1. tiberius maximus's Avatar
    can people share their usage (light = wifi enabled with browser use or wifi off and gaming or playing video/music to heavy = bluetooth and active bridge and wifi with multi tasking) and typical drain on their playbook battery life in percentage based on hours of use at indicated usage levels?

    i thought i was supposed to get a solid 7-8 hrs of medium to heavy use but i am seeing about 20% drain per hour sometimes more with medium usage = only 4-5 hrs of light to medium usage.

    not sure if i have a battery issue as i feel i must charge my PB when ever i can to ensure it will have enough charge for a full day of use.
    02-13-12 11:54 PM
  2. swyost's Avatar
    With infrequent use during the course of the day, but with WIFI on all day, I will lose less than 5 percent charge. With light to moderate use, it is still usually around 90 percent or better in the evening. Based upon my experience my tablet would get 8 to 10 hours off a full charge. My screen is set to low and the dim and backlight settings are 30 seconds or less....
    Last edited by swyost; 02-14-12 at 12:02 AM.
    Skotp likes this.
    02-14-12 12:00 AM
  3. kennyliu's Avatar
    That depends on many things: how bright you set your screen, what sites you visit (much javascript and flsh content), what games you play, etc.

    But you should get about 6-8 hours of web surfing, 4-6 hours of HD video, tens of hours listening to musing through headphones, etc.

    There is an article by Peter (developer of Battery Guru) somewhere (I have to find the link to it) that provides a rather detailed account of battery consumption on the Playbook.

    Edit: Here you are:

    PlayBook: Power Consumption
    Last edited by kennyliu; 02-14-12 at 12:06 AM.
    peter9477 likes this.
    02-14-12 12:00 AM
  4. Chaddface's Avatar
    20% an hour seems awful high. By your definition the last 6 hours at work I would be a heavy user. No wifi but using bridge for internet with the screen on(biggest drain)and listening to slacker. I lost 55% over 6 hours. About 10% an hour.
    As reported by the battery guru app(which I recommend to you) I averaged about 3w over that 6 hours. I have managed to get to 4w with a game but it wasn't consistent. So even if you were consuming 4w It shouldn't drain twice as fast as mine. At least I don't think it would.
    Get the app and report your findings.
    peter9477 likes this.
    02-14-12 12:11 AM
  5. rotorwrench's Avatar
    My work PB gets a pretty hard workout on some days, bridge, showcase mode and wifi always on, some browsing, a lot of docs, written and read, pics, pdf manuals, emails and wireless transfers. On those days by 6:00, I'm usually somewhere around 40%. I've had heavy days where I also do a lot of video of procedures and have gotten as low as 20%. On light days I'm usually around 60 to 70%. Varies by use.
    02-14-12 12:29 AM
  6. BlendIcier's Avatar
    8-10 hours for just about every way I have used it. I set brightness to minimum, use wifi sometimes bluetooth kb&mouse, web browsing or ebook reading. Infrequently used for music or movies due to syncing bothers.
    peter9477 likes this.
    02-14-12 12:54 AM
  7. rmah's Avatar
    It's probably a screen brightness thing. Like BlendIcier I have mine on the minimum as well and get 8-10 hours. It may be closer to 7 if I do heavy stuff (i.e. gaming or running several apps at once/showcase mode) but that hasn't been the case, at least not for a whole charge. On the other hand it might push closer to 11 if I were to just, say, read an ebook (6-7mins/1%), but again I've never really done one thing for a whole charge.
    peter9477 likes this.
    02-14-12 01:06 AM
  8. byul's Avatar
    i don't have an idea how long my battery will last lol, but sure it does last quite some time.
    since i don't have kept eye on it because i didn't need to worry anytime soon.
    but i will be looking out for it, i'm sure i have set my pb all up to manage the battery life better.
    02-14-12 01:18 AM
  9. PBfanatic's Avatar
    lcd brightness adjust automatically depending on the lighting on your area, so I set my playbook to 0% screen brightness and sometimes 50%, Usually my wifi is Off, I only On my wifi when I need to check my Facebook or Crackberry, update apps, buy apps and wifi sharing. I always get 12 to 15 hours of battery life for normal usage. But first OS version for playbook is the best because I can get as much as 20 hours in my battery with 1% battery drop every 2 hours.
    02-14-12 03:30 AM
  10. LeKeiser's Avatar
    Hello,

