Average iPod battery life?

E

EGGO

Gawd
Joined
Aug 23, 2004
Messages
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I just came back from a long roadtrip (FL to NJ). I decided to play my 5G iPod on shuffle throughout the whole trip. Nothing was touched after I set it to play.

Apple says (for my iPod):
"60GB: Up to 20 hours of music playback; up to 4 hours of slideshows with music; up to 3 hours of video playback."

The LCD screen never lit since I pressed play, and it only lasted for about 6 hours (1537, that's 3:37pm to 2140, that's 9:40pm). I don't know whether or not this is normal amongst most 5G iPodders but that's how it is with me. I'm trying to see if it's worth giving back to Apple to have them do something about it because battery life means a lot to me. As a jogger, I know that I would eat up more battery life since I would change songs a lot meaning that LCD will be lit a lot.

No, I didn't know that with Lithium Ion batteries I should have it fully drained after it's initial charge so I didn't do that.
 
20 hours tops will be attained with: No EQ, 60% volume, ~4 mins per song, 128kbps (due to caching), no LCD backlight, no shuffle, no repeat.

May be some more things I missed sadly.
 
I get about the same out of mine. The shuffle feature kills battery life compared to just listing to the songs in the order they are on the hard drive
 
A minor feature like shuffle reduces the battery life so much? Makes me feel even better that I'm cancelling my Nano order today.

Or does it only affect HDD-based models?
 
TheWanted_ said:
A minor feature like shuffle reduces the battery life so much? Makes me feel even better that I'm cancelling my Nano order today.

Or does it only affect HDD-based models?
Click to expand...


It shouldn't have as much impact on a nano compared to an HDD based ipod.
 
TheWanted_ said:
A minor feature like shuffle reduces the battery life so much? Makes me feel even better that I'm cancelling my Nano order today.

Or does it only affect HDD-based models?
Click to expand...

Only HDD Based models. To generalize, think about it, your songs are in order on the hard drive in the order you upload them. Most people upload them by album, and will listen to the album, so the Ipod stays in the same hard drive location. When you use the shuffle feature, you're telling the Ipod, "Each time you play a track, play one from a different location on the hard drive." This means the hard drive is constantly spinning up and down, and is not fully utilizing its cache.
 
TheWanted_ said:
A minor feature like shuffle reduces the battery life so much? Makes me feel even better that I'm cancelling my Nano order today.

Or does it only affect HDD-based models?
Click to expand...

All HDD-based DAP's would be affected the same way by a shuffle feature, not just iPods. Of course, I haven't tested this, but the logic is sound.
 
TheWanted_ said:
A minor feature like shuffle reduces the battery life so much? Makes me feel even better that I'm cancelling my Nano order today.

Or does it only affect HDD-based models?
Click to expand...

Yes, only the HDD based models. This is because on shuffle mode, the hard drive runs between each song while searching for the next one to be played. If on regular settings, the battery will last much longer because the HDD barely has to run. Everything is in order and plays without the HDD having to spin up each time. Its a big disk to spin on very little power so even 6 hours of this should still be considered excellent.

 
Ahhh ok. I understand, thanks guys.

I cancelled my order because the Apple Store in South Africa was taking so long to get stock (I've been waiting 5 weeks and they have already charged my credit card).
 
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