Touch Battery Life tested - Here are the results

[BlackWolf]

hi,
A few days ago I had the idea to actually test the ipods battery life. there are so many "rumors" in this forum on how long the battery actually lasts and how it is drained faster and whatnot, I just decided to do some testing to get some actual numbers.
So, I don't know if this is interesting to you, but I just thought I'd share my results with you.

(btw, my iPod is 8GB, week 47 and SSH was turned off during all tests)

First Test: Music Playback
So first of all I wanted to test the battery life when it comes to music playback. for this test, I created an on-the-go playlist with 10 songs. EQ was set to "Classical", sound check was on and volume bar at ~90-95%. all the files had covers. So I just started the playlist, switched the display off and let it do its job.

Result: 24 Hours

The iPod finally died on me after 24 hours. Since 20 hours is the official number by apple, this is actually quite good. Note that this number may be less in reality, since I had the display on for like 2 minutes or so during that 24 hours which is very likely to be more in reality. But still, you will end up with more than 20 hours.

Second Test: Wi-Fi
So now I wanted to know how long the battery lasts with wifi turned on and in use! For this test I created a webpage that automatically refreshed itself every 10 seconds, put a header in the page to make sure it wasn't loaded from cache and to be absolutly sure every time the page was loaded it showed a randomly created sequenze of 100 characters.

Result: 3 hours

That was quite a bummer. I expected it to be low but THAT low? Well, 3 hours, that's it. For those who are interested: With every page-load there were aproximatly 4 kilobytes of data downloaded. In 3 hours that makes something around 4MB of data downloaded.
Please note that my display brightness was set so around 25% with auto-brightness turned to off. So if you have your display brighter your battery might even last a lot shorter!

Third Test: Display
So after doing the first two test I figured that they were quite uncomparable, since the display was running the whole time during the second test and not at all during the first test. So this third test was basically exactly like the first test, but with the display running all the time. With this test I wanted to know how many power the display needed and how many was actually drained by wifi itself.

Result: 9 hours

Well, somehow what I expected. This means that both Wi-Fi and display are draining the battery almost equally. Wi-Fi a little more than the display but that might change if you touch the display alot or if you have your display set brighter than I had mine.

Result:
The iPod shows quite good results when it comes to music playback, but both Wi-Fi and the display are sucking a LOT of energy (From the 21-hour-difference between music playback only and wifi turned on and in use 9 hours were caused by display and 12 hours by wifi).

I know that there are lots and lots of tests that would be interesting (video playback, wifi on but not using it, SSH, ...) but I didn't have the time to do some more. Maybe I will if I feel like it. I don't know if this is even remotly interesting for you guys but maybe it is, so here you go.

regards
BlackWolf

PS: please no comments on how much free time I have :D

[jholmes8]

Very interesting. I don't find the results all that surprising and have found battery management rather easy. The reality is, if you use your touch a lot your gonna have to charge it every night (which I don't find a big deal at all). If your on an extended trip that won't allow you to charge often its best to stay away from wifi as much as possible and you'll get good enough battery life on just playing music with the display off to not make it an inconvenience.

[DerekVOF]

Nice job, BlackWolf... I think a lot of people (myself included) will appreciate it... :D

[dmonk]

Yeah thanks. I don't know why Apple didn't release any stats on battery life in Wifi..maybe because its not good advertisement.

It lasts a lot longer than my Dell Axim 51V...on Wifi, it lasts about an hour and 10 minutes..

[jaimev]

Thanks for the great info. I use my iPod Touch primarily for watching videos.

I did a video test with a single video that was 480x272, H.264 compression, 29.97 fps, with a data rate of 557 kbits/sec, and about 5 hours, 17 min long. (I used Visual Hub to concatenate the 12 episodes (encoded in AVI format) of the Flight of the Conchords, into a single long video clip)

With WiFi turned off, auto-brightness, set to off, brightness set to about the 33% of max, headphones plugged in and volume set to comfortable listening levels, I set the video to run to completion. The video did play all the way through, and I started it up again.

