ATTN: Palm Pre Average Battery Life Study!

Tcub · 10/05/2009, 06:49 PM

Greetings everyone!

The PreCentral.net community has done a great deal for me and I'd like to give back by answering a difficult question...

How long does a Palm Pre battery last?

I'll need your help though! With data collected from all of you fellow Palm Pre users, I'm going to compile the results in an Excel Spreadsheet and post it with the results here on PreCentral.net!

Who?
This is a project that will be the result of a collaboration of all Palm Pre users here at PreCentral.net!

What?
Real world results of what the average Palm Pre user gets in terms of battery life from day-to-day usage. (Average!)

When?
Right now! The preliminary results will be based on 24 (25 including myself) Palm Pre users. As/If more results come in, the data and Excel Spreadsheet will be updated, thus resulting in a more accurate look at our average battery life.

Where?
PreCentral.net of course! They've provided us with the community. It's up to us to make the best of it!

Why?
Battery life is a concern for current and future Palm Pre users alike. Many wonder "Am I getting the proper battery life I should?" or "What kind of battery life can I expect from the Palm Pre?" With our results combined, ANYONE can see where they stand or what to expect!

How?
If you'd like to participate in this research, you'll need the following...

A Palm Pre with the stock battery
The "BatteryMonitor" App Installed on your Pre!

That's it! I'd like to ask everyone participating to please run the app for AT LEAST 12 hours and post a screen shot of the results or the following;

Initial Battery %:
Current Battery %:
Runtime:
Drain Per Hour %:
Remaing Life (hrs):

These results will be entered into the Excel Spreadsheet I've prepared which will then automatically calculate averages for each and highlight the important averages we're looking for!

To start, I'd like at least 25 individuals to share their results before I post the averages and spreadsheet. After that I'll update the spreadsheet and repost the results and spreadsheet as more results are provided.

Together we can help others concerned about battery life and ensure we're all getting the battery life we deserve. Plus it's a cool community oriented project!

I understand that there are many factors that can contribute to battery life such as; phone calls, GPS usage, listening to MP3's or streaming music, et cetera so I'd like to ask that you track your battery life on a day you'd consider "average". The results are also labeled as an "average" and are solely provided to be just that.

Thanks to everyone and I hope to see as many participate as possible to ensure our results are as accurate as possible!

::If you need the BatteryMonitor App on your Pre::
You can download it and install it via fileCoaster. Click this link for further instructions!

This post will be updated later with the results and Excel spreadsheet file attachment as soon as they're available. Stay Tuned!

Elysian893 · 10/05/2009, 06:54 PM

I've already done a few of these tests, so I can be of some assistance right away:

Day 1 of testing:

Day 2 is a 2 parter, first my standby time(for the most part):

Part 2, heavy usage:

dvdmax · 10/05/2009, 06:54 PM

Can't we just tell them it's not good and be done with it? They are the manufacturer. They can take 100 units from the factory floor and use them in a test jig for a day, and get much better results and statistics than our data. Trust me, I'm an Six Sigma certified AQL quality engineer working in the CE industry.

JKTex · 10/05/2009, 06:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dvdmax

Can't we just tell them it's not good and be done with it? They are the manufacturer. They can take 100 units from the factory floor and use them in a test jig for a day, and get much better results and statistics than our data. Trust me, I'm an Six Sigma certified AQL quality engineer working in the CE industry.

Agreed. Other than for some guys curiosity, an uncontroled test doesn't produce much more than a lot of work for someone.

Tcub · 10/05/2009, 07:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dvdmax

Can't we just tell them it's not good and be done with it? They are the manufacturer. They can take 100 units from the factory floor and use them in a test jig for a day, and get much better results and statistics than our data. Trust me, I'm an Six Sigma certified AQL quality engineer working in the CE industry.

We could tell them it's not good enough. The problem is that's A) Not specific at all and B) An opinion. Granted it may be a popular opinion, it is still nonetheless not fact. Palm could take 100 units but again, that doesn't sound like "real world" performance to me. I understand these results aren't 100% but it beats the "X Hours Standby, X Hours Talk Time EVDO, X Hours Talk Time 1X, etc". Plus I see it being for the community, by the community.

rocknrollbandit · 10/05/2009, 07:11 PM

there's gonna be so much range, this won't prove much other than battery life is poor overall. It all depends on what app your using, your signal strength, display settings, etc etc etc etc etc

Tcub · 10/05/2009, 07:19 PM

Let me clarify this to everyone. This is ONLY an AVERAGE. If you read through my post, I state this a few times and I also noted that there are many contributing factors. After 25 people post results, lets see if these averages are around what you or I actually get day to day.

