Palm Pre Battery Drawing Mixed Reviews
With a little over a week having passed since the Palm Pre was officially made available to the public, reviews on Palm’s answer to the iPhone aren’t very difficult to come by. And while the majority of opinions on the Pre seem to overall be pretty positive, as expected the new smartphone’s battery isn’t anything to write home about.
“Battery life between charges is relatively weak. While it’s in line with competitors with a claimed five hours of talk time, and matches the iPhone’s claimed five hours of Web surfing time, it offers only half the iPhone’s 24 hours of continuous music playback and claims just five hours of video playback, versus seven for the iPhone.” Personal Technology – All Things Digital
Palm uses a rechargeable lithium-ion battery with a capacity of 1150 mAh. That’s the exact same capacity as the battery used in the iPhone 3G, as well as Palm’s Centro and the Palm Treo. The Pre’s touted “5 hours of talk time” is, as with other smartphones, largely dependent on the user and their efforts they make to stretch out each possible minute of life from the battery.
“A morning’s worth of heavy use may leave the Pre powerless by afternoon. I’ve been testing the Pre for less than a week, and typically, the battery meter hits the red zone before sunset. (Since the Pre uses removable batteries, though, you can always pop in a spare.) Palm acknowledges that battery use is a challenge and gives tips on power preservation.” Wired
The biggest advantage held by the battery found in the Palm Pre over that which comes with the iPhone appears to be the fact that it’s removable. While battery technology continues to improve and will eventually keep up with all of the features that make smartphones so popular, keeping 2 or 3 batteries around has proven to be the best way to ensure a full day’s use of the device. As Engadget mentions in their review of the Pre, it won’t be long until other battery alternatives hit the market for Palm’s latest addition to the world of smartphones
“Still, for the battery size and amount of data being pushed, it didn’t seem like the phone was performing unreasonably, and we don’t knock the fact that you can snag a second (or third!) battery if you know you’re going to push it. During the more conservative days — which we think reflect the kind of moderate use we put our phones through — battery life declined much less noticeably from morning till night. We’ll be keeping our eyes peeled for third-party options with more juice, but the brick in the box isn’t too shabby at all, especially given our expectations.” Engadget
Category: Battery News, Battery Resources
