[q649]

I suspect it's not great, but it would be interesting if someone could indicate how long the battery lasts, likely best case right now would be "PlayBook" like.

[jstarett]

Actually battery life should be pretty great since there is absolutely nothing running. IMO at least!

[GMoore7]

That's a tough question to answer for a couple of reasons:

The device doesn't do anything except take pictures and browse the web, which would make comparing this device to the playbook a bit difficult.

This device basically has the parts of a playbook smashed into a smaller space, meaning the battery size probably suffered quite a bit (the playbook's battery was about the size of this entire BB10 device).

I would hazard a guess that the battery won't last nearly as long on the BB10 Alpha device as it would on the Playbook as its unlikely that the BB10 software was optimized in any way (that definitely shows when using the device), but it's tough to compare without using the two devices in exactly the same ways.

[Bla1ze]

It's horribly dreadful, no matter how you twist it. It's bad -- but it doesn't matter. 90% of the time it should be connected to your computer anyway, it's a dev device.

[312]

Yes, it is horrible because there are no power management APIs on it yet.

[q649]

It's horribly dreadful, no matter how you twist it. It's bad -- but it doesn't matter. 90% of the time it should be connected to your computer anyway, it's a dev device.

The worry that I have is that RIM is going to have a difficult time delivering a balance between performance and battery life. RIM appears to be critically dependent on new (unreleased) cpu/gpu chipsets to bridge the gap.

Still find it amazing that no one has been able to confirm what cpu/gpu chipset is in the dev alpha.

[xsacha]

The worry that I have is that RIM is going to have a difficult time delivering a balance between performance and battery life. RIM appears to be critically dependent on new (unreleased) cpu/gpu chipsets to bridge the gap.

It's a developer device. It is designed to be as cheap as possible and it's designed to be plugged in to a computer 24/7. It has a very weak ~1400mah battery with a low-cost battery controller (it doesn't even have very accurate battery stats).
The final device will have a larger battery with a standard power manager controller that is able to scale the output efficiently when desired.

The final devices being released are using the latest components, known for their low-power usage (28nm anyone?).

Still find it amazing that no one has been able to confirm what cpu/gpu chipset is in the dev alpha.

Really? I've been saying the Colt (aka Dev Alpha) has an OMAP4460 SoC for months. That is a dual-core 1.5GHz Cortex-A9 with a PowerVR SGX540. You can find references to this in the Playbook firmware dating back from June 2011 through to the latest firmware. I can even tell you the parts for the accelerometer, sensors and other components (just by looking at the firmware image ).
Many of the threads in this forum state the same thing.

[ignites]

mine is crap mine was filled to the brim this morning and is already at 50% after 1 hr of use and standby

[q649]

It's a developer device. It is designed to be as cheap as possible and it's designed to be plugged in to a computer 24/7. It has a very weak ~1400mah battery with a low-cost battery controller (it doesn't even have very accurate battery stats).
The final device will have a larger battery with a standard power manager controller that is able to scale the output efficiently when desired.

The final devices being released are using the latest components, known for their low-power usage (28nm anyone?).


Really? I've been saying the Colt (aka Dev Alpha) has an OMAP4460 SoC for months. That is a dual-core 1.5GHz Cortex-A9 with a PowerVR SGX540. You can find references to this in the Playbook firmware dating back from June 2011 through to the latest firmware. I can even tell you the parts for the accelerometer, sensors and other components (just by looking at the firmware image ).
Many of the threads in this forum state the same thing.

Thanks xsacha, I've been reading some of your posts over the last few minutes. I may just have to keep an eye on you ;^).

[SCrid2000]

My battery life hasn't been too bad since I topped it off this morning. Not a full day by any means, but I got close to 7 hours out of it.

[q649]

My battery life hasn't been too bad since I topped it off this morning. Not a full day by any means, but I got close to 7 hours out of it.

How would you classify your usage? I can only assume it was light.

[SCrid2000]

Moderate. I was only using the atnt network at the time, maybe wifi is rough in the battery.

[anon973381]

I also have a Dev Alpha and have access to a second unit from another developer and have found that my device starting with serial number 0702- is simply horrid on battery even after several wipes (now without any applications as well) whereas his unit has amazing battery life with a serial number starting with 0701-.

The radio code on mine shows "10.04.187" whereas his shows "10.04.187 (1)".

My device shows no "Phone Numbers" on the SIM Info page whereas his does. My SIM also often displays an exclamation and has yet to actually work for me even when it does decide to show signal after sitting for an hour of so whereas his unit seems to just work, all the time.

Can we start to trend differences between device issues? There may be a flawed batch?!? My device has clearly been opened again by the markings on the lower bezel and around the bottom of the screws on the speaker grill.

EDIT: Well, today it now shows "10.04.187 (1)" for the radio version oddly enough and data is working. Keep in mind I have wiped the unit 4 times and have ran the device dead countless times. Many, many reboots and this has never changed, until today. The "Phone Numbers" field is also not present as another device has displayed.

EDIT EDIT: Until I rebooted after a suspend and screen orientation change caused the touchscreen to refuse input. That is repeatable on my unit but oddly not on the other. Now the SIM is no longer recognized... For now... There is something different about my unit and his.

[demon_xxi]

I also have a Dev Alpha and have access to a second unit from another developer and have found that my device starting with serial number 0702- is simply horrid on battery even after several wipes (now without any applications as well) whereas his unit has amazing battery life with a serial number starting with 0701-.

I double this. Mine on 0702 and I need to charge it every time I want to use. It dies in couple hrs easily without any use.

[ignites]

mine keeps my bag warm when its on standby (not running) haha so its doing something even with the apps not running...

[peter9477]

I was just going to experiment with whether the Android player was responsible for a chunk of the regular suckage.

I connected via SSH to monitor its status, then started loading up apps to drain memory down.

After getting 6-7 loaded, I suddenly noticed the back of it, halfway between the camera/flash and the logo, was getting *quite* hot. I know when a chip is too hot, and this was burning up, to get that hot that quickly. (If I'd touched that area of the case with my lips, it would have hurt, if you want to calibrate that statement.)

I reset (power+vol up/down for 10s) quickly and restarted... I'll explore more. Just wanted to warn people.

[peter9477]

Anyway, nuking the Android player by overloading memory did not affect the power consumption. Still sucking something like half a watt in standby. Maybe that just means the CPU speed control is entirely absent... I should check into that.