    Have there been reports about faulty batteries by the way?
    Mine seems to drain quite fast actually, I can last a day at max, with bridge mode, no wifi, almost no videos...
    Is bluetooth very demanding?
    02-14-12 04:13 AM
  11. dan-o-mite's Avatar
    I just installed battery guru because what i've read here seems to indicate my battery doesn't work as well as it should (browsing crackberry forums, crackberry app + bridge bbm open, screen @ lower 3rd of slide bar & I've lost 4% in the last 20 mins w/bridge & wifi active). Batt Guru says my battery health is 87%, can anyone help me with what that means?
    02-14-12 06:03 AM
  12. Chaddface's Avatar
    In the app swipe down from the top and click on the link. There is a lot of useful information in there. In my experience 4% in 20 minutes is possible. The percentage is not an exact measurement. I have even seen mine go up a percent off the charger.
    dan-o-mite likes this.
    02-14-12 07:51 AM
  13. peter9477's Avatar
    ... I always get 12 to 15 hours of battery life for normal usage. But first OS version for playbook is the best because I can get as much as 20 hours in my battery with 1% battery drop every 2 hours.
    Note that at the upper end of these ranges you could manage that only if the screen is off for part of the time. (Unless you've got new hardware which manages to improve the screen power usage; we have no strong evidence, however, that any such exist.)

    Even assuming a 19.98Wh battery (which is the nominal value, but in practice we all have more like 90% of that), 20 hours would mean 1.0W consumption for the entire time. That's simply not possible with the screen on, since the screen alone (even with 0% brightness and a dark room) takes over 1.3W.

    I just don't want anyone to compare their own results with the above claims and believe they're not getting as much life from the battery as they should.

    Typical numbers depend a lot on the brightness level and ambient lighting, and usually to a lesser extent on what you're actually doing (e.g. gaming, surfing, camera, just reading). Most will probably find they get between 7 and 10 hours from continuous but non-extreme use.
    kennyliu and Wasp14 like this.
    02-14-12 11:38 AM
  14. Scotter75's Avatar
    I have streamed music for over 12 hours and still had juice left. However if you are a heavy user, wifi, surfing,book reading at night with the screen brightness turned up and playing a few games in between, it can run down in about 8 hours.
    02-14-12 12:35 PM
  15. zzbsb's Avatar
    I think I can only get probably 5 to 6 hours for just Internet browsing and checking emails with bridge on. Maybe the battery on mine is defective?
    02-14-12 12:58 PM
  16. ralfyguy's Avatar
    I think I can only get probably 5 to 6 hours for just Internet browsing and checking emails with bridge on. Maybe the battery on mine is defective?
    Mine is the same way.
    02-14-12 01:21 PM
  17. peter9477's Avatar
    zzbsb, it's unlikely yours is defective. Almost no one has had trouble with batteries yet, aside from some few who had devices that basically wouldn't even hold a charge.

    Surfing actually takes a fair bit if you're pretty active, "travel" quickly, and/or are on sites with lots of crappy Flash. If you don't have your brightness turned way down, hitting 3W is easy, and 3W continuously means 6h total life.
    LeKeiser likes this.
    02-14-12 01:23 PM
  18. vjeet74's Avatar
    Hello,

    New playbook user and a new crackberry member.

    I bought my playbook two days back its a 16gb and running the OS 2. I am a little concerned about my battery. I am a moderate user. I switch off the wifi and put it on standby when am not using. Never Do I keep any apps running in the background.

    Yesterday I full charged it at 5pm and had to charge it again the next day I.e today at 6.45pm when the battery was at 1% during these 25 hrs I have just used for say 5-6 hrs. Mainly I've surfed, visited the app store, 15 mins of video and 10 mins of music. The screen brightness is at 40% backlight is set at 2mins.

    Today after charging it 100% I have just created my crackberry account and typed this post, it's been 40 mins since full charge and the battery now is at 92%

    On an average i lose 10-13 % per hour. Last night i put it on standby with wifi and bluetooth off from 8hrs and it lost 5%

    Is this normal or something wrong with my playbook?

    Help is appreciated.

    Thanks
    04-05-12 01:43 PM
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