rocknrollbandit · 10/05/2009, 07:31 PM

but it won't really prove anything, we already know the battery life is poor and even if you get an average it won't really apply to anyone else as each person is likely to get drastically different life depending on how they use it. Not trying to be down on it but I just don't see the usefulness

Chirurgie · 10/05/2009, 07:35 PM

I think it's a valiant effort to at least record and know an average (and standard deviation) so that the average user knows he/she has say 10hours +/- 2.5 hours and can plan accordingly, especially when travelling

rocknrollbandit · 10/05/2009, 07:39 PM

the average user would already know that by owning the pre and using it day to day...

wynand32 · 10/05/2009, 07:44 PM

Unfortunately, while I like the idea of this in general, it's really not possible to create a meaningful "average." Simply put: there's far too much variability in how we use our devices, and so unless we specify the apps to run for how long, calls to make, etc., etc., then we can't draw any kind of conclusions from this kind of test.

After all, in order to determine an average, you have to know the numbers the average is based upon. Otherwise, what you're really doing is generating pretty much random data.

Tcub · 10/05/2009, 07:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rocknrollbandit

the average user would already know that by owning the pre and using it day to day...

How about someone considering the Pre? Or someone who suspects they may have a faulty battery?

rocknrollbandit · 10/05/2009, 07:51 PM

go ahead, I'm not stopping you, just making some points

Tcub · 10/05/2009, 07:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wynand32

Unfortunately, while I like the idea of this in general, it's really not possible to create a meaningful "average." Simply put: there's far too much variability in how we use our devices, and so unless we specify the apps to run for how long, calls to make, etc., etc., then we can't draw any kind of conclusions from this kind of test.

After all, in order to determine an average, you have to know the numbers the average is based upon. Otherwise, what you're really doing is generating pretty much random data.

I understand completely. There are certainly LOTS of conditions that will affect but I'm saying some numbers are better than no numbers. I wouldn't say the averages produced equate to "random data" either. With 25 people giving such detailed information we can say things like "The average run time was this, while the average initial was this, and average drain per hour was this". These numbers in themselves are simply averages which also have lots of variables.

For instance, for a few hours I could be in a wifi network, thus improving my overall battery life and lowering the "drain per hour %" number. While I could then leave that wifi hotspot and enter a dead zone which would increase my drain per hour.

If anything that "BatteryMonitor" app is worthless too as it's doing the same thing I am. Only I'm doing between 25+ different people rather than one.

Beefy · 10/05/2009, 08:02 PM

One thing I noticed (I've since removed it) was that the BatteryMonitor app DOES add to the battery drain from the Pre.

If you're going to use these results with any degree of certitude, you must first extrapolate how much the app is contributing to the drain per hour.

GMoney749 · 10/05/2009, 08:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Beefy

One thing I noticed (I've since removed it) was that the BatteryMonitor app DOES add to the battery drain from the Pre.

If you're going to use these results with any degree of certitude, you must first extrapolate how much the app is contributing to the drain per hour.

...or any other app, for that matter. You've got folks with patches, HomeBrew apps (I have one that I'm pretty sure has a bug that causes substantial drain under the right circumstances), others that have rooted their devices, and you have no idea how many you're getting out of each category. So you'll be giving Palm this "average" number, and including numbers for people who have done things to their devices over which Palm exercises no control.

Plus, like every other sample taken here, it's an internet forum and you have no way of excluding data that's total BS.

Bad data is worse than no data.

Tcub · 10/05/2009, 08:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Beefy

One thing I noticed (I've since removed it) was that the BatteryMonitor app DOES add to the battery drain from the Pre.

If you're going to use these results with any degree of certitude, you must first extrapolate how much the app is contributing to the drain per hour.

I did take this into consideration. On top of typing in the #'s the kind PreCentral.net users give me, I'm also going to look into what Palm and other reliable sources mention about battery life and use those to determine a +/- for each of the averages.

Brain Mantis · 10/05/2009, 08:14 PM

Average day:

(the time looped over past 24 hours.)

Tcub · 10/05/2009, 08:41 PM

Thanks to those who contributed numbers and thanks to those who are giving suggestions/ideas/concerns. I'm asking for screenshots so the likelihood of "BS" is minimized. If I end up with just text.. well. It's just a trust thing.

If you don't agree with what I'm doing here, that's fine. I'm doing this out of curiosity to see what other people are getting and this is information I'm going to organize and share with everyone here. It may help someone out, it'll probably be interesting, but first and foremost this is a community project. We're all here for one reason. Instead of flaming someone's ideas (no matter how stupid you may feel it is) why not do what you can to make this a good place to go for people seeking information. If you think the information I'm getting is junk, wait and see how it turns out. If you think you can do something better to contribute to PreCentral.net, do it.

StormD · 10/05/2009, 09:42 PM

I want to participate in this, but I've never been able to get my Pre to go a whole 12 hours without plugging it in.