[jawnny]

Hi guys. I received my Playbook yesterday and want to test the battery.

1) The first thing I should do is drain the battery completely and recharge it?

2) What is the battery life on standby and on video?

3) What are some tests I can do to test if battery is defective or not?

Thanks!

[Reassure]

To track your battery usage over time, try Battery Guru:

Engenuity: PlayBook Apps

[peter9477]

Hi guys. I received my Playbook yesterday and want to test the battery.

1) The first thing I should do is drain the battery completely and recharge it?

2) What is the battery life on standby and on video?

3) What are some tests I can do to test if battery is defective or not?

Thanks "Reassure", for the plug!

Jawnny, it's not required at all to do a full drain and recharge, but it won't hurt either. It may help reset the calibration more quickly than if you don't, but that's not certain yet.

Battery life on standby should in general be over 10 days, though a number of people are reporting increased standby power consumption resulting in only a few days. Nobody knows yet the reason for that, whether it's defective hardware, OS bugs, or what. I think we're sort of waiting for 2.0, or at least more data, in the hopes that will answer some questions. I've got five PlayBooks at the moment, and all of them give numbers indicating >10 days of standby time.

To test out your battery, you might want to try the "drain test" sequence I described in this post: Battery health

I've written more about the PlayBook's battery usage here: PlayBook: Power Consumption

[jawnny]

Thanks alot guys! I'll check out those threads right after. I purchased 2 playbooks, with 1 being a gift. Is it possible to use the same BBID on both, so I'll only need to buy Battery Guru once?

[peter9477]

Yes, you can do that, but you may not like the results. You won't be able to use video chat between, for example, and there may be other complications. (For example, what happens if someone tries calling you... does it "ring" on both units? I haven't tested that myself.)

What I'd recommend you do instead is install Battery Guru on the one, using your own BBID, test things out for a few days, then do a security wipe and set it up for the other person with their own BBID. The recipient of the gift probably won't be as concerned about the battery as you are, and you can just let him/her know you did a thorough test and that they have a good unit.

I wonder if I should consider a time-limited free trial or something, to help people with that use case....

[ignites]

mine looses aroudn 2% overnight (9 hrs ish) on standby

[csdlaw]

I have had a playbook for about a month I left it sitting for 24 hours and battery was completely dead . I recharged it used it a bit and left it alone for another 24 hours
next day completely dead again. Is there something Im doing wrong ? did have it bridged to my phone and was on a wifi connection .

[Omahahaha]

I have had a playbook for about a month I left it sitting for 24 hours and battery was completely dead . I recharged it used it a bit and left it alone for another 24 hours
next day completely dead again. Is there something Im doing wrong ? did have it bridged to my phone and was on a wifi connection .

That is not normal. You may have to send it in for service.

[peter9477]

I have had a playbook for about a month I left it sitting for 24 hours and battery was completely dead . I recharged it used it a bit and left it alone for another 24 hours
next day completely dead again. Is there something Im doing wrong ? did have it bridged to my phone and was on a wifi connection .

Are you running the 2.0 beta?

Any chance you were using an app which tried to use GPS, even briefly, and which triggered the known bug which leaves GPS running, using extra power even in Standby? That problem would drain a 33% full battery in 24 hours.

Adding any other detail would provide some chance that someone could actually help you...

[cntrydncr223]

how come mine says "battery health 87%"?
any ideas welcome.
TIA

[peter9477]

A health of 87% is fairly typical for most people with batteries in their first year of use. The number is pretty fuzzy as its not a direct measurement of anything the way voltage is. It can change some depending on your pattern of use (but I have no guidelines yet on what type of use has a clear effect on it).

See notes at Battery Guru for a brief background on health and the other data reported by the OS and displayed in Battery Guru.

[danielcj]

There's no way my PB can last up to 10 days on standy. Is this only with bridge and wifi off? When it was new I would get 2-3 days but recently I'll see a drop from 60-30% to dead overnight. I downloaded Cut the Rope and have been playing maybe 30 min at a time. Some times I leave the game in the background when I put the pb on standy.
How difficult has it been to send it in to RIM for service? Turnaround time?

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[peter9477]

Many games will continue to suck significant power while the device is in Standby. All the latest ones from EA were like that, and I suspect many others built with similar tools do as well.

A typical PlayBook, fully charged, should last well over 10 days on standby, even with Bluetooth and WiFi on. To ensure it's not influenced by any of the existing bugs, you'd need to be running 1.0.8, and do a restart prior to testing it and don't run any apps. Some people seem to have issues with leaving WiFi on and it affecting power consumption, but in the general case it's harmless as it puts WiFi into a low-power mode which has little effect on battery life while in Standby.

