Poll: Battery Life Target

[pupnik]

What realistic battery life do you need out of a high-performance box like Pandora?

Remember, it's not some low-end phone CPU/GPU.

 

[gaterooze]

4 as an absolute minimum, preferably 5-6.

 

[Tobriand]

I still think that it has to be able to use at least the media playback functions (possibly not including H264, or ultra-high res/bitrate videos) for ~7-10 hours as originally promised.

I wouldn't object if really high-end games or emulators (N64 springs to mind) ended up at closer to 4-5 hours, though. They are, after all, using a LOT of the features available to them.

Thing is, I'm a fan of the swap-in-swap-out nature of AAs. Unless the battery is, therefore, a very common lithium one which is easy to switch around, I need it to provide a LOT of play-time for everyday tasks. I'll get it regardless, of course, but I'll be miffed with it dying on me suddenly on a long trip.

 

[pupnik]

Thing is, I'm a fan of the swap-in-swap-out nature of AAs.

I am too, but the device packs so many features into a pocket-size, there's no room. A large, standard cell-phone lithium will be cheap to replace and give good life.

If i am out and about during my day, 4-5 would be my optimistic target.

Software designers will need to look into the dynamic clocking, and make sure their apps aren't sitting around doing useless loops when idle. The OMAP3430 has advanced power management and dynamic clocking, so making use of that - as well as sleep states, will help a lot.

 

[Exophase]

3-4 seems realistic. I'll be pretty disappointed if for some reason it can't play while charged. A nice side effect of this is that you can use external batteries. I can easily imagine clipping a large one to the bottom of the unit and plugging it in the back.

 

[yodaofborg]

3-4 seems realistic. I'll be pretty disappointed if for some reason it can't play while charged. A nice side effect of this is that you can use external batteries. I can easily imagine clipping a large one to the bottom of the unit and plugging it in the back.

Heh, that would be a nice addon. Especially if it does not reboot when a new power source is added to the dc input.

I guess I would be happy with the 4-5 hours I currently get from my GP2X. Of course, applications that use more power would drain it a bit faster, and apps that could be underclocked would last a while longer.

 

[chris_r]

Even though this uses a lithion ion battery as far as I remember I would like it under an easily removable panel unlike the ds which is screwed in, so that when one of the batteries runs out you can switch it out.

As for life, I think 4-5 hours would be good, possibly less but only as long as the battery is switchable.

 

[b._.o._.b]

I think more important than the battery life is a timely warning (chose 2-3 hours). Most games and programs have save abilities.
Would be nice to be able to replace batteries for longer trips.

 

[fusion_power]

+5 hours minimum! At least for Musik. Because it's an device of the 21. Century, it should be able to use efficient Power Management. So I hope we can hear Music with less than the Standard 600MHz.
20 Hours for Music with LCD lights off should be possible.
Gaming of course is another story. (The GFX Processor has over 1.6GHz, ED sayed. h34r: )

 

[prairiefire]

I think more important than the battery life is a timely warning (chose 2-3 hours). Most games and programs have save abilities.
Would be nice to be able to replace batteries for longer trips.

definitely need the timely warning. been caught out too many times on my gp2x

 

[chris_r]

I'm guessing a warning will be better on the panda because the batterys are all the same. I think the reason the warnings on the gp2x are so hit and miss are because of the slight differences in AA makes and the such.

 

[imec]

7 OWAS! for music and videos. At least four for gaming and WiFi. But maybe that's unrealistic.

 

[dewc]

I personally do not mind a higher capacity battery option that bulges out a bit for those who don't mind it and a slimmer battery for those who don't mind a shorter battery life. Seeing as the how the current revision of the PSP can do 8-10 hours on the old battery with bulge, I don't see why the Pandora can't do 5+ hours. Also, while no where as powerful, but mp3 player can do 5 hours of video playback per charge and it is quite small.

 

[whiskthecat]

The GFX Processor has over 1.6GHz, ED sayed. h34r:

What? :huh: When did he say that?

 

[Squidge]

Battery level shouldn't be difficult as just the voltage could be checked. Just make it better than the one in the DS where it goes "Battery is fine, fine, fine. Battery is FLAT!". Never know when you need the charge the thing.

 

[sparr]

The battery needs to be easily removable, so I can swap them out on long trips. I am happy with 3-5 hours on AAs for the GP2X because I can and do carry 16+ charged AAs with me on trips.

 

[Series-8]

3 Things:

#1. Unit must be able to charge in ANY state from a Standard 5 Volt 0.5 Amp DC (Universal Serial Bus) Power source. The connector should ideally be a Mini Or Micro USB port (using the device storage access port makes sense)
-Also good tolerance for 4-6 Volts makes sense here (Many Li-Poly battery / Adapters output higher than spec. voltages)

#2. Accurate (to the minute) Internal Cell status, Not a 78% left message. Say 3H 53M type indication, at current power usage and known battery charge / age.


#3. a 'Standard' (Ha Ha) Lithium Ion Polymer Cell in a plastic housing, with internal under/over charge cutoff. Capacity appropriate for 4 Hour at 80% power usage. (and By standard: compatibility with commonly available after market Li-Poly cell packs)

#4. Standard Li-Poly cell has a external charger station as an extra option.

 

[teggun]

#2. Accurate (to the minute) Internal Cell status, Not a 78% left message. Say 3H 53M type indication, at current power usage and known battery charge / age.

Is it possible to measure battery power that accurately?

Actually it can't be, if you change how you're using it, there's no way to predict the battery life in minutes... (ie. PSX emu might take twice as much power as mp3 playback with the screen off..)

 

[Series-8]

Indeed it CAN be that accurate, it measures the current draw of power against the known good capacity of the battery (factoring in losses and battery age).

current mAh draw / capacity mAh = battery lifetime.

The calculations would also take into consideration CPU temperature, battery temperature, and if the cell is below normal capacity or old.

 

[teggun]

Yeah but it could work at the current time left on the battery at the current state the system is in. But if you change that, (eg. up the number of CPU cycles, turn on the wifi etc. etc.) the battery life will change, hence you'll go from 3 hours 58 to 1 hour 25 and then it might go back up to 2 hours 10 if you change what you're doing etc. etc.