Ipod Mini and Battery Life

[CybrFrettr]

I just recently returned my first generation Ipod Mini (4Gb, 8 hr Battery) for the 2G Ipod Mini (4G, 18 hr battery). At the time I returned the 1G Mini, I was getting about 6 hours usage out of the battery (it was about 1 yr old). I appear to be having the same problem with the 2G Mini (only about 2 months old). I recharged the Mini on Sunday evening to full charge. I have listened to about 3 albums (about 3 hours) since then. Today when I turned it on, the battery life showed about 1/3 left on the meter. This works out to an average of about 6 hours. I am quite unhappy.

What affects the battery usage? I have the backlight timer set to 30 sec or 1 minute. I rip my music into MP3 files at 192kbps. Do these have an effect on battery life?

Any thoughts or help would be appreciated.

 

[blessingx]

Well Apple recommends most song files remain under 9MB for 'efficient' battery use. 192 kbps should be fine, even 224 should be. Backlight always drains the battery, but unless on all the time shouldn't drain that quickly.

Six hours is what I got (on Photo) with lossless, so there's something up. Either the way you're using it or there's a defect on the player. You should get much more than that.

Keep in mind because of the PDA functions (clock, calendar, alarm) the iPod drains continually even if not used. Still not that quickly though.

http://www.apple.com/batteries/ipods.html
http://www.ipodbatteryfaq.com/

 

[Erik S.]

From my experience with the first generation mini is that you can't trust the batterymeter, sometimes it shows half, the next moment 2/3. The battery also drains when not in use.

But setting your backlight-timer to 30 sec or 1 min is a waste of battery, no wonder the battery drains fast. I use 2 sec on the backlight-timer or no light at all, and it helps a great deal for the batterylife. A friend of mine use the 2G mini and doesn't use the backlight-timer at all because it drains the battery to fast.

So just minimize the use of the backlight and the batterylifetime will be longer.

 

[CybrFrettr]

Thanks. The timer was set to 5 seconds on the backlight - I have turned it off - so that should help.