battery life

[ckufta]

I have read some of the threads about battery life, but it seems that they are conflicting, and largely based on beta versions. Now that it has been out for a while does anyone have any experience with battery life:
what I'm interested in are:
mp3 playback (screen off): ???
wireless on (full brightness, low brightness): ???
standard use without wireless (full brightness, low brightness): ???
also, is there any way to downclock the cpu to extend battery life. I dont think that I'm going to need full power for most of the stuff that I have in mind, so it would be nice to be able to gain some extra life. Does this feature come standard, or is it a thrid party program that has to be installed.
Thanks so much,
Cheers

[mcsouth]

So far, my experience with battery life has not been very positive. I just got the unit on Wednesday, so the battery life may improve with time, as others have mentioned. However, with Wi-Fi on and the screen at medium brightness, I only got about 2 hours of use before Wi-Fi would no longer stay on - this is with Bluetooth disabled as I was using the unit. I realize that the wifi radio is going to pull more power, but that battery time is completely unacceptable in my mind. I am certainly hoping that the battery life improves. I am assuming that the VGA screen probably takes more power to run as well. At this point, I have not used the unit enough to know how the battery life will be doing other tasks......

[Kati Compton]

Which model are you referring to, the X50 or the X50v?

[mcsouth]

I have a Dell X50v that I just got a few days ago - probably too soon to really have a feel for the overall battery performance. I haven't fully integrated it into my work flow yet - I'm still primarily using my trusty iPaq 1945 for most tasks, until I get my critical apps migrated onto the Dell, and start moving files over. Until that happens, I suppose that I probably shouldn't comment too much on it - my first post is really just my initial impression with the unit.....

[ckufta]

i was thinking about the x50v. I'm not sure which one I'm going to get. I'm looking for a very solid one with great battery life and from what I understand, dell is one of the best.

[ChemNerd]

The X50V's battery life is simply bad. I have done various things with it in my 3 weeks of owning (I have now returned it due to some hardware issues) and it was pretty short. For what I consider "average" use I had to recharge it daily if not more. This consisted of listening to music for about 2 hours with the screen both off and the screen on (playing little games) when I got home the battery was usually below 100% and on the day I took it out at 90% (had surfed the web a little before) I used it for about 3 hours of use and the battery was below 20% because I was getting warnings.

To me there was something alarming about listening to mp3s and playing jawbreaker and having your battery percent go down between a little after playing 2 games of jawbreaker.

That being said, all VGA devices will take a toll on your battery life. It's the negative aspect of the screens (along with price and refresh rate). Dell did really suprise me by the small size of the battery and when you see how little more they would have had to increase the size of the battery to inscrease the battery life it's kinda bewildering.

Also in all fairness the device was fine for me - and as long as you don't mind it being a requirment to charge your device daily it's fine. If it's not I'd recomend looking at the regular X50 - but thats me.

[AMelis]

I continue to be surprised that there are folks who do not charge their devices daily, whether cell phones or PDA's. I read complaints about their XXXX only lasting 4 days or whatever. My PDA sits in the cradle at my desk most of the day when I am there. When I am out of the office, it comes along in my briefcase. My cell charges on my night table next to my bed at night. I have never had a problem with either going dead. And yes, when I travel I have travel chargers for both.
Makes life easier.

[ckufta]

what is the difference in battery life from the x50v to the x50. I have recently come across some posts regarding battery life on the x50v, both with the regular and the extended battery, but does anyone have any experience with the standard x50? Since I haven't had any experience with ppcs, I'm thinking that if I went with a non-vga model, I wouldn't be bothered since I wouldn't know what to compare it to. Thus, I'm thinking more along the lines of the x50 regular or maybe even the older models that they are liquidating on their site.