T3 Battery questions

[WVOz1970]

OK, so now that the T5 is announced and the price is dropping on the T3, I'm thinking about buying a T3 to replace my Clie NX80. I hear all these stories of how bad the battery performance is on the T3 and am wondering what to expect.

I do a lot of business travel and find that I use my Clie on the plane more for entertainment than anything. I'll usually load a memory stick full of MP3s and maybe play a few games to pass the flight. I'll also plug in my WiFi card if the airport has access and check mail, etc. I'm actually looking forward to switching to a bluetooth device since I now use a BT enabled phone and will be able to get coverage in a lot more places than just where there's WiFi. anyhow...

I find that if I have a "Power use" day like above, the Clie will probably do good to get about 5 or 6 hours of heavy use before needing a recharge. I'm used to recharging my PDA every day, so I guess I'm not too put out when I hear people say "4 hours of life when the screen's fully lit" and the like. So what's your take, T3 owners? How good or bad do you find the battery life in "real world" usage? If there's one thing I've learned... Palm and Sony both have outrageous claims to battery life in their manuals. They assume the average PDA user turns on their unit for maybe 5 - 10 minutes TOTAL in one day.

Thanks for your input!

[Vidge]

I get about 3 - 4 hours of usage on my T3 before the battery dies. I use the Palm Power to Go sled when I know I'm going to be away from a power outlet for any significant amount of time (which doesn't happen too often).

[bobbd]

My experience is about the same - 3-4 hours usage. Obviously it depends on what you're doing. If you're playing a game that heavily uses the screen, it may be 2 1/2 -3. If you're using text based applications like Agendus, 3 1/2 - 4. I bought a battery loaded charger on eBay for under $20 including shipping. I load 4 lithium AAs and it will give me 3-4 charges on the road.

Bob

[stevejohnson460]

Ditto on the 3 to 4 hours.

I also have a cranky, unidentified app that will not let the T3 enter the sleep cycle, either. It's REALLY frustrating to find it turned "on" in your pocket, down to 38% battery left. The stock "keylock" feature in Palm's "Prefs" folder is an easy, inexpensive ("free") workaround.

That said, I migrated from a Clie NX70V, and have been pleased with screen (brighter, except in direct sunlight), memory (acres!), SD card (small, ubiquitous), and nice navigation buttons. Best of all: it's small on the outside, huge on the inside.

What do I miss? The NX70V's clamshell (though the T3's included cover is really not bad), the camera, and a bit of "Clie Cachet." Palm is definitely a business machine.

[Cliefanatic]

Anybody know how the battery life compares to a Clie T615C? It is hard to imagine anything worse.

[etexlady]

Well, gee, my T3's battery life is much worse than 3-4 hours. I play a solitaire game and it's warning me after about 30 minutes. I'm wondering if the thing just doesn't hold the charge? I also have problems with the digitizer and get a fatal alert after every alarm. Maybe it's time to take it back to Best Buy?

[rickmelton01]

Take it back!!!
Check my site for affordable travel chargers for the T3.
pdapowered.com (http://www.pdapowered.com)

Rick

[yorrick]

I have a T615C and T3! Wow - what luck! :)
The battery life is comparable in duration, but given the higher power loading the T3 imposes on the battery compared to a T615C, that is almost expected!

Some solutions to get around the battery life of the T3:
1) Get a powersled ("Power to Go") http://store.palmone.com/product/index.jsp?productId=1310686
This will give 2 1/2 full charges on the T3 and can hotsync/recharge in series with the T3. This will increase the thickness of the T3 (nicer to hold for long periods of time) and the height is the same as a retracted T3.

2) Get a battery recharger.
Basically, a battery case with a universal connector.

Or you can use both in tandem, then it will give you an insane amount of recharge/endurance power on the T3 without having to hotsync or be near a USB port!

[Phaggard]

One thing that I have noticed on my T5 is battery off time. If I don't put my T3 on the charger at night it will be dead the next morning. The T5 is still at 100% or wherever it was when I turned it off.

[tanker_bob]

I get 4 hours (tested) under normal use with my T3. For long airline flights or whenever power will be hard to find, I picked up a $6 charger on eBay that uses 4-AA batteries. I can get those batteries anywhere and they last through about 3-4 charges depending on how low the T3 battery is at the start.

[alexasha]

I get 4 hours (tested) under normal use with my T3. For long airline flights or whenever power will be hard to find, I picked up a $6 charger on eBay that uses 4-AA batteries. I can get those batteries anywhere and they last through about 3-4 charges depending on how low the T3 battery is at the start.


Which one did you get?

[tanker_bob]

It is a generic with no name on it. There are a bunch on eBay now. Here's (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=48663&item=5727230516&rd=1) a link to an identical one at the same price. No frills, but it has an on/off switch to preserve the batteries and works great even after a year of use and being banged around in my briefcase. Can't beat the price.

[Wyspa]

Does anyone have any experience underclocking their T3 and can they say by how much its possible to extend battery life?

Thx

[tanker_bob]

I use PXAClocker to underclock a number of apps and overclock a couple, but I don't change the overall system default. Underclocking apps helps some, but it depends on how much time you spend in those apps vs. others. My overall guess would be that you could save around 5-10% during average use with your most-used apps significantly underclocked (200MHz or less), but that's just a guess. You could maybe save significantly more if you underclock the entire system, but I don't want to give up the performance.

The screen's power draw dwarfs everything else, so you can't expect a huge increase in battery life just through underclocking. Going from max to minimum screen brightness can about double the battery life of most good 16-bit color PDAs in my experience. Handhelds whose screens hardly change from max to min brightness won't get nearly that increase.

[zenlon]

As a general reference site on batteries, this one is good and will tell you more than you care to know about almost any battery and its usage.

Battery University (http://www.batteryuniversity.com/)

[WVOz1970]

It is a generic with no name on it. There are a bunch on eBay now. Here's (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=48663&item=5727230516&rd=1) a link to an identical one at the same price. No frills, but it has an on/off switch to preserve the batteries and works great even after a year of use and being banged around in my briefcase. Can't beat the price.

Thanks for the reference Bob! I bought one for myself and am waiting for it in the mail. That's a perfect, inexpensive solution for longer flights or airports where I can't get to an outlet for charging. I also picked up a USB sync/charger cable which will charge from the USB port, so I think I'm set for awhile. So far, I'm very pleased with my T3. The battery only seems to be an issue when I try to play MP3s and work on it at the same time. I tend to start getting low around 2.5 - 3 hours at that point. It's still acceptable... especially once I get my new AA battery charger!

Thanks again for the info.

[tanker_bob]

Glad it worked out for you. I'm certainly enjoying mine. :)

[He3eK]

I underclock my TT3 with LightSpeed to 200 Mhz (the whole thing) and I get thru my ~11hrsday with it... and I don't realy feel any difference in preformance at all (mp3s, word, sms, gprs, games.... you name it!!!).
With 2 hrs reading e-book, on the way to and from work, and about 40-60 turn ons & offs during the day ~5 min each (aprox.)