The final results: almost exactly 6 hours until my iPod turned off. About 1 hour more than the Apple spec sheets specified. I have an 16 Gb Touch, week 45.

[paranoidxe]

Cool the battery life for music playback should be well enough for me.

[Lord Entropy]

Nice work man.

Video life would be a good one and I plan on doing that this week when I get mine. Would be good to be able to do a direct comparison with someone else as well.

[dmonk]

Nice work man.

Video life would be a good one and I plan on doing that this week when I get mine. Would be good to be able to do a direct comparison with someone else as well.

Yep I was waiting for that one. I suspect if the encoded video is a higher resolution/ audio bitrate the battery life would be lower?



Also some good news guys!! I did some wi-fi testing under what I consider normal usage, instead of the OP's benchmark of every 10 seconds.

Settings:
auto brightness ON
~20% brightness
working in the evening. (So that means it dims a little under the actual 20% due to detection.)
Disabled EQ settings(this can very slightly effect battery life. I might turn it on later if I like some of them)

1. I was streaming mp3's(about 20-25mb to be more clear)
2. browsing the internet for a period of a little over an hour (on and off. I went to U.S. and foreign websites to read news and forums, test iphone apps)
3. This doesn't include when I was playing music and taking notes down earlier in the day.
Battery life is still far over 90%!



Contrarily, when I had screen brightness at 70%, streaming youtube, I was seeing pretty fast decline in battery. It probably would have died within 3 hours or less. I think the OP made a good point that the brightness and wi fi don't go well together. Of course, the video made a big impact as well.

[RompaRoom]

That wifi 3 hours time freaking sucks, wow!!


Thanks for the info though

[dmonk]

That wifi 3 hours time freaking sucks, wow!!


Thanks for the info though

read my results as I did things a little differently and got significantly more battery life.

[BlackWolf]

well, glad you get more. But I have to say I don't get more than 3 hours in daily usage. If I use my wi-fi heavily the 3 hours seem to be very accurate, my ipod dies in no time. of course if I don't use wifi all the time and maybe listen to music in the meantime it will take longer, but at least for me my test seems very accurate. don't think the 10-seconds-reload thing is unrealistic.

but if yours is better good for you :D

regards

[dlev11]

I know I should know this but, what is SSH?

[BlackWolf]

I know I should know this but, what is SSH?
Secure Shell, a protocol that allows you to access the ipods filesystem and copy/edit files on it after you jailbroke it.

regards

[gonzobman]

Secure Shell, a protocol that allows you to access the ipods filesystem and copy/edit files on it after you jailbroke it.

regards

Blackwolf, technically, in this arena, you may be correct, but not so in the bigger world. So I need to correct you a bit. I hate to do that because you're such a great asset to this forum. But...

Being a Unix Admin that uses SSH constantly as part of my job, SSH is a protocol that allows you to make a secure connection between two machines. The "shell" is the command line interface in Unix environment (which is what these little wonders are actually running), much like the "command window" in Windose. Hence the name Secure SHell. Normally this is used to allow secure command line type connections between two machines. In the case of the Touch, it appears (I haven't jailbroken mine... yet) that it will allow you to make a connection to the operating systems kernel, or in other words, lets you open up a "shell" on the machine where you can enter commands. (Correct me if I'm wrong in the case of the Touch. Like I said, I haven't used it yet on a Touch.)

I'd be very interested from those of you that use it, does it allow you to connect to another machine via wifi and what version of SSH does it use (V1 or V2) if it does?

-G

[DerekVOF]

Actually, on the iPod Touch, the SSH does allow you to send commands via the shell to the kernal, but it also allows for SFTP connections as well for the transfer of files...

[gonzobman]

Thanks, Derek!

That's what I wanted to hear! I didn't know if it would work over wifi or if it was just restricted to use via the USB cable to your workstation. Now I'm looking forward to either the SDK (if it includes SSH) or jailbreaking...

