N800 Charging
 

Hi
I am thinking of buying a N800 and have a question.
I'm a little concerned about the 3hr battery, can the N800 be in use
while being charge?
The online manual state over charging can damage the battery.
Thanks.

Re: N800 Charging
 

I leave mine plugged in all day while I stream net radio and it doesnt cause any problems. I reckon the instructions are being overcautious.

Re: N800 Charging
 

I don't own one yet but like Gerry am thinking of getting one. The firmware upgrade indicated that it would have a better battery performance. have you tested that yet? How long is it now?

Re: N800 Charging
 

I've had my N800 for about 2 weeks and have been very impressed by the battery life. Obviously your mileage will vary depending on your particular usage patterns - what you are doing and how much time the screen is turned on (and the brightness). My guess is that the screen is the biggest power drain, so watching movies would be a good stress test, but since I don't care about movies it doesn't matter at all to me.

In my case I've left it on the table next to me running claws-email, skype, pidgin and the mozilla browser for a good part of the day, and most of the next day before needing a charge. During that time I browsed for and installed a few other programs and did occasional news reading online. And having skype and jabber conversations plus about 20-30 e-mails each day. So in my particular case right now I feel pretty comfortable replacing my notebook with the N800 on an overnight business trip without worrying about the battery.

There are three things I take with me on trips for "power management." The first two are not N800 specific:

1) spare battery with USB connectors for both charging and power output. I use these from APC, but there are others. They can power/recharge my cell phone, iPods, and other devices including my N800:

http://www.apc.com/resource/include/...base_sku=UPB10

2) a USB (output) charger. The one I like is called the musicPower Duet because it has two USB ports for charging two devices at once. Mostly I use this for recharging my phone and the APC battery (#1 above) overnight. I'm not sure who makes it because there's no manufacturer's name on the device, but here's a link to the WalMart web site with a good picture and cheap price:

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/produ...uct_id=5750794

3) Just yesterday I got a Nokia USB power cable in the mail. The Nokia part number is CA-100. It has a USB port on one end and the N800 power connector on the other end of a short wire. Besides letting me run the N800 off the APC battery when I need the extra power, it saves me the trouble of carrying the (stupid) N800 charger around. This little wire fits in the pocket of the case I got for my N800 (it's really a Nintendo DS lite case). The wire is about $20 at Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/B000QGF...pf_rd_i=507846


Hope that helps you decide. The N800 has been great for me.

Re: N800 Charging
 

I get great battery life, especially after the latest update. Probably 6 hours of continuous video playback or 10+ hours of continuous audio playback.

That's just a guess, since I've never tried to time it. I charge it at night, and it's pretty much good to go all day and evening.

I don't think you can overcharge it, since it stops charging when it's full. And, yes, you can use it while it's charging. Like Hybrid mentioned, screen brightness and speaker volume have a big effect on battery life, too.

Re: N800 Charging
 

These links are pretty helpful, thx as well LordFu. Am shortly going to place that order.

Re: N800 Charging
 

About the only thing you should be concerned about w.r.t. the battery is that you should try to avoid completely discharging the battery. That'll reduce the capacity and the lifetime. Some times it can't be helped, but regular deep-discharging is not good for Li-Ion batteries.

Re: N800 Charging
 

like most people have said you should be absolutely fine, i've often got mine on in the office propped up next to me whilst connected to the power outlet and no problems at all so far, the battery will often last days if you're using it sporadically as well, 3hrs is about right for bright screen, wifi, net browsing / application running though :) if you're new to the N800 the N800 wom world might be a good resource for you to have a look at to get your head round what can be pretty complicated bit of kit sometimes

Re: N800 Charging
 

Great post, hybrid. You mentioned that you just got the USB power cable for the N800 -- can you now confirm that this setup with the APC battery works for recharging the N800?

In a few weeks I am leaving on a 6 month overseas trip, and I like the power solution that you have outlined here.

I would use an international adapter on the AC to USB converter plug-in.

Thanks,
Travis

Re: N800 Charging
 

Yes, the Nokia CA-100 USB cable fits the N800 perfectly so no more carrying around the custom charger. And the APC batteries I mentioned above will put out up to 1.6A so they seem to have no problem charging the N800. I didn't have the opportunity to test how long it takes to recharge a mostly dead N800 from the battery, but I'm heading out on a trip right now so I'll try to post that info in a few days.

Something else I did before a recent trip to Europe and India was to replace my notebook charging brick with a APC charger, part number UPA9:

http://www.apc.com/resource/include/...?base_sku=UPA9

This will accept input from any 100-240V wall plug, car or airplane. It has special tips for most (any?) notebook computers, AND you can plug in up to 2 USB devices at the same time as your computer - just watch the maximum allowed power draw if you have a large notebook.

Another power item I took along was a small surge protector from APC:

http://www.apc.com/resource/include/...sku=PNOTEPROC8

Have a good trip Travis.