[rotorwrench]

That wasn't a straight hour. That was a cummlative estimate. I'm curious as to what Peter says, but my experience with Li-ion batteries on other devices has been that a solid straight hour of use will drain a battery more than several intermittent periods that total an hour. Especially on our tools at work. Maybe it's due to the battery's increased temp during longer drain periods.

[LeKeiser]

I'm curious to see what BG will say about your use of the PB
Note : I'm just worried I have a "weak" battery, that's why I am so picky

[rotorwrench]

Hey' I understand. On that note, when I downloaded BG, it said my battery "life" was 88%.
I don't know all the implications of that, but it doesn't sound healthy to me. I thought a good battery life on a PB that was around 6 months old should be above 90%. I shouldn't have downloaded it. I'd rather be in ignorant bliss

[LeKeiser]

Don't worry about the battery life. When I installed BG after a week of use of my PB, it said 81%. Now it's over 91%. I think it has to collect enough data to be more "accurate"

[Spencerdl]

OK here we go, ...for example, TODAY, Alarm went off at 6am, turned on some tunes (crawled out of bed), walked the dog (left PlayBook playing then put on standby drove to work, browsed CB, music at my desk, meeting (took notes), browse web sites (info center), showed co worker PlayBook, several emails during the day, set up appointments, went to app world a couple of times, posted on CB a couple of times.....so on and so on. My bridge (bluetooth enabled) and wifi on since six(6) AM battery level at 45% after 7 1/2 hrs (1:30 PM) ....get the picture....this is NORMAL usage for ME. My typical 8 hr day, I will still have some in the "tank" when I get home

[peter9477]

I'm curious as to what Peter says, but my experience with Li-ion batteries on other devices has been that a solid straight hour of use will drain a battery more than several intermittent periods that total an hour. Especially on our tools at work. Maybe it's due to the battery's increased temp during longer drain periods.

I suspect your tools at work run the battery at many times higher load than the PlayBook runs at, relative to the battery capacity. It could be partly temperature-related, but in any case I believe it's typical to see batteries "recover" somewhat after heavy load, but not immediately. That may make it appear as though the solid hour used more than a bunch of lower-load shorter bursts. I don't really know... but I've seen nothing yet that jumps out at me with the PlayBook to say that you get significantly more use from it if you use it in short bursts. If someone thinks they're seeing that, I'd want to see it proved in the raw data from Battery Guru...

... when I downloaded BG, it said my battery "life" was 88%.
I don't know all the implications of that, but it doesn't sound healthy to me. I thought a good battery life on a PB that was around 6 months old should be above 90%.

88% is pretty typical. New PlayBooks may report 100% in the first while, but it's a false report since new batteries really never have the nominal (labelled) capacity. Every new one I've handled dropped rapidly to the low 90s or high 80s after a few full discharges, and that's what you should expect.

My own wobble around between 88% and 94%, and I'm in the middle of a long-term experiment with recharge patterns where it appears you can control that. Doing fairly full discharges will drop it to the lower end, while recharging frequently (in my case cycling most in the 60% to 95% range) seems to "boost" the value to the higher end of that. It's too soon to say that's conclusive, and more importantly I have no reason yet to believe it's a "real" boost to anything, but is more likely just toying with the OS algorithm that calculates this.

[Fuzzballz]

the Bluetooth and WiFi and Bridge stuff uses so little in comparison to the screen itself that it shouldn't matter except with continuous heavy data transfer. It's the actual "screen on" time that matters for probably 95% of consumption.

This is very true. Wifi and bridge use a tiny amount of energy compared to the screen backlight. *As long as they're properly connected.* I've found that if I'm away from my BB or hotspot and the wireless connectivity is constantly searching, it will drain battery slightly faster than when it's connected. I don't know if it raises the antenna transmit power to try to get a signal or what.

[rotorwrench]

Don't worry about the battery life. When I installed BG after a week of use of my PB, it said 81%. Now it's over 91%. I think it has to collect enough data to be more "accurate"

That's good to know. Like I said, wasn't sure of the initial relevance of the reading.

[rotorwrench]

I suspect your tools at work run the battery at many times higher load than the PlayBook runs at, relative to the battery capacity. It could be partly temperature-related, but in any case I believe it's typical to see batteries "recover" somewhat after heavy load, but not immediately. That may make it appear as though the solid hour used more than a bunch of lower-load shorter bursts. I don't really know... but I've seen nothing yet that jumps out at me with the PlayBook to say that you get significantly more use from it if you use it in short bursts. If someone thinks they're seeing that, I'd want to see it proved in the raw data from Battery Guru...