The best test is the "drain test" mentioned above though. It should give a pretty accurate indication of true battery life, and if your standby life is inconsistent with that the fault lies with something else in your PlayBook and not the battery.

[danielcj]

Ya its going to be tough to leave the PB alone for 10days! Haha.

Might be a newly installed app since I've noticed this difference once installing Cut the Rope. Once I also left the camera app in the background and thought that might have been the culprit.
Usually though I just have the browser in the background and it wasn't an issue.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[peter9477]

Measuring in standby for even 24h should give a reasonably accurate estimate of how long it would last over 10 days.

Most apps will properly "freeze" when in Standby, the camera app included. I'm 99% sure all the RIM-supplied apps are okay.

It's only the recent native games that I've noticed doing that. So far that includes Bejeweled 2, Dead Space (? not sure), Sim City, and maybe a few others but I'm sure many of them are that way. I think it's the fault of whatever framework they used to build them.

[vjeet74]

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

[peter9477]

Losing 10-13% per hour in standby is not normal, though it's also not incredibly rare. See What's your power consumption overnight (8-10 hours) in standby?

Do you have Manual sync turned on for any mail accounts? If so, change that for now.

Also re-test after cycling the power, and without running any apps first (except perhaps Battery Guru, my app which can help you investigate these issues).

[vjeet74]

Losing 10-13% per hour in standby is not normal, though it's also not incredibly rare.

Firstly, thanks peter for replying. I lose 10-13% per hour when am using it on the wifi, i.e surfing. Last night after the 100% charge I used it for straight 2 and a half hours and the battery came down to 72% In those 2 and a half hours I surfed using the browser, used the facebook app and played solitaire.

Then I put the playbook on standby, with wifi and bluetooth off, and now after 8hrs of standby I have lost 3%

Still worried about the battery.

[Pearl9100]

Hi guys. I received my Playbook yesterday and want to test the battery.

1) The first thing I should do is drain the battery completely and recharge it?

2) What is the battery life on standby and on video?

3) What are some tests I can do to test if battery is defective or not?

Thanks!

Just and FYI, on any device, this is what you should do.

Enjoy.

[LeKeiser]

Just and FYI, on any device, this is what you should do.

Enjoy.

not with lithium battery, or you will kill it...

[Chaddface]

not with lithium battery, or you will kill it...

The PB will shut down before the battery gets too low. I have done it 10-15 times.

[Chaddface]

Firstly, thanks peter for replying. I lose 10-13% per hour when am using it on the wifi, i.e surfing. Last night after the 100% charge I used it for straight 2 and a half hours and the battery came down to 72% In those 2 and a half hours I surfed using the browser, used the facebook app and played solitaire.

Then I put the playbook on standby, with wifi and bluetooth off, and now after 8hrs of standby I have lost 3%

Still worried about the battery.

28% loss in 2 1/2 hours doesn't seem unusual judging from my experience with 2 PB's. That would mean you would get 7-8 hours of constant use.
Screen brightness is a big factor in battery drain so turn it down if you can.
If your losing 3% in 8 hours with wifi off your doing slightly better then me.

[LeKeiser]

The PB will shut down before the battery gets too low. I have done it 10-15 times.

it's not because you've done it 15 times that it's a good thing to do.
Lithium battery myths dispelled - BlackBerry Support Community Forums

Discharging a Lithium battery

Ther is no reason to discharge a Lithium battery, there is no memory like NiCad batteries had. There is a reason to discharge it once every 3 months so the charging circut is calibrated to show proper level on your device. Running a Lithium battery low all the time actually does harm it more than topping it off when when possible.

[Chaddface]

The first thing I should do is drain the battery completely and recharge it?

not with lithium battery, or you will kill it...

You will not KILL the battery by draining until auto shutdown. That is all.

Good or Bad is a different subject. Generally I don't think it's good to keep the battery at either extreme for extended periods(months/years).

[LeKeiser]

You will not KILL the battery by draining until auto shutdown. That is all.

you will damage it if you keep on doing the windshield wipers with it... But do what you want, it's your PB

Good or Bad is a different subject. Generally I don't think it's good to keep the battery at either extreme for extended periods(months/years).

if it's bad, then why doing it?
I charge mine when I can, I never let it go lower than 30% because I never know when I will have the opportunity to charge it again
let's charge it now btw