How's the battery life?

[sstudio]

any comment?

I read some reviews about the TX. it said the battery life was less than 5 hours with WIFI off..... :eek:

'The TX's main weakness is its battery life. At just over 4 hours with Wi-Fi off, it's almost exactly on a par with Palm's LifeDrive. Most modern Pocket PCs come in at 5 or 6 hours. The Tungsten E2 and T5 lasted nearly 8 hours and 5 hours, respectively.'

read this:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1869865,00.asp

anyway, they gave TX a editor's choice...

[rlc7254]

I spend about 1 hour on line today, just playing with it. Played Warfare Inc for about an hour, and did some reading. Setup BT to hotsync to two computers. Total on time was about 3. 1/2 hours. WiFi was only on for the surfing. Started with 100% batter, was about 81% when I finished. So far, I'm happy.

[Papageoff]

I spend about 1 hour on line today, just playing with it. Played Warfare Inc for about an hour, and did some reading. Setup BT to hotsync to two computers. Total on time was about 3. 1/2 hours. WiFi was only on for the surfing. Started with 100% batter, was about 81% when I finished. So far, I'm happy.

That's not bad at all. I expected much worse with wi-fi.
:)

[hope]

Hey, 1 hour of surfing and 2 1/2 hours of good usage and the battery is still at %81. That's not bad. Can somebody do a real test torture test. I.E. All out WiFi, Video play, mp3 play, and normal usage such as reading, games, PIM stuff?

[breegenie]

It's a little too early for torture test for me, but I read an eBook on lowest brightness last night for 150 minutes (2 1/2 hours), and the battery was at 89%. This is on par with what I got with a TE or TG50, but I LOVE the larger screen.

My Treo 600 would have dropped to about 53% with that kind of usage -- although I suspect its because I have to press the down button twice as much because of the small screen...

[hope]

Based on that, you should be able to get 20+ hours of regular usage. I really want to know the WiFi, video, and music playing stats.

[rlc7254]

I forgot to mention that BT was enabled all that time. I had hot synced via BT and forgot to turn it off. So it was on at the same time I was on the Web. I guess you can do both at the same time! :eek:

:D

[hope]

What was your screen brightness set at? I usually never go above %80 on any of the PDA's I have owned just because I never really thought it was needed and to save battery life. I wonder how much battery you save by just keeping the brightness a smidge lower than what is ideal?

[LupeValenz]

I'll do that lil torture test, minus the wifi since I don't have it here :(. I have to say, I keep my TX down to the lowest setting because at that, that is equal to about 70% of what the TH is >_<. Too freakin bright for me lol.

[LupeValenz]

2 hours and 41mins of movie watchin at full screen with stereo output to speakers :(. Enough for a movie but wanted more >_<

[rlc7254]

What was your screen brightness set at? I usually never go above %80 on any of the PDA's I have owned just because I never really thought it was needed and to save battery life. I wonder how much battery you save by just keeping the brightness a smidge lower than what is ideal?

Screen brightness was about 75% of full brightness.

:D

[rlc7254]

2 hours and 41mins of movie watchin at full screen with stereo output to speakers :(. Enough for a movie but wanted more >_<

What movie player did you use?

:D

[LupeValenz]

TCPMP, is there any other heheh :D

[hope]

That doesn't seem that impressive? What about music and WiFi tests?

[LupeValenz]

yeah its not >_< nothin at all like the Treo and its been a long while, I forgot how the TX plays movies for how long. I don't have wifi, but I'll try the music when I have it charged up again ^_^. Had to work on the TX to get it where I like it ^_^

[LupeValenz]

hmm, I can't get it to go through one complete battery drain. about hour and half into the test of playin music, the device reset itself :(. Did that twice so far and same results >_<

[SoS]

any comment?

I read some reviews about the TX. it said the battery life was less than 5 hours with WIFI off..... :eek:

'The TX's main weakness is its battery life. At just over 4 hours with Wi-Fi off, it's almost exactly on a par with Palm's LifeDrive. Most modern Pocket PCs come in at 5 or 6 hours. The Tungsten E2 and T5 lasted nearly 8 hours and 5 hours, respectively.'

read this:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1869865,00.asp

anyway, they gave TX a editor's choice...

just to say, I have had much more than 4 hours of mixed use from an LD, that is including some wifi. With just ebaook reading, pim stuff etc, I could probably squeeze 5.5 hours or more....

[rlc7254]

I had four hours of Warfare Inc last night, was down to 77% when I finally gave up. :eek: Screen brightness set to 75%. One thing I did do when I first got this was to charge it fully before even turning it on. Is says to do that for three hours right on the screen cover when you first open it. I wonder if that has anything to do with the life I am getting. Right now, color me satisfied on the battery end. ;) Coming from the UX50 world, this is a great device.

:D

[JAmerican]

How's the speaker?

Also, anyone who wants to get one in Canada, heres one...

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-SEALED-PALM-TX-WiFi-BT-316MHz-128-MultiLingual_W0QQitemZ5819850636QQcategoryZ38331QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem



JAmerican

[dragonsgames]

I bet the speaker is the same as the T5...

[JAmerican]

How was the T5? Whats a mono speaker sound like anyway?

