How is your Sansa Clip battery life?

I can now confirm that I get 16 hrs 40 min of playtime with my Clip… much better than I thought :slight_smile:

Sasafrass452 wrote:
I can now confirm that I get 16 hrs 40 min of playtime with my Clip… much better than I thought :slight_smile:

Wow! That’s great! Mine isn’t faring as well. After the meter taking about 4 hours of play to go from full to 75%, it’s now dropping to the 50% and 25% level much fastrer!- This is understandable though, as I have the EQ highly tweaked; often listen at at least half volume or more and have been using it out in below freezing temps. I’m still very pleased with it.

It’s been two weeks now since I’ve charged it…I may just have to charge 'er up next week!

Well, at that rate, your Clip will last you at least 17 years, battery-wise …

:wink:

Miikerman wrote:

Well, at that rate, your Clip will last you at least 17 years, battery-wise …

 

:wink:

HAHAhahaha!!! I hope so!

17 years? Really? That would be awesome!

Wow!  17 years is way better than the View’s 32 hours!

I just noticed another “behavior”, which could help explain some of the “self discharge” issues…

After doing a connect/disconnect, and after the database refresh (not playing any songs, just to do some testing around the ring light issue in '20) then changing the power OFF time to 5 minutes, then reconsidering and setting it back to 30 seconds, I set the device down for a few minutes, waiting for it to power OFF. Well after 30 seconds had elapsed, but not quite 5 minutes later, I hit the center button (why? I don’t know why) and THE CLIP WAS STILL ON (BTW the ring light came back ON again, too, and without a hard power cycle).

I need to see if I can replicate this and if I can, see if the Clip EVER shuts itself off - after one hour, it should for sure…

Message Edited by Click on 01-26-2008 05:07 PM

Nice find, Click… I can’t see why anyone would just set it down without actually turning it off, even though it’s *supposed* to turn off automatically. I always turn it off manually when I’m done using it… But it might very well be the culpret in some cases.

It’s a personal preference thing, but - I seldom use the switch, trusting in the self-power down most of the time. It’s just easier to pause a song when the phone rings or when I’m done using it for awhile, then it’s into the pocket or backpack. Presumably, it shuts itself down (I have had no self-discharge issues on either of the two Clips I own). When I need it again, yeah, THEN the power switch gets pushed.

I wonder how many users prefer to use the switch and how many prefer to trust the soft power down?? It would be nice if the forum had a “poll” option…

I use the power switch to shut 'er down…after pausing the song first. My Clip does shut down automatically though- I have the power on factory setting…and a few times, when I had paused it and not resumed soon enough (like after a minute or two) it needed to be restarted with the power switch. (Darn, I love this li’l thing!)

I think it’s best to use the power switch, so the battery isn’t drained any further. Even if it’s only a minute, you’ve lost that minute of playtime. 16 hrs isn’t really that much when you think about it. Every minute counts…

On a different note… I haven’t noticed any change in the battery meter since getting the new firmware. I’ve had it on for at least a couple of hours worth, & it still reads 100%. I thought it was supposed to be more gradual, as the battery is used? Or maybe I misunderstood?

After between 1-2 hours, my battery indicator was 1 pixel row less full.

Anyone notice any difference in performance with the new firmware version 20? Thus far I have not. Would be nice to have an option to disable the equilizer instead of just setting it to 0db gain on all 5 bands.

Miikerman, I’ve played mine longer than that & I don’t see a difference. Any ideas? Suggestions?

hy_tek wrote:
Anyone notice any difference in performance with the new firmware version 20? Thus far I have not. Would be nice to have an option to disable the equilizer instead of just setting it to 0db gain on all 5 bands.

When the equalizer is flat (all bands in the middle position- which is the factory setting) it is the same as not having an EQ.

I was about to say “play it louder and/or longer” - but I have something even better!

OK fellas, go here for a little surprise…

Now you can compare battery voltage readings, instead of pixels.

Just maybe, we’ll learn something that can help debug the battery failure issues as well.

Wow, sounds great. Has anyone had any problems with it? What should I do if something goes wrong?

Sasafrass452 wrote:
Miikerman, I’ve played mine longer than that & I don’t see a difference. Any ideas? Suggestions?

Well, why not just play it through the battery for a cycle and see how it works.  If the charge is there, that’s the important thing.  (You always could return it, if the charge is fine but the calibration bothers you.)  Also, by running the battery down to shut-off, that will re-set the battery gauge electronically.  My hunch is, everything is fine.

I’ve already run the battery down(twice), although it was before I upgraded the firmware. I’ll try that & see what happens. It’s not that it bothers me, I was just concerned there might be a problem…

Click, I just tried your suggestion at the link you posted. So far so good :slight_smile: