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April 20, 2004
Impressive Battery Life on the Treo 600
Just a quick post: I've now been using the Treo 600 for well over a month. So far, I'm damned impressed at its battery life.
For example, I can easily go an entire weekend of fairly heavy use (mostly PDA+GPRS plus some talk time) without even coming close to running the battery down.
Another example is from last night. I spent almost 3 straight hours using it for ebook reading (Lessig's Free Culture is excellent, by the way) with the phone on standby and GPRS enabled the entire time. When I finally turned in, my battery was still at 87%. No PDA-phone I've ever used had even close to this much stamina. Well done, guys!
Comments
That is some amazing battery life, good to know when considering a new device. Any complaints?
Posted by: Jeramey at April 20, 2004 9:43 PM
Jeramey: Complaints...hmmm. I wish the GPRS was faster, but that's more of a T-Mobile issue than a Treo complaint. There are lots of other things that would be nice for the Treo to do (e.g., Wi-Fi), but there's nothing that I think is really broken or done poorly. Oh, one thing, now that I think about it: the camera is pretty awful...I'm seriously disappointed in the quality of photos it takes. Other than that, however, the device is just marvelous. I find myself using my Tungsten C almost never simply because the Treo is good enough at all the things the TC did for me (wireless email and web, mostly).
Posted by: Craig at April 20, 2004 11:36 PM
I've been using one for over 4 months now and still see fantastic battery life as well. It's rare if I have to charge it more than twice a week.
Posted by: Ryan at April 21, 2004 10:21 AM
Wifi: I've been using a MS Smartphone for about a year now and with unlimited GPRS I've never really missed WiFi. For small devices GPRS can deliver data about as fast as they can process it. Wifi would allow access to a local network but the real solution is to put those resources on the Internet so you can access them anywhere. The Treo sure looks nice but how can you actually read an ebook for hours on a screen that size without having seizures?
Posted by: Grandpa at April 21, 2004 4:56 PM
Grandpa, I've read over 40 full-length novels on PDAs, most of those on 160x160 (color and monochrome) screens. No deleterious effects so far that I can tell. While 320x320 or 480x320 is better, the Treo screen is certainly OK by me for this purpose.
Posted by: Craig at April 21, 2004 5:00 PM
I guess my issue is that I would never consider reading an actual book with a page that small. Take a business card and cut it in half and that's what we're talking. Higher res does help and certainly the fact that there are literally hundreds of books in your pocket does too though.
I did read a few novels on my Newton 110. Just waiting for a Newton 2000 sized PDA to come along.
Posted by: Grandpa at April 21, 2004 6:05 PM
What sites can you recommend for ebooks? How much memory does a, say, 400 page book require on a flash memory card?
Posted by: Leigh at May 2, 2004 11:16 AM
Ebooks, Leigh? Check out www.memoware.com and www.fictionwise.com and www.palmreader.com -- those are my favorites (I founded the first one back in 1996).
Posted by: Craig at May 5, 2004 10:43 AM
I am surprised at the long battery life comments. Mine is anything but frugal with power usage even with minimal use. I find it needs charged at least every other day and all I do is look up a few contacts and make several calls as it is not my primary cell phone. I often find it totally dead in the morning.
Posted by: Michael at May 9, 2004 8:54 PM
Michael, it sounds like you have something wrong with your Treo...I'd call service, since your experience is very atypical based on all the comments and first-hand experiences I've seen.
- Craig
Posted by: Craig at May 10, 2004 11:37 AM