[dragonsgames]

A mono speaker sounds ok, not as good as stereo :)

[kennyd]

My sync cable is registering a charge when I use it. Is that normal? Being that there is a seperate ac cable I assumed that the usb does not charge. Either way I'm not happy. Whether my device is registering a charge or the sync cable charges when connected. I'm a battery protective freak and don't like combo sync and charge cables. I never leave my device on the cable long enough to fully charge, I always leave that up to the ac charger at night.

[hope]

Wafare Inc. is a pretty processor intensive game. Playing for 4 hours and still being at %77 is impressive. 4 hours of regular usage and WiFi off seems way, way off. Also, the first post said they used WiFi for an hour and Wafare for another hour and other stuff for 1 1/2 hours with BT on the whole time and still was at %81 battery life. I don't think anyone has given a good testing of the battery. The reason it matters so much is because this device is probably the next step for a dead TH user and the TH is well known as having one of the best battery life from any PDA. Well, I think the reviews by Cnet and Mobilereview were pretty generic with their battery life report as somebody who fully charges and discharges their device then fully charges again and does a controlled test would be much more accurate.

[Jonavin]

I'm interesting to hear about the battery life experiences. I'm particularly interested in music and movie playing times.

Also, does anybody know or have a link for an external AA battery pack that will trickle charges the unit? I use this kind of charger with my T665C and found that I could get over 17 hours of runtime with just 4 AAs.

[dragonsgames]

I bet Brando or someone will have them ;)

[Cyker]

I'd like more info on the battery life too.

I don't trust 'professional' reviews; Those would be the same reviews that said the TH55 had poor battery life http://dynamic.gamespy.com/~freespace/forums/images/smilies/wtf.gif (To which I said "ROFLMAOBBQ!!111oneone")

[rlc7254]

Wafare Inc. is a pretty processor intensive game. Playing for 4 hours and still being at %77 is impressive. 4 hours of regular usage and WiFi off seems way, way off. Also, the first post said they used WiFi for an hour and Wafare for another hour and other stuff for 1 1/2 hours with BT on the whole time and still was at %81 battery life. I don't think anyone has given a good testing of the battery. The reason it matters so much is because this device is probably the next step for a dead TH user and the TH is well known as having one of the best battery life from any PDA. Well, I think the reviews by Cnet and Mobilereview were pretty generic with their battery life report as somebody who fully charges and discharges their device then fully charges again and does a controlled test would be much more accurate.

I'm the one that used the WiFi and Warefare test. I have been impressed by the battery life, much moreso than the UX series.

:D

[rpankratz]

After a few days of heavy use I am getting battery life better than my T5 and better than I got on a TH55/E

[hope]

Whoa, Whoa, Whoa... Better than a TH55/E? What's your heavy use? How many days? Give us the low down. My fiance needs a laptop type use soon and I was thinking of the TX with the keyboard and her bluetooth phone. If the battery life is good enough, I might be a little more interested. Its either that or I give her my TH and keyboard and I'm gonna buy another UX, I miss that little guy.

[LupeValenz]

Whhha? I don't see how that is possible >_<. Must have really used the TH so that the battery isn't as good as others. Testing TH movie play and see if that matches TX 2 hours and 41 mins -_-. Its been a while and I forgot how long the TH last with movies.

Edit: Errr, well seems my battery isn't that good too heheh, roughly 2 hours of movie playback on the TH >_<. 100% on audio and brightness.

[SoS]

After a few days of heavy use I am getting battery life better than my T5 and better than I got on a TH55/E


hang on...TH55 battery life is legendary. How old was it???

[rpankratz]

Sorry about the delay been on the go for a bit and the Blazer form field width bug keeps me from being able to login to post from the TX.

It may be my use model.

I tend to use both devices a lot but I spend most of my time in three applications. Life Balance, Datebk5 and NoteStudio. I use quicknews and snappermail; very little webbrowsing and no movie or music. (ipod nano too convienent)....

So in that model, I pair with the hardware of a Razr BT phone for remote access and I use the Palm Universal keyboard. I find the 5 row keyboard a must and the IR keyboard has less battery drain on the PDA than the BT one does; at least in my use.

I keep the palm power offs set in to configurations called PDA and Laptop. PDA is aggressive power offs dim screen etc. Laptop has long power on for the keyboard and aggressive off for everything else.

In this mode I can go for 2-4 days on the TH55 and 2.5-5 days on the TX.
My use model has been very consistent for a long time. I have continued to own the TH since the /E version was released, and have owned and tested the T|T, T|3, T|5, and the TX. My only complaint about the TH has always been the memory footprint and the need to use PowerRun or a mounting solution to reslove that.

The T5 was hard to compare to the TX because of WIFI difference; but I am getting more life from the TX probably due to the slower processor (only slightly noticable) and the reduced need to use BT when near a Wifi hotspot. At this point I am finally willing to part with my TH and that's saying a lot as nothing prior has been able to unseat it.

[Cyker]

If a brand new T|X is on equal footing with a 2-year old heavily used TH that's still not bad ;)

I've been babying my TH's battery since I got it, and as long as I don't go nuts with WiFi or TCPMP use I can get through 2 days with the battery still at 100% (Same usage-patter when I forst got it would have gotten me through 4, maybe 5 days).

As soon as I crank up the WiFi/heavy TCPMP use 'tho the little blue indicator drops fairly quickly :(

The main reason the TH has such good battery life is because it's incredibly efficient; It actually has quite a small battery compared to the various Palms. Because of this, when you start pulling major amps, it empties quite quickly once it starts getting old (After 2 years of fairly heavy use, that battery's gonna have a lot less capacity...!)

