Resetting your EPOC device - the options

Battery life - what can I expect and how can I improve things?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Resetting your EPOC device - the options

All EPOC devices:

5/5mx/MC218/7/netBook:

Revo/Revo Plus/Mako (thanks to Colin Messer for this info):

 

 

Battery life - what can I expect and how can I improve things?

General

Battery life decreases noticeably while using CF and PCMCIA cards, while using higher brightness levels, and of course when using the backlight. To conserve battery power, try to minimise use of all these. Additionally, it is wise to turn off the 'Link to Desktop' (the serial port) when you are not connecting to a desktop computer. Finally, the Series5/5mx has a bug to do with battery life - more on this (and a cure) here.

 

Series7/netBook

Good averages for a Series 7:
7 [6-8] hours life while not working, just being powered on, with medium brightness
6 [5-7] hours life while working with various applications, with medium brightness
4 [3-5] hours while working with CF memory card and being connected to the internet through PCMCIA LAN card, with medium brightness.

If I use lowest or highest brightness setting I can get/lose another hour of battery life.

(Thanks to Tom from the PsionPlace message boads for this data.)

netBook

Battery life on netBook is shorter then on Series 7, because of netBook's faster CPU and more RAM. But not so as you'd really notice.

Series 5mx & Ericsson MC218

These use standard AA cells, so the battery life will depend on the quality of cell you use. Best to use are high-power alkaline or lithium cells (Duracell and the like). Worst are rechargables - their voltage is only 1.2V fully charged, and drops more suddenly than non-rechargeable cells, thus leaving you more susceptible to data loss if you don't carry spares.

Enough blather, here's some rough usage figures:

Series 5

Same as above but 30 and 23 hours respectively.

Revo/Mako

Thanks again to Colin Messer for the following.

Revos come in a number of flavours, 8MB, 16MB and with D&Gs upgrade service 24MB and 28MB. The operational time for all flavours is the same and depends to a great extent on the software run. Use only ROM based software and never use IrDA or the serial link then you will last 8 to 10 hours between re-changes. Run processor intensive games and browse the internet then expect to exhaust your batteries in 3 hours.

The real difference between Revos is maintaining the memory when not in use. Each 8MB of RAM takes 2.5% of the batteries charge each day to maintain the contents of the memory. So 16MB takes 5%, 24MB takes 7.5% and 28MB takes nearly 9%. A power user will find themselves recharging every two days, while a light user may only need to recharge once a month.

 

 

 

Page last updated: February 25, 2003