Respectfully discussing:
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much higher capacity. The Li-ion battery in my Fuze lasts 15-20 hours on a single charge, whereas one 2300mAh AA battery in my old i-River lasts over 40 hours, which is more than double the capacity. This was on you old i-river. How can you know what the charge/play time would be on the Sansa?
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newer electronics is produced in smaller fabrication processes and uses less electricity/is more energy efficient. Relying on this logic and the fact that the task is the same - mp3 decoding (again I’m not interested in video) I gather it should last even longer.
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- What are widely available are the Duracell & Energizer alkalines. You can buy them just about anywhere; grocery stores, 7-11’s, & virtually any place battery-powered ‘toys’ are sold. Not always so with re-chargeables.
- Almost all the people I know who use battery powered devices use NiMH rechargeables (with the exception of devices that specifically state that you shouldn’t use such batteries with them, namely blood pressure measuring devices)
- Granted, rechargeables are not as widely available as non-rechargeables, yet they are easily accessible. In the town where I live you would be hard-pressed to find two spaced further apart than a ten-minute walk and I don’t even live in the capital.
Just to set the record straight, the Fuze uses a Lithium-Polymer battery, not a Lithium-Ion.
I stand corrected.
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Next issue (very long section so I didn’t copy/paste) regarding capacity.
I store all my mp3s on my hard drives and on DVDs so I don’t need to keep them in my mp3 player, and yes, I’d like to keep my FUZE for as long as it’s in working order.
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As for buying rechargeable AA batteries, actually most people do buy them. I disagree. If that were the case, we’d be seeing that damm rabbit with the drum with an AC outlet in his back on the TV commercials. No, it’s just too ‘convenient’ and cheaper (short, not long term) to pick up a package of the disposables.
Maybe this is culture specific. Also, the AA player would probably appeal to more economy-minded people who would go for the rechargeables (and then again maybe not). Anyway, I’m all for choice.
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Proprietary is the way of the world now
Fine, let them make a little slide-off panel at the back of the player and make their batteries as widely available as those of leading mobile manufacturers (there’s a mobile shop on every corner, where I live) and I’ll stop complaining - I promise.
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I think that people who don’t live in the ‘developed world’ have a lot more things to worry about than where they’re going to find a replacement battery for their mp3 player. Most likely have never even heard of such a device. Any place that is ‘developed’ enough to where NiMH batteries are readily available will also have access to Li-Ion or Li-Poly ones if they’re needed.
Depends on your definition of ‘developed’. I personally live in Serbia, which, while it is no Somalia, is far less developed than Western Europe, the US, Japan, etc and while you can definitely buy generic Li-Ion and Li-Poly batteries, as well as those produced by leading cell-phone producers, you’d have a truly hard time finding a Sandisk Sansa battery. Also, it’s nigh-on impossible to get technical goods mailed to my country since even if I find an e-tailer that ships to Serbia, the goods are almost certain to be stolen either by customs or mail officials and there isn’t a damned thing I can do about it.
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And how many times have you found yourself more than 12 - 15 continuous hours away from a computer or AC outlet to re-charge?
Each time I go on holiday to Montenegro, although admittedly this does not happen very often.
Cheers