I figure once mine is worse than my T665's battery life then I'm gonna get a new one from www.cliebattery.com or somehting...

[LupeValenz]

Since the battery can be replaced, then only thing have to worry bout is the display. When that gives. :(. How long does touchscreen display last?

[hope]

Well, I watched 1 1/2 hours of video with FMP on my TH and Surfed with WiFi for 45min and its at %93. I hope to hang to this thing for at least 2 years. I am just happy that there is finally something out there that is comparable say the worst happens. I'm still very happy with my TH and will have no urge to upgrade until the specs are drastically better in terms of screen resolution, battery life, and size/design. I'm convinced though that the TX battery life is good enough to not worry about it and being able to go a few days without charging is a must for me. Its a good feeling that I never want to give up after using a UX and SE T608 for a while as both needed a charge every night or no cigar the next day. I still charge almost every night but i can go without if I need to with the 650 and TH. Finally, 2 years later and Palm produced a good PDA. Not its time for them to start producing great one.

[LupeValenz]

Was the brightness max while watchin the videos? That is pretty impressive, I guess TCPMP is a battery hog >_<.

[aspidoras]

I got one of these for my T5 a few months ago because with the WiFi on its sucks power like crazy. You can find these on the Web for around $100 to $115 and then use the $25 rebate to lower the cost even more. Works great with most all Palms and comes with everything you need.
http://www.socketcom.com/product/power.asp
You can also get these from DELL like I did and take advantage of thier discounts and promotions. With the rebate mine only cost me about $80.

[that70sGAdawg]

For a WiFi unit this T/X performs much better than the T5 with the SD WiFi card, and many Pocket PC's that I've had with WiFi. I'm happy!!!

[2XS]

I am a one week old and very happy TX-User :) The Design is much more pleasing when in your hand than on a jpeg-compressed picture and its a good surface feel, not as plastic(-ally?) as accepted ! Battery-Life is astonishing long with all the wifi, music and gambling on a new device. The screen-brightness is awesome and you want to touch the butterfly´s wing on the example-picture! (and it is not whinig) Some issues are left:

- the protective lid cannot be anything more than a ****ing joke of palm !!
- i had some problems with my 1gig-SD card, while the smaller ones worked the first time. I had to insert it about 10 times, than it was accepted and now the problem is not reproducible anymore.
- keep of the pielframa-leathercase, it is not as stable than the one for the T3. I should consider a hard case...
- i do not thrust the new connectors since T5 and E2, they are somewhat filigree (?)

gr33tz 2XS

[ebrichter]

Some issues are left:

- the protective lid cannot be anything more than a ****ing joke of palm !!
gr33tz 2XS

i have spent 25 minutes trying to get it connected with absolutely no luck. it's like a badly built toy..(the case lid that is)

[prayer4eev]

ouch, cmon guys, give us real results.
it has 1250mAh accu. so results (those posts about Warfire and wifi usage) are looking very strange, and there is no way it can beat such legend like th55 in battery life.

i think those reviews are pretty close to real life - with normal usage TX is better than LD (because of LD's harddrive) and with wifi usage it's worth than LD (LD has bigger accu). and it can not beat T5 that much, ike someone said.

Tests with battery drain from 100% to 10% (or 5)
MP3 from SD card, display OFF
MP3 from SD card, Display on (minimum brightness)
would be greatly appreciated! and that will be real results, that can be used without _some_ doubts.

[Nuron]

Guys Guys Guys...Really

Being TH55 use for a year, I can tell you for sure, that the only reason that the TH55 battery can hold that much it's because it has a processor that run from 8mhz :eek: !!! to 123mhz. Thats the only reason. its processor is so weak !!!! that you can see long lag time between apps and loading the callender.

Any palm that will be underclock to such a speed will gain a huge battery "working hours". it is not zippy it is very very slow .
Take TEl2 for an example its battery will work for about 8 hours normal use,if underclocked from 200 to about 100mhz the deference will be way above 10 hours battery. But remember the TH55 most of the time working on 8mhz+ and it is shown by a very slow respond to anything. clie orginizer is drown like paper draw...............
Dont be fooled every upside has its downside.

Have a nice one.
Nuron

[LupeValenz]

I'm glad I haven't spoiled myself with faster processors ^_^, TH seems plenty fast for me as a PDA and a movie/mp3 player ^_^. Everyone talks bout TH legendary, but people forget to say how the VZ steps on the TH for battery life performance. ^_^

[hope]

No one speaks of the VZ because it was never released anywhere but Japan in any form and because it was priced at such an astronomical level. It also had OLED which is much nicer to the battery than LCD. It also wasn't really a PDA as much as a true Communications Link Information and Entertainment. It was an entertainment device first with good software for info and communications through WiFi.

Also, the TH is plenty fast as it can run high frame rates for movies and does stutter at all when playing MP3's and working in a seperate app, say DTG. Also, I don't know of any real TH user who has had problems with lag. The difference between .00001 seconds and .0001 of a second is hardly noticable. And any wait that is noticeable is far less than say an LD which has to access the HD. Also, no Palm can have it processor scaled as the TH does to capitalize on the battery. You can underclock a palm but, it won't adjust as needed to each app and usage. The downside is pretty shallow as the upside is being one of the best battery life PDA's ever.

