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iPod iPod Nano 4G battery-life inquiry

C

Clownius

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 26, 2008
22
0
Hello All :)

Just wanted to ask you guys a question but first some background.

I just went through the first use of my new iPod nano. For me the battery lasted about 9.1 hours used at various occasions everyday from Thursday night to Tuesday afternoon with varying time usage from about 15mins to about 1.5hrs. I only watch 3 mins of video to see how it looks.

Now I know that devices rarely last as long as the supposed time but the difference from about 24hrs to just over 9hrs is a rather big difference. I just wanted to ask users of the new nano how long their battery life is compared to mine.

Please and Thank you :)
 
When it says 24 hours for audio, it mean with the backlight turned off most of the time with the volume at a particular level. If you have the backlight on a lot (going through menus, changing songs) that uses up the battery faster.

You could try calibrating the battery (as it is recommended to do so maybe once a month), by letting it go completely flat, then charging it and not using it until it has completely recharged. It could just be the battery indicator being stupid, and calibrating usually makes it more accurate.
 
I see, I see

Just for your information, i set the backlight to turn off after 5 seconds and the looking through menus was minimal. Although i look through the entire library (2400 songs) on coverflow twice...

Would i need to calibrate the battery considering that was the first time i used the battery from start to finish??

Also a couple questions about calibrating. How long would i let it stay flat for before recharging? Do i just leave it there whilst it's dead or do i keep trying to turn it on every now and then?

Sorry if questions sound stupid. Thanks!
 
Clownius said:
I see, I see

Just for your information, i set the backlight to turn off after 5 seconds and the looking through menus was minimal. Although i look through the entire library (2400 songs) on coverflow twice...

Would i need to calibrate the battery considering that was the first time i used the battery from start to finish??

Also a couple questions about calibrating. How long would i let it stay flat for before recharging? Do i just leave it there whilst it's dead or do i keep trying to turn it on every now and then?

Sorry if questions sound stupid. Thanks!
Click to expand...

I get about 5 hours of charge on my new one. I mostly use it while walking so the ****ing accelerometer is probably always active with coverflow. It sucks.
 
Agasthya said:
I get about 5 hours of charge on my new one. I mostly use it while walking so the ****ing accelerometer is probably always active with coverflow. It sucks.
Click to expand...

You serious?!?!

Is it on hold whilst it's in your pocket? If it is then damn that sucks!

Look at me complaining about my 9 hours when your only getting 5. lol
 
Does anyone else want to contribute :confused:

Its hard to develop an understanding of iPod battery life range when only one person responds :p
 
I was getting 4 1/2 hours from a battery charge. I bought my Nano online from Apple. I returned it and they sent it back to me saying there was nothing wrong with it. But I'm still getting 4 1/2 hours from a charge. Not sure what to do now. I mostly listen to the radio - is it possible for the radio to run down the battery quicker than just listening to music from the library?

Thanks
 
me too. my new nano 4g has a battery life of about 4.5h whereas my nano 3g had at least 20 hours. this was with the very first load, i hope it's not the accelerometer but this should not be new to :apple: as ipod touch and iphone 1g have accelerometers, too. i'd assume :apple: have a software based solution for the accelerometer so this problem should really be caused by the battery itself.

will make my way to the :apple: store tomorrow, let's see what they say...
 
...they sent me away!

i wanted to speak to someone but they said without an appointment there was nothing they can do. unfortunately there was no appointment available the same day.

I WANTED TO EXCHANGE MY IPOD, LESS THAN TWO WEEKS OLD, AND THEY DIDN'T EVEN WANT TO HEAR WHAT THE PROBLEM WAS! this is the official :apple: store in london. great service! maybe i should not buy an :apple: product next time...
 
SioKea said:
I was getting 4 1/2 hours from a battery charge. I bought my Nano online from Apple. I returned it and they sent it back to me saying there was nothing wrong with it. But I'm still getting 4 1/2 hours from a charge. Not sure what to do now. I mostly listen to the radio - is it possible for the radio to run down the battery quicker than just listening to music from the library?

Thanks
Click to expand...

