Battery Life Test

MP3 players Sansa Clip | Clip+
1

I have been following the battery life discussion with some interest.  I decided to run a test on my unit to see if it would run all day as the consensus seems to be about 5-hours. I ran my Sansa Clip+ 8Gb [B10910BNXK-8GB (V01.02.13A)] with 8Gb card installed into a pair of powered Altec Lansing VS2620 speakers.  Volume set to ‘High’ and Output level on the Sansa level set to approximately 95%. Replay Gain Off, Pre-Gain > 7.5dB, USB mode > MSC, EQ > Jazz.  All other settings remain at initial Factory settings.  After 6-hours the battery meter had just 2-black bars showing. After 10-hours the battery meter showed just over ½ remaining.  I then turned the Sansa off until the next morning.

I started the player the next morning in the same configuration.  As expected the battery indicator started dropping at a somewhat faster rate once it got below the ½ way point. At 13 hours elapsed time the meter was down to two bars remaining at which time I terminated the test.  I feel that the 13 hours represents a fair test and that San Disk’s representation of 15 hours is a fair estimate for an under ideal situation.

Now if San Disk would just start shipping the 32Gb cards!

2

Good to hear contrary to all those who have posted complaining about the battery life. Of course, in real life one would most likely be pressing buttons and turning the screen on periodically throughout the listening time, so that would have an detrimental impact on the play time. But doubtfully not that much.

3

Actually I did periodically access the screen to check on titles and to monitor the condition of the battery discharge.  This obviously affected the time.  The fact that I was using a powered speaker and gave the unit an overnite rest probably gave a little extra ompf.