88% is pretty typical. New PlayBooks may report 100% in the first while, but it's a false report since new batteries really never have the nominal (labelled) capacity. Every new one I've handled dropped rapidly to the low 90s or high 80s after a few full discharges, and that's what you should expect.

My own wobble around between 88% and 94%, and I'm in the middle of a long-term experiment with recharge patterns where it appears you can control that. Doing fairly full discharges will drop it to the lower end, while recharging frequently (in my case cycling most in the 60% to 95% range) seems to "boost" the value to the higher end of that. It's too soon to say that's conclusive, and more importantly I have no reason yet to believe it's a "real" boost to anything, but is more likely just toying with the OS algorithm that calculates this.

You're right, the tools I'm referring to are medium rpm torque drivers. And we do call that recovery time also, due to the heat build up. The chargers monitor the battery temp and won't start flowing current until the battery temp drops below a set threshold. I know not an equal comparison.

[rotorwrench]

Okay, here is a screenshot from today as promised. The conditions are thus: the PB was unplugged at 6:30, between then and around 10:00, wifi, bridge (BT), and calendar sync were on. During that same period, I had done some email, doc editing and calendar updates. I figure around an hour of actual PB use with screen up.

Around 10:00, as per post at that time, I downloaded BG and enabled it. BG showed the battery to be at 97% at that time. I intended to let it stay on standby until the end of work, but I had no choice but to respond to several calendar notifications and entries. Around 12:15 I had to upload a number of video clips and photos I had promised someone. Took around 20 or 30 minutes to get them all done, non-stop. You can see it on the graph. Then I put it back on standby as soon as I was through. From that point until around 22:15, I only checked notifications and entered a few calendar events, which synced. I was out of wifi and cell range for about 30min on my drive home. I took the screen shot about 22:15.

I will next try a normal work day, which usually equates to about three or four cumulative hours on the PB, and leaving me with around 45% by 18:00.

[rotorwrench]

Bump for LeKeiser and Peter.

[rotorwrench]

sorry but what's the point of having wifi AND bridge on but no BT?
or even bridge and wifi at the same time?


10% drain with wifi and BT all day, in standby? I'm sure I can't achieve the same thing with my PB...


seems that more users have a faster battery drain than you...
I have set my screen backlight at the minimum, I use wifi or BT only when needed, I read a few websites, maybe listen to a few songs, and by midday, I have about 40% left (9am-12am)

OK, as you requested, here is a screenshot from a medium workday. Conditions are as follows:
1-Unplugged at 6:45
2-wifi on
3-bridge on (BT on)
4-native calendar push sync
5-screen brightness around 60%for schematic viewing, 40% other times
6-45min drive to work, no wifi signal during and 20min no cell signal
7-8:00 at work and connected to network, started using PB
8- Around 10:00 some PB work, 98% after 4hrs , 1st screenshot
9- 10:00 until 17:48 doc work, browsing, file exchanges through network, pdf manual
reading, updating work orders, emails and calendar thru bridge, some Bach and
Fireflight running in the background. Due to having my hands full on a project, in an
attempt to work the battery hard like a busy day, I continued with music in the
background and started looping videos for around three hours.
10- 19:00 took screenshot. The last spike is around 18:00 and reflects video and music
running in background during a data file transfer.
11- .Last screenshot taken after 22:00 during a session of Modern Combat. Over 15hrs
and still at 48%.

Hope this helps

[LeKeiser]

Hello rotorwrench

I was waiting for your feedback of a day of use
You have your screen at 60% Wow! That's a lot. And your battery is yet not draining that fast at all... I have mine at minimum, and I lose more than you.
Did your PB go on pause during the day? Or not at all, with the videos playing?
Indeed you were really using your PB, average use of battery was around 40% most of the time, with a spike at 60. I'm impressed...
I'll try to use my PB today, and I'll post my feedback as well. For info, battery fully charged at 9h30am, bridge on, no wifi yet, read 2 emails in 20 mins, and 99% left

Again, thanx a lot for your feedback

[rotorwrench]

Hello rotorwrench

I was waiting for your feedback of a day of use
You have your screen at 60% Wow! That's a lot. And your battery is yet not draining that fast at all... I have mine at minimum, and I lose more than you.
Did your PB go on pause during the day? Or not at all, with the videos playing?
Indeed you were really using your PB, average use of battery was around 40% most of the time, with a spike at 60. I'm impressed...
I'll try to use my PB today, and I'll post my feedback as well. For info, battery fully charged at 9h30am, bridge on, no wifi yet, read 2 emails in 20 mins, and 99% left

Again, thanx a lot for your feedback

Sorry, I should have proofed the post, typo, 40% screen most of the time. I corrected it. 60% to 70% when looking service photos for work.