The TX battery life is as close is as needed for any poor sole who loses their TH. I don't expect it to beat the TH, just be at least respectable. Remember, before the TX, the only similiar PDA to the TH in terms of OS and dual wireless was the LD. The LD was just not close enough in terms of size, battery life, and performance. The TX really does hit closer to the sweet spot.

[prhammer]

I watched three episodes of Lost on my TX last night and the battery was still running well over 50%. I was pretty impressed with that. I had just started doing movies on my Zire 72 before it was stolen, but it seemed I could just barely get through a 2 hour movie. I'm very pleased with the battery life and performance of my TX.

[prayer4eev]

prhammer
i will say that not first time already.. but ok.

from 100% to 5 or 10% are real tests. from 50 to 0 can be much faster that from 100 to 50

like example on my T5 i could read 1 hour (palmFiction) and battery will still stay at 100%.
but that does not mean that T5 will live forever ^^

so nobody wants to make 1 or 2 battery tests? :P

[2XS]

Here´s my pockettunes-test. OK, it´s not till battery-dead, but you should be able to make a picture of it ;) I put some "Hed Kandi"-Summer & Winter Mixes on my SD-Card an let them play via PocketTunes and connected to my hifi.:cool: I configured it so that the screen kept on at 1/3 brightness, BT and WiFi turned off. After 5 Hours and 53 Minutes I had to stop the test, cause my wife could not hear the house-music anymore :rolleyes:
And here is, what the battery was, after the pockettunes-GUI burned itself into my Screen: 34% ! :)
My T3 stoped playing after exactly 5 Hours, but with turned off screen!!!

I am absolutely overwhelmed with the result!!

stay tuned for the EDGE-Battery-Test :)

gr33tz 2XS

[JulianL]

I have to admit to being a little confused by this thread. This might be the first time in history where a manufacturer has so seriously undersold the capabilities of their new device. I read the TX release and I think (from memory) it said about 5 days use at moderate (40 mins per day) use. At only just over 3.5 hours this was a show stopper fo me but results here seem to indicate that, even playing warfare flat out, a user can go far beyond this. Very wierd.

- Julian

[xsnrg]

Better to under-sell and over deliver than to act like Palm normally does.

[amrvica]

Here is my test:

Palm TX 5:58 (3550 mv recorded in batterygraph appl)
Axim X50v (WM 2003 SE) 7:00 (with mugen 1800 mah battery)
Palm Tungsten E2 6:50

Legend:
Brightness on minimum on all devices, bluetooth and Wifi off.
Running slideshow two pics from internal memory until handheld gives last critical warning and shuts down.


P.S.
Will test palm T5 and Treo 650 in few days.

Just for reference:
http://www.splashblog.com/palm

[I.M. Notorious]

I spend about 1 hour on line today, just playing with it. Played Warfare Inc for about an hour, and did some reading.

Funny thing, I wasn't able to run Warfare Inc :confused: . I installed the latest version available, v1.2. Even though it ran OK in my T|T5, all get is funny colors on my Palm T|X. I gave up thinking it was a device specific incompability, but as you were able to run it, I'll give it another shot.

[I.M. Notorious]

Funny thing, I wasn't able to run Warfare Inc.
Found the culprit, it was a hack called FontSmoother.

[pruss]

On my TX, overclocked to 412mhz, max brightness, TCPMP ran for almost 4 hours, slightly longer than on my T5, not overclocked.

[SoS]

for comparison with LD, I just played movies for 2:40minutes with TCPMP(1:30 from SD card, plus 1:10 from HD), plus viewing photos )from HD) with acidimiage for ~30 minutes, battery 25% remaining (which would have given me another 1hr or so of 'normal' use eg ebook reading or whatever)!! I think that is pretty good considering the heavy HD usage. A 1:30 movie from SD card left battery at 84% from a full charge.

[Jonavin]

After discovering the autolock/Datebk5 bug and working around it, my battery life is back to being superb. I think the NVM is helping this baby last a long time. I don't even bother to disable BT and wifi, it's "ON" all the time.

I picked up one of those AA battery charges off eBay. Works like a charm and charges as fast as the A/C adaptor. Now I can take those 20hr flights without worrying about losing power; although I suspect it may last the whole flight since I wouldn't be up the whole 20 hours.

[pruss]

After discovering the autolock/Datebk5 bug and working around it, my battery life is back to being superb. I think the NVM is helping this baby last a long time. I don't even bother to disable BT and wifi, it's "ON" all the time.

I picked up one of those AA battery charges off eBay. Works like a charm and charges as fast as the A/C adaptor. Now I can take those 20hr flights without worrying about losing power; although I suspect it may last the whole flight since I wouldn't be up the whole 20 hours.

How much life does one get off a set of AAs?

[Jonavin]

How much life does one get off a set of AAs?

It takes 4 AAs. I'm having trouble draining my TX to know for sure. I'll let you know once I find out. When I sync via USB the TX is being tickle charged, so that's going to skew the results.

I'll need to do a control experiment with a fully drained TX and charging only via the AA charger.

[pruss]

i have spent 25 minutes trying to get it connected with absolutely no luck. it's like a badly built toy..(the case lid that is)

Once you get the hang of it, it's not that hard.

I like the flip cover.

[bh77a]

Is the reading of 4000 mv at 100% "correct" regarding the reading of the battery? Both ZLauncher and BatteryGraph return these readings. Both my Tungsten E and Clie TJ27 returned 4200 mv ...

[Mitogenesis]

Music playing for 2.5 Hours (nonstop) and using it for surfing and playing games with light on full for another hour, battery at 76%. I'm pleased with the battery, perhaps some folks are wandering around with the wifi on even though they arent using it. I had a Th55 before and this is an Excellent replacement. I love having landscape and portrait choices. :D

[tk_421]

I don't seem to be having such amazing results with my TX. My battery life is okay, but web surfing just sucks it down like crazy.


I feel like most of those tests were done on brand new TXs, so the battery hasn't set in yet, and acting a bit strange. I would be interested in getting real results from people who hav been using their TXs for over a month.


I am underclocking my TX to 214 MHz, and lowering the brightness as much as possible. Also, I will buy those cool Sony earphones with that silicon earplug design so that I don't suck as much power when listening to music.


My TX battery life seems okay, but certainly not as amazing as what other people here are reporting.


Still, I love this device, and can't wait for 4GB SD cards to drop in Price. I am missing the LD's voice recorder, but the TX's design is much simpler and elegant, lighter and smaller. No moving parts is great too.


I will get one of those AA chargers though. They will it great in my pocket next to the TX, and be perfect for web browsing and music streaming in coffee shops.


I love the TX. It was well worth the wait. From now on, it can only be uphill for Palm. Maybe next year we'll have a Zire 73 that will be just like the TX, but with a camera and VC. That would be pure Heaven!

[thenightfly42]

from 100% to 5 or 10% are real tests. from 50 to 0 can be much faster that from 100 to 50
I've had my TX for about three weeks. Yesterday, I was playing some simple games, and the battery was at 57% when I shut it off. This morning, it wouldn't turn on, and when I put it in the cradle, it said the battery was empty. 10 minutes later in the cradle, the battery was at 60%. ???

Is this normal battery operation?

[userwaldo]

I occasionally saw strnage batter performance with my TE2 (similar to what you described above, but I haven't had my TX long enought for a second charge.

[Papageoff]

I've had my TX for about three weeks. Yesterday, I was playing some simple games, and the battery was at 57% when I shut it off. This morning, it wouldn't turn on, and when I put it in the cradle, it said the battery was empty. 10 minutes later in the cradle, the battery was at 60%. ???

Is this normal battery operation?


You might try giving it a full charge and then preforming a soft reset while it is plugged-in.

[thenightfly42]

You might try giving it a full charge and then preforming a soft reset while it is plugged-in.
I'll give that a throw (still charging right now), thanks.

[suppaman]

After discovering the autolock/Datebk5 bug

What bug ?

I've been liking my brother's TH55 forever and now I've just see this thread and I'm wondering if this TX is _the way to go_
(actually I haven't followed the handheld scene for a few months and I was really surprised seeing TX specs..)

[twbfox]

It just over 6 hours with read txt
http://www.egchina.com/club/pic/179833_200619234441.jpg
http://www.egchina.com/club/pic/179833_200619234447.jpg

[valodya]

I have mixed feelings about my new TX. I think I ought to like it, but it has a number of niggling little problems, and couple of big ones. The first is it's really unstable. It crashes right and left. I think I'm slowly getting that under control, but the jury is still out.

The other is battery life. I feel like I can almost watch it run down as I watch. For instance, I started today at 100%. After some reading through eReader, and nothing more taxing that a few PIM lookups, it's down to 83%. As I was watching I just saw it drop another point. It looks like it dropped a few points in a few hours turned off. The screen is at minimum brightness, wifi is off, and I don't think I've run anything that's a major energy drain.

I haven't had much luck diagnosing the problem; I don't really have any idea where to look. Can anyone give me a clue? If other folks have had battery drain issues, I'd appreciate any tips on where to look for the problem, what apps might be the cause, etc. TIA.

[LupeValenz]

Beam receive off? That is something people forget about.

[Papageoff]

Just a thought-- Is bluetooth off, or at least not discoverable? That can chew through a battery too.

[thenightfly42]

I've had my TX for about three weeks. Yesterday, I was playing some simple games, and the battery was at 57% when I shut it off. This morning, it wouldn't turn on, and when I put it in the cradle, it said the battery was empty. 10 minutes later in the cradle, the battery was at 60%. ???

Is this normal battery operation?
Answering my own question: I think my issue is inadvertent key presses. I have the Proporta aluminum-lined flip cover, but I think if I carry it in my pants pocket, it presses the 5-way key and drains the battery. I carried it carefully over the weekend, and over 3 days it was still at 98% battery.

I need a cover that doesn't do this.

[JulianL]

Answering my own question: I think my issue is inadvertent key presses. I have the Proporta aluminum-lined flip cover, but I think if I carry it in my pants pocket, it presses the 5-way key and drains the battery. I carried it carefully over the weekend, and over 3 days it was still at 98% battery.

I need a cover that doesn't do this.
That's ironic. I posted and hence watch this thread because I was considering the TX as a replacement PDA when my last company demanded back my Sony TH-55 when I left and wouldn't even let me buy it off them. My big concern was getting something with good battery life.