-G

[gonzobman]

(added)

And the fact that it also supports SFTP, well, that's just a bonus!

-G

[BlackWolf]

Blackwolf, technically, in this arena, you may be correct, but not so in the bigger world. So I need to correct you a bit. I hate to do that because you're such a great asset to this forum. But...

Being a Unix Admin that uses SSH constantly as part of my job, SSH is a protocol that allows you to make a secure connection between two machines. The "shell" is the command line interface in Unix environment (which is what these little wonders are actually running), much like the "command window" in Windose. Hence the name Secure SHell. Normally this is used to allow secure command line type connections between two machines. In the case of the Touch, it appears (I haven't jailbroken mine... yet) that it will allow you to make a connection to the operating systems kernel, or in other words, lets you open up a "shell" on the machine where you can enter commands. (Correct me if I'm wrong in the case of the Touch. Like I said, I haven't used it yet on a Touch.)

I'd be very interested from those of you that use it, does it allow you to connect to another machine via wifi and what version of SSH does it use (V1 or V2) if it does?

-G
well ... yes. but mine was shorter :D

[itouchbob]

very nice thanks

[Stay Alive 305]

Thanks for those tests!

It doesn't matter if the Wifi battery is only 3 hours.

Who is going to be on the internet on your iPod Touch for 3 hours?!

[mach_zero]

Who is going to be on the internet on your iPod Touch for 3 hours?!

I come close to that waiting in doctor's offices sometimes. :)

[w5jck]

Thanks for those tests!

It doesn't matter if the Wifi battery is only 3 hours.

Who is going to be on the internet on your iPod Touch for 3 hours?!

I read eBooks that I post to my web server. I easily chalk up 3 hours at a time when reading.

[Prozak]

I read eBooks that I post to my web server. I easily chalk up 3 hours at a time when reading.

Can you download the book to the ipod and have it stay in the cache so that then you can turn off wifi?

Also, how many hours do you get from Wifi Blackwolf? I didn't understand the last part under the results where you said 12 hours caused by wifi.

[kylo4]

Nice job Blackwolf, and to nitpick a little they promise up to 22 hours of playback.

Thanks though, its good to know what its getting.

[w5jck]

You can download files, but the Mail app disables internal hyperlinks.

[BlackWolf]

Can you download the book to the ipod and have it stay in the cache so that then you can turn off wifi?

Also, how many hours do you get from Wifi Blackwolf? I didn't understand the last part under the results where you said 12 hours caused by wifi.

If you read my post you should know the answer: 3 hours with wi-fi on, in use and the screen turned on the whole time.

when you want to read e-books create a gmail account, jailbreak 1.1.3, install the iphone apps and create a gmail account there. you can send pdfs to yourself and read them through the mail app then. just make sure your account is set to IMAP, not POP, but as far as I know the mail-app takes care of it.

[Wilder_K_Wight]

Moral of the story: If Wi-Fi is your thing, then you carrying a USB/wall charger might be a good idea.

If you're using it in the car, a car power adapter is probably a must-have.

[Mochan]

WiFi for 3 hours is not good but it's not really all that bad. Many laptops only work for like 3 hours (without WiFi) before needing a charge, so it's not all that bad and you get WiFi to boot to do web work.

I actually bought a Touch not to use as an MP3 player -- I already have a Nano and it is great for playing MP3s especially on the go or jogging. I bought the Touch to replace my aging iPaq 6300 as a PDA/web terminal.

The Touch doesn't last as long as the iPaq. I get about 10 hours of surfing on the iPaq I think. That thing had great battery life. But the Touch has a far better web browser. Keyboard is not as good but it does the job. The only things I really miss are cut and paste and multi-tasking. The battery life is okay, I think I get something like 5 hours, basically the iPaq lasts about almost twice as long as the Touch when I use them for the same purpose before needing to charge.

Being a longtime PDA user I am used to charging my devices every night so the Touch isn't a big deal, and I bought it as a PDA replacement anyway and not as an MP3 player.


