andrewcoffin

The French site Clie and Co has posted an update on their hardware review of the TH55. They continue to be very impressed with the stamina of this unit's battery.

Here's the link (look towards the bottom of the page):

http://www.clieandco.com/00clieandc..._TH55_hard.html

And here's a poor AltaVista translation:

Another experiment of electric consumption: within the framework of Fanny' S Party 5 which took place Wednesday February 11, I introduced to the TH55 "crowd is delirious about it";-)). More seriously, it was the occasion to carry out a test size-nature of the TH55. Arrived on the place of Fanny' S (the Djoon restaurant, 22 data base Vincent Auriol-Paris 13e) towards 17h50, hardly 10 minutes had occurred that first "the one evening old tester" seized new Clié. PIM Clié Organizer, screen with retro-lighting 100%, of the beaming you in here are want some, of the photographs with gogo (they succeeded in filling me one ms 128 Mo in one evening), of the screenshots with gogo, the plays with GTS Racing and Zap! 2016.... brief see it to you a use which one cannot any more but intensive. Clié TH55 thus passed from hands in hands all the evening - thank you to all the people present this evening to have taken some great care. As 1h00 of the morning arrived, Clié still turned to full mode. My small eyes seriously starting to tire, I begun again "of force" the TH55 to start the way of the return towards the arms of Morphée. And there Ô surprised, the gauge of battery posted 16 more %. Yes, yes, you read well: 16 % after 7 a.m. "the handle in the corner" as George would say, alias "Troylee" on the PDAFrance forum, and Clié still went.... a true rabbit Duracell this Clié! For indication, Sony gives the following values in its Instruction manual (between brackets values quite as official provided for Clié UX50 - apparatus based on the same processor). 24 h30mn (16h):Lecture of MP3, screen éteint.(10) 19h30mn (11h): Recording vocal memos - REC, screen éteint.(9) 07h30mn (5h): PIM, screen lit without retro-éclairage.(8) 07h30mn (5h): Video reading, screen lit without retro-éclairage.(7) 07 h00mn (3h): Reading of MP3, lit screen and éclairé.(6) 04h30mn (3h): PIM, lit screen and éclairé.(5) 06h00mn (3h): Recording vocal memos - REC, lit screen and éclairé.(4) 06h00mn (3h): Bluetooth communication, lit screen and éclairé.(3) 05h30mn (2,5h): Wi-Fi communication, lit screen and éclairé.(2) 04h00mn (2,5h): Video reading, lit screen and éclairé.(1)

joejoe

In brief, the unit was used for 7 hours during a party at the Djoon Restaurant in Paris (great shots of the party, BTW, on their forum !) with full backlight on. There was: beaming, photos taken (128 MB MS was full by the end of the evening), screenshots, games (i.e. GTS Racing & Zap). Since the TH55 was the highlight of the party, it was in constant use.

Result at the end of 7 hours of intensive use, 16% battery life remained !

Pretty damn good, non?

LupeValenz

That battery life is incrediable...I must have this!

depret

Thanks for the inform on battery life it is very important to T665C user with dying batteries.

BTW, no red TH-55 in Europe and USA (rough translation).

joejoe

I seriously considered buying the T|3 because I had waited so long & so patiently for VG. Even once the SD card-frying issue was resolved & the memory loss with reset addressed, I still couldn't get over the fact that the battery life would be worse than any Palm PDA I'd ever seen.

We all have to make our own choices based on our needs. For those who simply *must* have a lightening fast device, the T|3 definitely wins. But for those who are willing to forgo cutting edge speeds for a battery which chugs on & on, the TH55 presents an exciting option.

BTW, isn't there anyone who remembers the days when one of the many advantages of the Palm over the PPC was its battery life?

mdlsimpson

As far as speed goes, I have a UX50 and it has the same processor as the TH55 but power management on my device is not as good as it appears to be for the TH, but speed-wise, my UX is as fast as any Palm powered device I have owned (and I have owned many, including the NX80 which had a 200mhz processor) Just my 2cents.....

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Previous Owner: Palm Pilot Pro. Palm III, Palm IIIc, Palm V, Palm Vx, m505, m515, Zire 71, Tungsten T, Sony Clie n710c, T615c, SJ22, NX70v, TG50, NX80, TJ35, TJ37, Tungsten E, Zire 72, UX50, TH55, UX50, E2, T5, TX and too many Pocket PC's to admit
[COLOR=Red][B]Current Owner: Palm Centro

joejoe

Well, I'm coming from a T615, 33 MHz. The change for me will be dramatic.

Personally, I was totally delighted that the TH55 was using the same variable speed processor as the UX series for when I was considering the T|3 I had visions of autodimmer & underclocking apps dancing in my head! Hey, my backup computer only runs at 333 MHz - do I really need that kind of speed & more for a PDA?

Not yet, anway.

lostether

I have searched quite a bit but have been unable to find out the size of the TH battery, anyone here know?

EdFrmBrighthand

When I was testing the TH55 for my review, I found that it averages about eight hours of typical use on a single charge. This is far better than most handhelds I've tested recently.

When I say "typical use" I mean I used it as my primary handheld for several days. I kept track of my schedule, did a good bit of Web surfing, checked my email, read an ebook, that sort of thing. This wasn't some kind of torture test.

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lostether

Still have not been able to determine the capacity of the battery. This will say a LOT about how efficient the machine is. If we are looking at a 1500mA battery the life would not be that unexpected.

jumpyg

Did you try emailing Sony?

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I just neutered the cat. Now he's a liberal.

depret

Check out the following image.

http://www.clieclub.jp/review/rev_t...MGP0055_JPG.jpg

It clearly shows 5.2V = 1A.

The back of my PEG-T665C has 5.2V = 800mA therefore it is probably 1000mA on the TH55.

Another related topics.

Ed: How do you resolve 8 hours battery life versus what the manual states? As I have said in another thread, we should only expect 7.5 hrs (backlight off) and 4.5 hrs (backlight on max) based on manual page 81 and 82.

As you have stated before, you have not done a torture test. A test would resolve the question, does the TH55 meet the battery spec in the manual?

Believe me I love hear about the great battery life.

EdFrmBrighthand

depret, my real-world test came up with much better numbers than are given in the manual. (There's a first!) I have no idea how Sony came up with those numbers. Did they leave Wi-Fi on all the time?

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depret

2.5 hr with WiFi on and Backlight full on.

Either reviewers are getting super charged units or Sony Engineers missed estimates by a mile.

I agree, A FIRST IN THE PDA SPACE.