Eventually I decided to buy myself a replacement TH-55 on ebay. Battery life was of course still my big requirement but the other thing that swung me towards sticking with the TH-55 was that I realised that I would really miss having a hold switch to ensure it never switches on in my pocket (I keep mine in a soft leather wallet so it is easy for the buttons to get pressed in my pocket).

Does the TX have a hold switch? I really think that every PDA should consider that an essential feature, you don't have to use it if you don't want it but for people like us it is really nice to have.

- Julian

[brinkey]

After watching 3 episodes of Lost on my TX, battery is around 50%. I'm pleased with it. A lot better then my old m515

[Dromedary]

yes, the tx has a hold switch. in preferences, go to keylock activation. select "manual", which is to hold the power button for 2 seconds and it will activate keylock.

automatic will turn keylock on automatically when the tx is turned off.

by default, the "never" option is selected.

[zargo]

I got a TX recently and was really unhappy with the battery life, but after reading this forum I realized I'm a moron and hadn't check my prefs right, so i had bluethoot and beam recieve on, despite I don't use them that much. That helped a lot, specially the bluethoot part.

[P.Kitty]

yes, after playing warfare incorporated against my friend (we both have T|X's) I'd always leave bt on with wake up, & it would lower my battery even when it's off, but the battery is great if you turn bt off. it's a great step up from my old T|E, it's battery would drain WAY too fast, & the screen was only 2/3 of the T|X

[Omnitron]

Just picked mine up -- still in the heavy trial phase, and even with repeated use, updates, software tests, I only ran it down to around 65% yesterday. Of course I wasn't using it as an MP3 player

[haplo]

I never have a problem with battery life, once I installed the brightness hack and lowered the brightness, battery life was extended. Mainly I use the pda at work for light file transfers, calender, ebooks, 20 minutes of Movies (2 hours max), at home I use it for about 1 to 2 hours that includes, wifi, ebooks, maybe some movie before bed.

Rarely does it go below 80% anymore only time I really drain the battery, is when I am scanning for a free hotspot (since most homes dont have a key on their wireless lan.)

[P.Kitty]

yes, battery is great, if you use it for just mp3, then the screen turns off and the battery will last a loooooong time

[dragonsgames]

Hey P.Kitty, when did you get here? This is aqualover from TapTarget. It is nice to have more iSpin users here... (mostly ZLauncher... :()
I think VZ90 has the best battery life, though. I can use it for days with heavy usage...

[P.Kitty]

Hi! (I would've probably guessed it was you from you sig). I'm extremely happy with the TX's battery, my old e, lets just say I had to keep a charger with me in order to charge it during class. But sometimes I go to school with it at 80% and still come back with a good 55% (I give it very heavy ussage). I'm guessing yours would give you better time, since it's got room for a bigger battery.

[dragonsgames]

Yes, the VZ90 is about twice the size of a TX :o

[JAmerican]

Battery life is great so far. I'm loving it. I check it less than I used to with UX. I'm glad the batt indicator is in a seperate window and not on the statusbar. It makes me paranoid.

JAmerican

[P.Kitty]

yeah, I'm glad the tx has a good battery. how many mah does it have?

[techno nerd]

1350 is it not

[P.Kitty]

no idea. is there a way to find out for sure?

[LupeValenz]

Its a 1250 mah battery :)

[toastbrot]

The other is battery life. I feel like I can almost watch it run down as I watch. For instance, I started today at 100%. After some reading through eReader, and nothing more taxing that a few PIM lookups, it's down to 83%. As I was watching I just saw it drop another point. It looks like it dropped a few points in a few hours turned off. The screen is at minimum brightness, wifi is off, and I don't think I've run anything that's a major energy drain.

Have you ever tried an in-cradle-reset? Look here (http://forums.palm.com/pe/action/forums/displaysinglethread?rootPostID=20308648&returnExpertiseCode=) and here (http://kb.palmone.com/SRVS/CGI-BIN/WEBCGI.EXE?New,Kb=PalmSupportKB,ts=Palm_External2001,Case=obj(887)#incradle) .

Somewhere else I read one should let run the energy level completely to 0% before doing the in-cradle-reset. Maybe one should do a backup before :rolleyes:

[hunjimko]

Weird thing happened, I have my TX for a week now. Yesterday night, I charged it to 100%. I turned it off (and anyways, it automatically turns off after 1 minute of non use) and this morning, the battery was showing 32%. I plugged the charger and the battery indicator in the home window shows a full battery while the indicator in the window showing date brightness etc is showing only 32%. Also, this morning I had to perform a reset to turn it on because all the other buttons weren't responding.
Is it possible to overcharge if the indicator is wrong? Anybody had the same experience?

Thanks,

Hun

[Church Punk]

maybe you have a 3rd party app problem. verify if you have any alarm or something that wakes up ur TX during night and leaves it on...

The "home window"... i supposed you are talking about the builtin launcher? it is always so, when you are charging your device, if you go to "favourites" you will se the actual status of the battery...

[hunjimko]

I made a deeper search today and I think it might be because autolock was set to lock my TX at 1h00 am. Other persons seems to have experienced a similar proble with autolock.

Hun

[Nobitsu]

All I can say is that there is a huge difference in battery power from my old T665C and my Palm TX. My T665C last like 2 hours with the lowest brightness and my palm tx seems to last 7 hours with the lowst brightness setting. However, the TX battery life seems to become crappier every time I charge it. :/

[suppaman]

I had a T665, battery is crap from the beginning.

[userwaldo]

I'm starting to see a hugh decrease in my battery life. I use to be able to go a day or two without a change, I now have to charge everyday. Anyone else seen a problem with the battery life decreasing drasticly after a several months of use? I use my TX pretty heavily everyday.

[PinCushionQueen]

The only time I've seen a change in battery life was also with a change in use. Regular use and I can go a few days without a charge... But when playing some games (ie: Legacy) or listening to more music than usual - I get a large decrease. Otherwise the battery life in my TX is way better than my old T3, even with my TX overclocked on quite a few of my apps. Do you by chance use WarpSpeed or DynaClock? I know that DynaClock is suppose to improve battery life but maybe settings are incorrect?

[bh77a]

Mine is about 10 months old and battery life is good. I do charge once per day, but that is to keep the battery topped off (I only let the battery get to 80% if possible and it takes about 2 hours of use to get there).

[userwaldo]

I think I tried a trick I heard about, where you preform a warm reset while having the Palm plugged in, and that seems to have helped. I preformed a warm reset, and left my palm on charge all night, and the next day, my battery life seemed to be a bit better. I'm not sure if it really did anything, or it was just my perception.

I don't use any clocking tools, so I don't think that's the problem.

[napalm]

I'm starting to see a hugh decrease in my battery life. I use to be able to go a day or two without a change, I now have to charge everyday. Anyone else seen a problem with the battery life decreasing drasticly after a several months of use? I use my TX pretty heavily everyday.

Over the past few days, I've noticed a very similar occurence. I'm finding that my TX can be fully charged at bedtime and then discharged by the next time I come to switch it on the following day. That's with BT and Wifi switched off.

I've no idea what could be causing this to happen.

[PalmTxer]

I'm running into a battery issue too. Beam is OFF, BT is off, do not use tunes or video. It can be at 100% at the beginning of the day and just surfing the web for 1-1 1/2hrs practically throws the device into the 30% battery range. Then I start getting the message about certain services will be disabled for the remainder and I get frustrated and just turn the damn thing off when it gets to 10-15%.

I think I'll try the warm reset thing after its at 100% to see how the battery works. I have no 3rd party memory or battery saving software so its rather baffling. Its really never been a big issue though because I have my life-line to my car charger which has been great in certain crunches.

Dave

[Church Punk]

well, using Wi-Fi for 1.5 hrs is quite exhausting to the battery... specially if you dont have the save power option in wifi preference pannel.

i must tell that i dont use the TX to surf that much, just to read some hotmail, check the weather forecast, view 1src threads :rolleyes:, or just tune one internet station... but nothing more. say 15 mins per day? and that doesnt really kill my battery. Besides that, i have some 3rd party apps that really decrease my battery consumption (brightnessfixTX, and warpspeed)...

[PalmTxer]

This is good to know. I always thought surfing the web was a rather dull job for any device but I'm always learning!

Dave

well, using Wi-Fi for 1.5 hrs is quite exhausting to the battery... specially if you dont have the save power option in wifi preference pannel.

i must tell that i dont use the TX to surf that much, just to read some hotmail, check the weather forecast, view 1src threads :rolleyes:, or just tune one internet station... but nothing more. say 15 mins per day? and that doesnt really kill my battery. Besides that, i have some 3rd party apps that really decrease my battery consumption (brightnessfixTX, and warpspeed)...
:)

[preludejtstyle]

Since the battery can be replaced, then only thing have to worry bout is the display.

Really? I thought it couldn't be replaced. And after a few searches, I still have found nothing saying it can be replaced. You must be mistaken.

[preludejtstyle]

I just got mine today for christmas. Lets see how it does. I'm charging the battery for the first time all day. Or should I only charge it for 3 hours?

[PalmTxer]

I think I tried a trick I heard about, where you preform a warm reset while having the Palm plugged in, and that seems to have helped. I preformed a warm reset, and left my palm on charge all night, and the next day, my battery life seemed to be a bit better. I'm not sure if it really did anything, or it was just my perception.

I don't use any clocking tools, so I don't think that's the problem.


I tried this procedure thinking it would help but it really didn't. :(

[I love my mom]

HI! I got a TX for Christmas, great battery life... I watched a full movie, 2hrs, Batman Begins, which is in XVID format at 300mb, great quality, and it ran down my battery 40%. Played PTunes for about half an hour in background, ran battery down another 13%, of course, I was compiling programs over an over during that background play. I surf the web at a rate of about 10% per half hour, which isn't bad. Understand folks, upgrading from a Zire 31 this is unbelievable battery life.

P.S. Dmitry's DynaClock is reported to nearly double battery life, maybe you should look into it.

[clevin]

Wi-Fi and bluetooth really suck battery fast,with those on, my TX can bearly reach 2 hours.
with those off, its about 5.5 hours (330minutes).

I need to mention that I think the percentage calculation of TX's battery isn't accurate, so many times, u can see ur battery hang on at 100% even after u watch movie for 10 minutes, or it might increase after u turn it off. Especially when u charge it, it jump to high percentage very quick, but if u unplug the power adapter, it will drop again soon.

[mian]

Really? I thought it couldn't be replaced. And after a few searches, I still have found nothing saying it can be replaced. You must be mistaken.