To Gonzobman, the SSH is pretty standard and I think it uses V2 but not really sure. It allows you to make a connection between your Touch any other machine on your wifi network that has an SSH client. I have WinSCP on my desktop PC and it works great with the Touch with GUI.


@ w5jck, you can install Apache to your Touch and use it as a webserver, so you don't have to be online to read your eBooks. The just use Safari to go to localhost and you can read your books offline.

[jwmci]

@ Mochan,
If you could use the iPod touch as an Apache server, then it follows that you could use it as a portable game server. Do you know of anyone looking at this?

[agrsk8r]

I just picked up an iPod Touch and I've been observing battery life of about ONE hour when I play Solitaire city. I've had the iPod for about 2 weeks and I'm very disappointed with the battery. I was planning on calling the Applecare support line, but after reading this post maybe someone here would know if a simple game would normally drain the battery that fast. Here's the settings I'm using.

I charge the battery while the iPod is off and is fully charged when I start
screen brightness is all the way down and auto is off
wi-fi is on but I'm not actively using it
the screen saver turns off the screen after 1 minute of no usage
playing solitaire city

After what I've read above I'm going to test the battery life with wi-fi off to see if I get an improvement. Hopefully it will be significant.

[yodafett_77]

Wi-fi being on, even if not "actively being used" still chugs the battery. I would say it drains it by a magnitude of 2-3 times faster, even if you aren't connecting to anything.

[agrsk8r]

Thanks for the tip. I also found a localization setting that I found out likes to use up the battery. I am now up to 2-3 hours with the backlight turned up about 20%. I was still hoping for more, but this is at least acceptable. :)

[LivingForever]

I think the battery life is much worse since I upgraded to 2.0 software and started using apps like the Aurora Feint game and Facebook.

My touch gets very hot too!

[cowboyshootist]

What would be nice is if someone would write an app that would enable and disable WiFi on-demand. There used to be an app for Palm devices I believe called BTToggle which would toggle Blue Tooth off and on as needed by the application. If you're not actively using the connection is would shut off the radio but the application would still think the connection was live. By doing this you could extend the battery life of a Palm significantly.

WiFi might be more challenging since you have to establish a network connection but I am sure someone can figure out how to spoof the app into thinking the connection is active.

[mqcarpenter]

Great feedback. Good to see some field results on these factors.

[archurban]

the whole battery test thing is not really.... why? comparing with almost one year old iphone or ipod touch, of course, new one's battery life is way better. but the point is that you still could keep similar life after one year? answer is no. it is disposal. so I don't really mind battery life. plus, it uses wifi, all kind of stuff. so battery life is not much longer. so if you concern about it, why don't you carry extra battery pack?

by the way, since 2.0.1, battery life seems better little bit.

[cowboyshootist]

the whole battery test thing is not really.... why? comparing with almost one year old iphone or ipod touch, of course, new one's battery life is way better. but the point is that you still could keep similar life after one year? answer is no. it is disposal. so I don't really mind battery life. plus, it uses wifi, all kind of stuff. so battery life is not much longer. so if you concern about it, why don't you carry extra battery pack?

by the way, since 2.0.1, battery life seems better little bit.

Battery life after a year will depend on how it has been used (and abused) and whether it's been completely discharged and fully recharged often. There are reports on the net that suggest that keeping the battery charge topped off will extend the life of the batter by 30% or more.

As to carrying a battery pack (which I do) I'll turn that question around and ask why not make the battery larger (and the iPhone/Touch larger)? I have a battery pack that is slightly slimmer than my Touch and about the same dimensions but I'd rather have that power built into the unit. But that's just my personal preference. I know alot of people wouldn't want the iPhone or Touch to be fatter even if they could get double battery life.

[phigran]

i am a bit of a ipod virgin, but what is ssh?

[yodafett_77]

SSH is Secure SHell, a connectivity protocol not exclusive to iPods. it's kind of like making a secure "tunnel" connection to your target insead of an "open" connection like the internet.