Do you have the apple radio remote?
If so how do you like it and does it work well?
I am thinking about getting one.
 
Yes, I have the Apple radio remote and I think it's great! I have discovered though that it decreased the battery time a lot. Apparently it has no energy source of it's own so uses the charge from the iPod. So, that explains why I was getting so little time from a charge!!
 
Wow, i thought this thread died. Nice to see that it's still around :D

Just thought I'd give an update. After each time I've charged my new nano, the battery improves by a couple of hours:

9.5hrs
12.5hrs
16 hrs

I haven't finished this current cycle yet but I'm happy with the battery life being around that amount. Much better than my old mini which after all these years lasted only about 4 hours

Oh and i only listen to albums on the nano. Genius is getting repetitive. So i have very little interaction with the nano during the album other than the odd volume readjustment.

Cheers
 
Has anyone else found the battery life improving on the 4th Gen Nano?

Just reading this thread I am glad to see that I am not the only person having low nano battery life!

Regarding Clownius' last post - has anyone else found the battery life on the new nano increasing with charges - I am on about the third charge of my 16gb nano and had been really disappointed with it so far compared to the second generation one it was replacing which I seemed to use all the time and charge about once a week.

I was going to take this one back to the shop but would rather avoid the hassle if I am experience 'normal' behaviour from my ipod which will improve.:)
 
ipod nano 4g battery life

hello there i'd just like to add that i agree with the last post i to am experiencing the same thing with this new 4g nano i had the 2nd gen and it didn't give me battery problems at all not to mention that i bought it used and it stayed good throughout, never having to charge it but once a week. this new one sucks, i let it die charged it fully and it still acts up even when all u do is listen to music and nothing else and everything turned off, very disapointing, i beleive they put a cheaper battery in these ones compared to the 2nd gen ones, considering that we are still paying alot for them you'd think they'd put a more reliable one, what rip-off artists.
 
Does this help . . .

I have a 3rd generation 4 GB nano. I use it to watch videos a lot, but I also listen to lectures and audio books. I just tested it yesterday because I thought that after a little more than a year I was not getting very good battery life. I played the same 43 minute TV show over and over again for 3 hours. Put the nano to sleep overnight and ran the show again for another hour. The battery still showed about 25% power left. So I figure I'd be getting at least 4.5 hours viewing time but probably more. That's close to what is claimed by Apple.

If it will play video for 4.5 hours--backlight at 50% but on all the time and audio continuously playing--I would guess that it would play just audio for a good nine or ten hours, but I haven't tested that out yet.

I recharge almost daily not because I completely drain the battery but just to keep it fully charged.
 
Pretty great for me.

I've had mine for 2 months and, for the first two weeks, the battery life was only about 10 hours. Now it's about 18-19 even with backlight on for 2 seconds and backlight at 6/15 bars.

I did a battery life test comparing the iPod nano 4G and 2G. I got 31 hours and 32 minutes on the 4G, while I got 28 hours and 50 minutes on the 2G.
 
My 4th Gen has always gotten horrible battery life. On a full charge, just scrolling through the menu or playing one song will make the battery meter go down. I don't use cover flow or anything like that. Just play music. Meanwhile my old 1st Gen Shuffle is still getting great battery life after years of use.

Case in point: I just charged the battery to full a few hours ago. I turned it on a few minutes ago, and already the battery is visibly drained (i.e. the battery meter icon isn't full), without even having used it. It's been like this since I bought it (brand new from Apple.com).

Twenty-five minutes later, it's STILL charging... when I never used it after charging it up to full earlier today. I wonder if I could get them to replace it, it's completely useless.
 
mine has been getting great battery life! i bought it two weeks ago and so far im getting around 14-16 hours which i dont mind because i dont need anymore then that anyways.
 
I bought my nano january 11th and have charged it twice since then and that is including the initial charge.
 
I recently also bought an Ipod Nano 4G while believing it will have close to 24 hours of battery life, but even with the back light set to minimum and with coverflow turned off it lasts for about 4 hours max!

This gap, from 24 (as advertised) to 4 hours is way beyond reasonable
 
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