Zune battery life

[regnez]

So I got a Zune for Christmas, and think it is pretty cool. Music, videos, pictures, wifi, all that. The software is kinda of a resource hog, but whatever. I am also a fan of the subscription music service instead of having to buy albums/songs.

In any case, I don't actually have much use for my Zune, but when I do use it, I only listen to music. I don't watch movies, look at pictures, anything. Just start the music and leave it be.

I have wireless turned off, and the display brightness all the way down. Even with that setup I only get about six hours of battery life from it.

Is this normal? Does anyone have any personal experience with their own Zune?

Does anyone even have a Zune? I might be the only one.

 

[corkyg]

Zune

Seems to be a common complaint.

 

[regnez]

I am not sure how reliable a Mac news site is going to be in giving honest, unbiased news on Microsoft products, especially those competing with Apple's all dominant iPod.

And in that article, it is just saying that people are "skeptical" about the battery life of the Zune with wifi enabled. That, and its July 24th date all boil down to an article simply trying to kill any enthusiasm people might have had for the Zune, rather than cold, hard facts about the player.

Now, for me, the complaints in the article did turn out to be true, even with wifi disabled. But what I am wondering is if this terrible battery life has made its way across all Zune's, or if there is just something wrong with mine.

 

[potato28]

I don't have a Zune, nor an iPod, but anyways is there a timer that turns off the screen after a few seconds(minutes)? It should give it a larger battery life...

 

[regnez]

Originally posted by: potato28
I don't have a Zune, nor an iPod, but anyways is there a timer that turns off the screen after a few seconds(minutes)? It should give it a larger battery life...

Yeah, I forgot to mention that. On the Zune (dunno about the iPod), you can set the screen to turn off after 5, 15, 30, or 60 seconds when listening to music. Needless to say, it is always on when watching a video/looking at pictures.

I have that set to 5 seconds, so five seconds after I stop fiddling with the playlists and all that, the screen goes blank. Even with that and all the other settings turned all the way down, I only manage six hours battery life.

 

[darkswordsman17]

No that is not normal. I think MS says that music should last about 12 hours.

Are you by any chance listening to lossless audio files? If so this could explain it as they will put a lot more work on the system (larger files mean the HDD is accessed a lot more often, and it takes more processing power to play the files). If not then I would say you might have gotten a defective one. Maybe try calling Microsoft support and see what they say.

 

[darkswordsman17]

Originally posted by: corkyg
Zune

Seems to be a common complaint.

Did you read the OP or that article? The article is just some Wall Street analyst who says the wireless capability might cause it to have worse battery life than an iPod. The OP says that he has wireless turned off.

 

[regnez]

Originally posted by: darkswordsman17
No that is not normal. I think MS says that music should last about 12 hours.

Are you by any chance listening to lossless audio files? If so this could explain it as they will put a lot more work on the system (larger files mean the HDD is accessed a lot more often, and it takes more processing power to play the files). If not then I would say you might have gotten a defective one. Maybe try calling Microsoft support and see what they say.

I didn't even think about how the quality of the audio files would affect the player/battery life. Thanks for bringing that up.

I have sixty or seventy albums on my Zune, and of those, I would say 80% of them were ripped at only 128kbps, and the other 20% are at 320kbps.

When I listen to music on it, I always just put it on shuffle and let it do its thing, so for the most part, it only plays 128kbps songs...

If battery life is quoted at 12 hours by MS, then I must have a broken one...

 

[corkyg]

Originally posted by: darkswordsman17[/iDid you read the OP or that article? The article is just some Wall Street analyst who says the wireless capability might cause it to have worse battery life than an iPod. The OP says that he has wireless turned off.

Both. The battery life consensus is 12 hours avg.

Zune2