Posts Tagged ‘Music Playback’

Conclusions from testing the BlackBerry Bold 9700 battery

November 23rd, 2009 BBerryNews

BlackBerry_Bold_9700_battery

Testing the BlackBerry Bold 9700 battery has been an interesting experience. I always thought consumer electronics manufacturers embellished their battery life expectancies in order to impress the buyer. In this case, RIM has actually slightly under-stated the Bold 9700’s battery life, and really proved themselves to be an honest company when it comes to their battery life marketing. Could we say the same for Apple? I challenge TIPB to do the same with the iPhone, and see if it can play 39 hours of music off radio and last 29 hours with heavy usage. Speaking of Apple…the BlackBerry Bold 9700 lasts longer than the best iPod.

Bold9700_versus_iPod

Just look for yourself, the BlackBerry Bold 9700’s battery, lasts longer than that of the best iPod available.

In Part 1 of the BlackBerry Bold 9700 battery stress test, we threw RIM a bone and checked out the music playback with the wireless connections off. For the second part, it was important to test how long the battery would last given very heavy usage. During the 29 hours that the BlackBerry was on, it went through the following:

  • About an hour of voice over 8 phone calls.
  • 10 SMS messages received, 7 sent.
  • 13 Tweets from UberTwitter, 9 of which contained a pic.
  • Google Maps running the whole time and updating Latitude.
  • About 8 hours of music streaming and playing via Bluetooth.
  • Received about 30 emails and replied to around 15.
  • The remaining time spent with all connections on and pulling data.

This is the first BlackBerry that I have been able to run more than 1 full day of usage without charging. There are definitely updates and optimizations made to the OS that make music playback more efficient, as well as general improvements to the device that make the battery last longer than any other BlackBerry. If you’re interested, I could do similar experiments with other BlackBerry smartphones. Anyone want to know about the Storm2 battery?

This BlackBerry test proves that the Bold 9700 has a killer battery.

Special thanks goes out to Slacker for white listing my account so it can be played in Canada. Now if only the lazy bureaucrats can get their act together, Canadians would have an awesome music device.

© Kyle for BlackBerry Cool, 2009



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Stress Test: How long can the BlackBerry Bold 9700 play music? (Part 2)

November 18th, 2009 BBerryNews

BlackBerry_Bold9700_battery_test

UPDATE: The time is 18:14 and the status screen is telling me the battery is at 80%. By the looks of the meter, I would say it’s around 95%, but we’ll see. We are almost 4 hours on WiFi, taking in emails, BBM, and SMS, streaming music using Nobex and playing it via Bluetooth over the BlackBerry Media Gateway. Go baby go!

UPDATE: The time is 15:55, just over an hour into the test and the battery hasn’t budged, we’re still full bars. I’ve had a few BBM’s, and about 10 emails come in through WiFi, all the while streaming music using Nobex and playing it off the BlackBerry Media Gateway. Things might change if I leave the office and get off WiFi.

UPDATE: Okay we’re good to go. I have the Bold 9700, running all connections, using EDGE, roaming on the Rogers network and this bad boy is sucking in data like a Dyson vacuum. The time is 14:22 and we’re starting off on WiFi, at my office, listening to the Bold 9700 via Bluetooth on 7.1 surround sound. I know, it doesn’t make a difference that it’s 7.1 but it’s still cool. I also made sure to make the amplifier read Bold 9700. Oh yeah, and I’m running Nobex Radio Companion for the music because Pandora and Slacker figured out I’m Canadian. We’re full battery.

So it turns out the BlackBerry Bold 9700 can play music for up to 38 hours, as advertised (the BlackBerry Cool official time is just short of 39 hours).

It seems as though we tested the Bold 9700’s music playback in a similar way that RIM would test it. There might be a standard for such a test somewhere, and maybe the National Institute of Standards and Technology could comment.

Let’s get on to Part 2 because it’ll be much more interesting. Playing the Bold 9700 with the radio turned off is really throwing RIM a bone. It’s time to test the Bold 9700 under some decent Power User conditions. For Part 2 of “Stress Test: How long can the BlackBerry Bold 9700 play music?”, I’m going to use the device as a primary communication and music device. I think the following conditions would be cool:

  • Radio On.
  • WiFi On.
  • American SIM and device roaming on Canadian Network.
  • Streaming Slacker Radio during down time.
  • Headphones On, Volume Full and Bass Boost On.
  • When at office and home, connected via Bluetooth and playing to stereo (this is a personal shout-out to BlackBerry Cool Reader Caspan).
  • Taking emails, calls and SMS.
  • Taking advantage of GPS and maps when appropriate.
  • I might even take a pic or two.

So take your guess, how long will the Bold 9700 play music under heavy usage conditions? Comment your predictions and we’ll see the discrepancy.

© Kyle for BlackBerry Cool, 2009



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