You'd have to de-solder the connection, and you'd void the warranty in the process. It wasn't designed to be changed, and it isn't convenient, not even as convenient as in prior non-user-replaceable handhelds. But it can be done.

[John Stanley]

Over the past few days, I've noticed a very similar occurence. I'm finding that my TX can be fully charged at bedtime and then discharged by the next time I come to switch it on the following day. That's with BT and Wifi switched off.

I've no idea what could be causing this to happen.
I had the same problem for a long time. Then, someone in this forum mentioned that there's a bug in the TX's built-in security panel when you use the "After a preset delay" option... The very option I had been using since day one. :eek:

I switched to "On power off" and I haven't had an overnight battery drain since... (Note: It MAY exist in some of the other options as well, I didn't try them once I got it working...)

I really hope pruss, dimitry, or one of the other hacking genuises figures out a patch for this someday. I really -hate- having it lock every time it shuts off. But, I don't want to leave it totally unlocked, and I hate overnight battery drains even more... :(

[jamesgraylx]

Getting my TX tomorrow!!!

yey - been with an LD but bricked 5 in 6 months - palms fed up with me, so giving me a tx! (and case and 2 gig card!) thanks palm.

Anyway - ld rubbish battery so -

got me 12 rechargables off ebay (and charger) from qualitydiscounts, £20
the charger is a fujicell, usb mains or car. and V quick to charge the 2700mAh batts.

got me 2 battery boxes (6 in each) - maplins £1.20

- a usb female from maplins, and a 5v limiter (3 pin with heatsink) £2

Put them all together, mounted on a pcb (easier to make with the female usb) the battery boxes come with those 9v battery connectors - cut out a small heatsink and there we have it - a usb 5v power supply 5cm by 2.5 cm.

I chose usb because well - phone, gps and LD (soon TX). Everything is able to charge with plenty of power.

To make things easier - buy a 4 battery holder with rechargables - I get 5.35 V THE SAME AS BOTH MY LD AND TX CHARGER! no need for the voltage limiter - but less charge of course.

I have used 10 batterys (13 odd volts) but had to heatsink my small heatsink! the 6 battery configeration seems to work fine.

Hope this helps as a backup solution

james
( if disposable batterys this becomes 6V) hence rechargables.

[Ron Whitlock]

I got mine last week and so far, the battery power is pretty good. I listened to webradio and mp3's for two hours and only used 10 % battery power.

[LANDROS]

Hi sstudio,

i think that there's a problem with your device, you should try to to perform a hard reset, charge it for 4hours and then use it if stil the same issue contact the Palm support.

[andymin]

I use my TX quite a bit and although I wish it had a longer battery life, it is usually functional for what I do. I listen to pTunes in my car for about an hour and a half per day (using car speakers, not the speaker in my TX). I also use Blazer on-line for one to two hours a day. I use an IR keyboard a couple times a week for one to two hours. On occasion I play games for about an hour. At the end of the day my battery meter is rarely below 40%. Usually it only needs to be charged for half an hour to be back to 100%. I charge it about 4 times per week.

[juananto]

I spend about 1 hour typing with my IR keyboard and when I finish, my batt is at 78%. WiFi off and using Mobilesystems - Officesuit

True, the TX has a poor battery life, but you can improve it using the Dimitry's app that removes the screen brightness limit

[BrentDC]

I don't think the TX has poor battery life, compared to some other gadgets I've used I think it's actually very good. I can get 6-7 hours without wifi, and 4-5 with. I don't use any underclocking SW, and keep the brightness at about 75% :)

[bjzhanghao]

wifi exhausts battery really fast, however bluetooth is not that much (I feel like 1/3 of wifi).

[martinloat]

Hi

I ran across this the other day which may be of interest. This guy (Steve Gibson) has really tried to put battery life on a scientific footing and gives a simple strategy for improving it by up to 212% if your interests are music, e-books, etc.

http://www.grc.com/pda/palmpower.htm

He doesn't seem to have found out about Warpspeed and Brightnessfix which would facilitate what he proposes.

Cheers :)

[cyberdude]

just started using apt and that can be used to significantly reduce battery usage!

[cms]

After the last Ptunes update (at begining of 2008), I can run Ptunes at 156mhz using warpspeed with no issues (without screen fuzz or proccess errors) including everything from internet radio streaming to equilizer adjustments.

before, you could only run it at ~260 somthin.

[netpower8]

same here... I get 6-7hrs on the TX without wi-fi which is great more like a portable laptop computer already. But i trade my TX with a lifedrive the battery life of this unit is really lousy. Wish i had my TX back.

[paradescargasi]

my battery life is 1-2 hours with wifi

[JavaJiveJump]

wow! can you point me in the right direction to do a similar mod, please?

Thank you!

[undeadpalm]

Battery is great in both my TX units. I calculate that I could play music for almost 3 days straight with earphones. Wifi will eat power fast on anything.

[Ken in Regina]

So will Bluetooth and IR. I leave Bluetooth off and Beam Receive off except when I need them. Makes a significant difference to battery life. I also run with the screen brightness right at the bottom unless I need to use it in bright sunlight.

...ken...

[philpalm]

I use my car charger on my jumpstart battery. That is reserve power for days. There is no reason for abusing your lithium battery. Never store it in a hot car, drain it too low and never charge immediately when the battery is low.