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linickx's Avatar
Posts: 32 | Thanked: 2 times | Joined on May 2007
#1
Hi All,
I just got my n800 this week and have been busy reading and installing stuff to get it "just so".

One of my concerns is the battery performance, and just wondered if others could post their experience's.

It took me a day to find "offline mode" and I found that with a continuous wifi connection (adhoc mode, if that makes a difference) installing and playing with apps I only got a little over 1hrs usage (quiet disappointing).

I found "offline mode" and now I get the battery meter reporting 6hr (much better) and was able to quiet easily watch a 1hr video in mplayer and the meter only dropped a little.

I've read posts on hear of people streaming mp3s, but surely they only can do that for a short period of time? How are others using their n800, online/offline like me or tethered to a power-supply, or perhaps I need a pocket full of batteries?

If you could suggest some advise, I'd appreciate it
Cheers,
Nick
 
Karel Jansens's Avatar
Posts: 3,220 | Thanked: 326 times | Joined on Oct 2005 @ "Almost there!" (Monte Christo, Count of)
#2
Originally Posted by linickx View Post
Hi All,
I just got my n800 this week and have been busy reading and installing stuff to get it "just so".

One of my concerns is the battery performance, and just wondered if others could post their experience's.

It took me a day to find "offline mode" and I found that with a continuous wifi connection (adhoc mode, if that makes a difference) installing and playing with apps I only got a little over 1hrs usage (quiet disappointing).

I found "offline mode" and now I get the battery meter reporting 6hr (much better) and was able to quiet easily watch a 1hr video in mplayer and the meter only dropped a little.

I've read posts on hear of people streaming mp3s, but surely they only can do that for a short period of time? How are others using their n800, online/offline like me or tethered to a power-supply, or perhaps I need a pocket full of batteries?

If you could suggest some advise, I'd appreciate it
Cheers,
Nick
First off, the N800's battery gauge isn't the most precise measuring instument in the world (actually, most of the time it appears to just guess wildly).

Secondly, did your N800 really die after one hour of WiFi? I usually get two, maybe close to three hours' worth of wireless surfing from a full charge.

Offline ebook-reading (with the screen brightness turned down a couple of notches) gives me six hours or more. Video watching is between two and three hours, depending on whether I use headphones. I've never timed music (with screen turned off), but four hours playing (not streaming, headphones on) during a walk didn't deplete the battery.

For me, streaming internet radio is the biggest battery killer. I never do it without a 4 AA charger hooked up to my N800.
 

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linickx's Avatar
Posts: 32 | Thanked: 2 times | Joined on May 2007
#3
thanks for the feedback.

I have in-fact been relying on the battery gauge, and when it has been hitting <1hr I've felt the need to jack in the power. (worried about an n800 equivalent of an FSCK happening)

Upto 3hrs wifi sounds very promising, I think I might run a full charge overnight, and then time how long the batter lasts tomorrow

What's the 4AA charger ? Can I use "any" nokia add-ons ? The pin on the n800 charger is smaller than all my other phone (nokia 6230) ones, is this new pin n800 specific or do some of the newer phones have it ?
 
Posts: 10 | Thanked: 1 time | Joined on Apr 2007 @ NY
#4
Karl you mention a 4 AA charger is this something that can be bought somewhere? Or did you make it yourself?
 
Posts: 71 | Thanked: 4 times | Joined on May 2007
#5
it might take a couple of charge and drain cycles before your battery works as it should.

on my N800, i get fairly decent performance. I haven't measured it but I get atleast 3-4 hours of light surfing in. my use is not continuous though.

how much surfing can you do before your eyes start to hurt anyway?
 
Posts: 373 | Thanked: 56 times | Joined on Dec 2005 @ Ottawa, ON
#6
My experience lines up pretty closely with Karel's.

A couple things to consider to extend your battery life:
1) Some apps keep your tablet busy all the time and won't allow the builtin power saving to work well. For example, I have heard the omweather will keep your CPU and wifi going constantly if you set it to update every 0 seconds. This is usually interpreted as do not update but omweather just polls as fast as it can instead. They may have fixed now that but these sorts of things you have to watch out for.

2) Quick screen blanking can make a big difference. Getting into the habit of instantly turning off and on your screen with a power-button/middle direction pad button combo will save those precious Watt-hours. Also setting the LCD dimmer and power off timer to something low will help with the side effect of having to tap the screen once and a while when reading something long.

I have gotten into the habit of plugging in my N800 every night when I go to bed and I have *rarely* used it enough to drain the battery.
 
linickx's Avatar
Posts: 32 | Thanked: 2 times | Joined on May 2007
#7
Originally Posted by mwiktowy View Post
I have gotten into the habit of plugging in my N800 every night when I go to bed
thanks, I think this is going to be very practical advise
 
Posts: 309 | Thanked: 51 times | Joined on Apr 2007
#8
Don't be afraid of a fsck: the N800 will neatly shutdown before the battery is completely empty.

Another tip: I don't use autolock, but my screen dims quickly. A short tap to the menu button and it is there again.

To lock the screen, a short tap to the power button and confirm the dialogue box.

With light use and constant running, I get an uptime of 3 days and more. I also don't shut down for charging.
 
Posts: 78 | Thanked: 2 times | Joined on May 2007 @ Toronto
#9
My battery life is about 4 hours before it will run out of continuous playing around.

I bring in my adapter to work, but after a full charge overnight, I find I can leave it there on my desk with messengers running and it's good to go.

The first thing I did to ensure my battery wouldn't run out in a very fast amount of time was to turn off my bluetooth... As from my experience in working for a cell phone company in the past I know this actually drains the battery.

Basically, don't run anything that you don't need to... I think the battery life on the N800 is more than fair, it's not the greatest but for a portable device it's more than satisfactory.
 
Karel Jansens's Avatar
Posts: 3,220 | Thanked: 326 times | Joined on Oct 2005 @ "Almost there!" (Monte Christo, Count of)
#10
Originally Posted by linickx View Post
thanks for the feedback.

I have in-fact been relying on the battery gauge, and when it has been hitting <1hr I've felt the need to jack in the power. (worried about an n800 equivalent of an FSCK happening)
Don't worry about that. While the N800's battery gauge is crap, its general power management is rather nifty. It will always close up shop neatly, even if you yank out the battery (which is in fact a recommended procedure to cure a "hung" N800)

Upto 3hrs wifi sounds very promising, I think I might run a full charge overnight, and then time how long the batter lasts tomorrow

What's the 4AA charger ? Can I use "any" nokia add-ons ? The pin on the n800 charger is smaller than all my other phone (nokia 6230) ones, is this new pin n800 specific or do some of the newer phones have it ?
I bought a charger for my Archos PMA430 here (http://www.pjbox.co.uk/Archos%20Accessories.htm). It's at about 1/3 of the page (search for "Auxiliary battery back up pack"). It came with 4 AA 2500mAh rechargeables and allthough the connector tip is too large for the N800, the old-Nokia-to-new-Nokia adapter will fit on it. When plugged in, it more than doubles the battery life of my N800 and alternatively I can at least charge its battery once with a set of AAs.

Having to lug around an extra box might sound as a hassle, but it's a lot less of a hassle than having to lug around an N800 with an empty battery. Still, the N800 has pretty good battery autonomy; I use the box only when listening to Internet radio in the garden or on long flights with crappy in-flight movies (and aren't they all these days? Show me an airline that has the audacity to program "Twelve Angry Men". I dare you)
 
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