all. Error on my part. "Yes" on the poll means the battery is great, "No" means it is not.

Thanks.

 

[i-Want-Apples]

I've never had another iPod before, so I don't know if the last touch I had was affected or not. I since returned it because of some other issues with it and I'm getting ready to open the new one now, so I will see how it compares.

I personally was disapointed with the battery life, but I just thought it was normal as I read the touch battery life was not that great. I left the brightness on medium and turned wi-fi off most of the time (whenever I remembered to) and it seemed like with anything other than music it drained right down. I was playing a fairly simple game one night and during the same game I got the message of 20% battery and a short bit later the 10% battery. I don't know if I even played the entire time for 30 minutes, so the time in between the message could not have been more than 10 minutes or so. I'm hoping the touch I just got will be better with the battery. I wasn't using it a ton, except for the first day I got it, but I had to charge every day if I was using it, and I waited till the battery was completely drained before I charged it.

 

[deanshu]

I've never had another iPod before, so I don't know if the last touch I had was affected or not. I since returned it because of some other issues with it and I'm getting ready to open the new one now, so I will see how it compares.

I personally was disapointed with the battery life, but I just thought it was normal as I read the touch battery life was not that great. I left the brightness on medium and turned wi-fi off most of the time (whenever I remembered to) and it seemed like with anything other than music it drained right down. I was playing a fairly simple game one night and during the same game I got the message of 20% battery and a short bit later the 10% battery. I don't know if I even played the entire time for 30 minutes, so the time in between the message could not have been more than 10 minutes or so. I'm hoping the touch I just got will be better with the battery. I wasn't using it a ton, except for the first day I got it, but I had to charge every day if I was using it, and I waited till the battery was completely drained before I charged it.

Hi,
Thanks for the info. I'll be sure to benchmark my iPod touch right when I get it to make sure there are no issues with it, as I will be making the purchase from eBay and returning it earlier would probably be ideal. If the seller can't provide me with a replacement hopefully a trip to the local Apple store would yield results.

Thanks

 

[duncyboy]

I'm unsure how to vote in this one- I've not experienced battery life issues with my iPod but I did have a possible battery related problem with my first Touch 2G detailed in this thread: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/577241/

 

[840quadra]

Perhaps not I guess.

This is the first time I have seen any post on this, and I have had no issues myself with my 2G. Perhaps the folks on the other forums are a bit Hyper Sensitive™? Which is strange because I think some of our touch users are in that boat at times.

 

[deanshu]

Perhaps not I guess.

This is the first time I have seen any post on this, and I have had no issues myself with my 2G. Perhaps the folks on the other forums are a bit Hyper Sensitive™? Which is strange because I think some of our touch users are in that boat at times.

Hmm, so I guess the issue isn't as widespread as I thought.

 

[chrono1081]

I honestly don't think there is a battery issue at all. Here's the thing when you look at any product with a battery, when you see a posted battery life, cut it in half. This goes for cameras, ipods, cell phones, laptops, etc. Cutting it in half usually results in the accurate every day use battery life. When customers see "It says 12 hours! I only get 6!" Yup...Thats normal.

 

[840quadra]

Hmm, so I guess the issue isn't as widespread as I thought.

Oh don't get me wrong, I am not calling you a liar, and I do believe that you have seen posts on this. I am just amazed that some of the people here have not started complaining about batteries by this point (talking widespread).

This may not be a true issue, or if it is, maybe it only effects a small quantity of systems.

 

[waffle911]

I wasn't using it a ton, except for the first day I got it, but I had to charge every day if I was using it, and I waited till the battery was completely drained before I charged it.

Li-Ion batteries do not like to be drained. Do not fully drain your batteries. The sweet spot is to start charging at roughly 40% as often as possible. Lithium batteries like to be topped off regularly, rather than old NiCd or NiMH batteries where you had the "memory effect" that required you to fully drain them before charging.

This is a major cause of early iPod battery failure. Don't drain them all the way.

270 charge cycles on my MacBook and it still has more than 98% capacity.

 

[scotty96LSC]

Li-Ion batteries do not like to be drained. Do not fully drain your batteries. The sweet spot is to start charging at roughly 40% as often as possible. Lithium batteries like to be topped off regularly, rather than old NiCd or NiMH batteries where you had the "memory effect" that required you to fully drain them before charging.

This is a major cause of early iPod battery failure. Don't drain them all the way.

270 charge cycles on my MacBook and it still has more than 98% capacity.

Good info. Thanks.
By the way my battery for my iPod touch is just fine. My son has the 2G iPod touch and he has had no problems either.

 

[SkillsToShow]

No issues here. It seems that the battery life on my touch is really good when playing music and I can play up to 4 hours of video before it dies.

 

[intempo808]

I had a 1st generation iPod touch and the battery has been consistently poor recently, so on Wednesday I requested a repair. UPS delivered the package box on Thursday, picked up my iPod touch Friday. Apple looked at my iPod and analyzed it Monday. They're posting me a new one today to be with my tomorrow.

Amazing service if you ask me

Fast, efficient, can't fault it.

Lets hope my replacements battery works better...

 

[i-Want-Apples]

Li-Ion batteries do not like to be drained. Do not fully drain your batteries. The sweet spot is to start charging at roughly 40% as often as possible. Lithium batteries like to be topped off regularly, rather than old NiCd or NiMH batteries where you had the "memory effect" that required you to fully drain them before charging.

This is a major cause of early iPod battery failure. Don't drain them all the way.

270 charge cycles on my MacBook and it still has more than 98% capacity.

Thanks for the info, I thought this was the best way to go about it. When I bought it they told me to drain it down as far as you can and that will give you the longest battery life, so that is what I was doing, I was told the same thing for some of my other players as well... So, how do I tell when the battery is at 40%? I get the message at 20% and 10%, do you just charge once it drops a little below half? Also, how often should you drain the battery down, if at all?

I have another MP3 player with a dock that charges, I origianlly thought that would be a good thing, but didn't like it as well once I got it. There is no option to turn charging off, so as long as it is docked it will charge. It never really turns the MP3 player off, even when you turn the sound dock off, the player will remain on. I contacted Altec and they said this is how it works and the device will not be affected, but I don't really like it because I think it will just kill the battery.

Thanks again for the tip!

 

[Obama]

My battery life has been outstanding. 2 plus days of heavy use.

Check out the apple tips.
http://www.apple.com/batteries/

 

[Muncher]

Thanks for the info, I thought this was the best way to go about it. When I bought it they told me to drain it down as far as you can and that will give you the longest battery life, so that is what I was doing, I was told the same thing for some of my other players as well... So, how do I tell when the battery is at 40%? I get the message at 20% and 10%, do you just charge once it drops a little below half? Also, how often should you drain the battery down, if at all?

I have another MP3 player with a dock that charges, I origianlly thought that would be a good thing, but didn't like it as well once I got it. There is no option to turn charging off, so as long as it is docked it will charge. It never really turns the MP3 player off, even when you turn the sound dock off, the player will remain on. I contacted Altec and they said this is how it works and the device will not be affected, but I don't really like it because I think it will just kill the battery.

Thanks again for the tip!

If you can, keep your lithium batteries at 40% overnight. They lose more battery when left alone on a full charge.