[dmonk]

Battery life after a year will depend on how it has been used (and abused) and whether it's been completely discharged and fully recharged often. There are reports on the net that suggest that keeping the battery charge topped off will extend the life of the batter by 30% or more.

As to carrying a battery pack (which I do) I'll turn that question around and ask why not make the battery larger (and the iPhone/Touch larger)? I have a battery pack that is slightly slimmer than my Touch and about the same dimensions but I'd rather have that power built into the unit. But that's just my personal preference. I know alot of people wouldn't want the iPhone or Touch to be fatter even if they could get double battery life.

do you happen to have the powerport one?

[madmaxmedia]

I read eBooks that I post to my web server. I easily chalk up 3 hours at a time when reading.

Yeah, but then your operating 'conditions' are totally different. You aren't loading up a new web page every 10 seconds, so your battery life will be significantly longer.

You could extend it even longer by loading an ebook, then shut off wifi while you're reading that page. But that's probably not worth the trouble, since just keeping your screen on is a battery hit. OTOH if you are loading up an entire ebook (and not just chapters), it might be worth it (assuming the ebook stays in cache while you exit Safari to shut off wifi.)

The Touch has excellent battery life IMO given its functionality, great web browser, operating system, and slimness. Back when PDA's first started getting wifi, a lot of them would last no more than an hour or so, even with a crappy web browser.

[FlyingToaster]

Thanks, you helped me so much!

[xavierh]

I have a 32 GB touch and here are my results. The ipod is running the latest revision of the firmware and before actually running the test, the ipod was turned off, turned on and recharged completely and with the wifi off.

Other conditions:
Screen off
no auto brightness adjustment
screen brightness set at 25%
default ipod earphones (the ones that come with the ipod).
volume at 50%

I started the test by selecting the the first song of the ipod and pressing play, immediately pressing the top button to turn off the screen. the music that I have on my ipod all mp3's and they have a wide variety of encoding, 128, and high vbr)

The test started at 8:30 yesterday (Friday August 29) CST US. It is right now 12:15pm (CST) on Saturday 30th and the ipod is still playing music. this is definitely more than 22 hours of continuous playtime.

I got the ipod in May of this year (2008).

UPDATE: The IPOD stopped playing after 1.2 Days (28.8 hours) of continuous music playback.

[craz]

I have an 8GB and my touch dies after 6 hrs of music and about 3 hours of video.
Can it be because of my jb? I have SSH/Wifi turned off but screen is on once in a while.

If I return this apple (my 1 year warranty ends on Nov 18) before Nov 18 and after the ipod touch 2g comes out, you think they'll just give me a 2g instead since its so costly to replace the battery? =)

[DerekVOF]

No, they'll probably just give you a refurbished 1G or just swap out the battery.

As for your actual battery life, this page from Apple details info on battery life and provides links to info on how to maximize life and how to see if your battery is low enough to justify replacement - http://www.apple.com/batteries/

[archurban]

I used to test things before. but I don't do that anymore since I have own lots of ipod. I just use it.

[craz]

I'm on iPod touch firmware 1.0, will going to 2.1 have any significant battery performance increases? I don't want to pay for new firmware just because I bought the iPod touch earlier than the rest of the customers, that's just stupid

[natoosh21]

yeah i was wondering the same thing craz... but its too late cuz its downloading right now. :P
i hope its worth it
my battery got drained in about 2 days after listening to like only maybe 4 hours of music... no videos or nothing. so im hoping the update will do it some good.

[AndyT4097]

Having the 2.1 upgrade is like having an entirely different iPod. Its no longer just for music/video/photos/internet, its now your mobile gaming device, its just great with the update. I think you will enjoy it.

[craz]

Having the 2.1 upgrade is like having an entirely different iPod. Its no longer just for music/video/photos/internet, its now your mobile gaming device, its just great with the update. I think you will enjoy it.

I jbed mine so I kind of always had a gaming device xD

[tripleDUNK]

You have wayyyyyyy too much time on your hands dude. :p

But it's appreciated. Thanks :cool: