WHEN does the battery last 5 hours?

[Piggie]

Ok, fair point, I accept that it's UP TO 5 hours, but it's not UP TO 4 hours.

So they are saying (perhaps some legal person can clarify this) that when set up in a certain particular way (setting adjusted to the best battery life scenario)

And perhaps in clear view of satellites and stationary (so it has not got to hunt around)

Although one could argue that last bit in an unrealistic assumption of it's intended use.

but anyway...............

With all these criteria met, you should expect a batter life that realistically would be approaching 5 hours.

If it cannot last 4 hours then they must have to say up to 4 hours....

So it must last over 4 hours with a setup that is realistic to expect for it's function as intended.

What are these settings do you think?

As we saying, screen off, no voice etc etc?

 

[gatorguy]

I've seen posters try to max out battery life as a test, disabling bluetooth, turning down screen brightness, reducing volume, etc. I've never seen anyone claim they could squeeze out 5 hours, no matter what seting they used. In typical use with a brand-new device I think 2.5-3 hours is more realistic. Some, like the new 740, are lucky to get an hour on battery if being used for navigation. And of course as your TomTom gets older the battery just won't perform the same as new anyway. It's not rare for a device as little as a year old to have half the original battery use time, and some are down to only a half hour or less. It's not just TomTom's. All of these portable devices with rechargable batteries have the same issues.

 

[pianoCM]

One of the reason that I went for the GO920 is that "up to 5 hours" battery.
I surely like its product a lot but I'm much more happier if they nicely advertise the truth.
It should say "up to 1 hour and half" or "2 hours" max.
I only purely use for navigating, no any other fancy stuff whatsover, but ........ must be constantly charged.
The other feature or I would say "the indication" should be implemented, as up to now, there is NO WAY to know if the unit is fully charged or half charged. The indication bar (by tapping on the lower right screen) is just meanningless as full green bar doesn't mean it gets fully charged.

 

[Piggie]

Thanks for interesting replies.

I suppose what's puzzling me is that in Amercia (where I assume lies are challenged and lawyers love to take things to court)

(So we are lead be believe)

How does a company like TomTom get away with (what seems to be) total faulse advertising, without at least, in some way having to give examples of how said "5 hour battery life" can be achieved.

Like when they say a car does 50mph, we all know that's hopeful, but they can probably provide test data, showing that with only the driver, and good tyres on a level road and constant speed, etc, etc, etc, this can be done.

Which is why I'm puzzled at to how come no-one has challenged TomTom to do the same, or change it's misleading advetising.

I also agree fully that with such a device there should be a much easier to view battery indicator on the main screen.

It could even be a 1 or 2 pixel bar along the top of the whole screen, or a pale series of dots or something.

What annoys me if that my very old Original TomTom go lasts about twice as long as a new model and yet, I might sell it and buy a new one based on the 5 hour adverts, thinking to myself, well, it says up to 5, so I'd realistically expect 4 or perhaps a little more if I don't use too many advanced features.

Not 2 !

 

[dhn]

The older TT's in fact had larger batteries with more capacity. The newer 'slimmer' profile models have thinner batteries and less capacity. But the 'up to' value never gets reduced in TT marketing.

I suspect in a perfect test bed in their labs, they can get 5 hours, just as in a perfect scenario, the EPA ratings for miles/gal. are achieved as well..........

 

[gatorguy]

The only way I could see the x20/x30's exceeding 4 hours is with gps chip turned off (simulation mode), bluetooth disabled, and screen brightness under 50%. And that's maybe. But someone at TomTom might have had an x20/30 last 5 hours once. So that would make it "up to". Really of little matter tho, as many of these will begin to lose things like voices once the battery level drops under 50%. They really are not designed to operate on battery for any significant time, no matter what the advertising or feature list might lead you to think.

 

[Piggie]

Thanks again for the replies.

So, I guess, I have 1 last question............

Why are they allowed to get away with this?

Does the USA have something like Trading Standards (as we have in the UK) or any rules about misleading advertising claims?

Common sence (legally) would tell you that it must function up to 5 hours when being used for what it was designed for (It's primary role)

Seems weird they can get away with it.

I'm happy with the UP TO term being used, but it should be UP TO an resonable attainable amount.

Kinda feels like no-one seems to care, and I could understand it if they were some cheap hong kong brand, they could get away with it, and slip under the radar so to speak, but they are the BIGGEST brand are they not?

I would think anyone would have a legitimate claim for a full refund as it does not anywhere near (according to anyone here) come up to it's advertising in this respect.

 

[Piggie]

Just googling around and found many comments re this issue. this one stuck out:



Hmm. I did call tech support last week and they gave me a case #. They advised that I should run a few experiments to see how long the battery is lasting.

So, I confirmed a full charge after the unit was charging on my computer. I turned on the TT unit and just let it sit on my desk. Within 1.5 hours, the battery indicator was at 1/2 the total charge.

I general I think I am getting 2-2.5 hours max.

I am a little confused because the first tech support person told me 3-5 hours of battery life... I called several days later and spoke with a different tech support person who said that 2 hours is the most I will get, unless I hook the unit up to my car charger.

Amazing !!!!

 

[doctormstein1]

when my 920 was new it never reached 11/2 hours on battery. it was much closer to the one hour of charge so i do not know why they advertise their numbers. They should advertise in real use what an average unit charges to.

 

[tflight]

Going back to what I wrote in June of 2007, out of the box I was able to get five hours of battery life from a 720 with bluetooth off and a conservative screen brightness setting. I doubt that device would get today, if I even knew where it was.

 

[face]

Rule of Thumb

NEVER TRUST A BATTERY.

TO me, the battery is only trusted when in a building and doing some quick stuff such as planning the next adventure. When it comes to navigating, I would NEVER do it without the unit plugged in, no matter how short the trip is.

The same is true with laptops. I have seen many times people coming in to do presentations for 100s of people, they bring no power cord and midway thru presentation the battery dies. Their thought, "Well, I charged it this morning".

If it is critical, don't ever trust a battery!

 

[paspossible]

...
If it is critical, don't ever trust a battery!

So true!

My 720, 1 year old, will get about 45 minutes on normal use. With brightness down, low volume, no bluetooth, 1.5 hours maybe... But in these conditions, it's sitting on my desk so, not quite useful as a GPS... It used to be about twice that when new.

I've noticed it won't charge as much if it's left in the docking station. USB ports aren't designed as chargers so often, they won't provide enough "juice". The car charger or a Blackberry AC adapter are my preferred choices. The battery indicator will reach full only with the Blackberry power cube.

 

[Piggie]

Rule of Thumb

NEVER TRUST A BATTERY.

TO me, the battery is only trusted when in a building and doing some quick stuff such as planning the next adventure. When it comes to navigating, I would NEVER do it without the unit plugged in, no matter how short the trip is.

The same is true with laptops. I have seen many times people coming in to do presentations for 100s of people, they bring no power cord and midway thru presentation the battery dies. Their thought, "Well, I charged it this morning".

If it is critical, don't ever trust a battery!

Or should that be:

NEVER TRUST A TOMTOM ADVERT ?

Whilst I take on board what you say, if a manufacturer of any product, puts on their main adverts (and which you and I use to decide if we wish to purchase the product) that a battery lasts up to X number of hours, then we do have ever reason to trust we are being told the truth.

Holding a manufacturer to count over their advertising claims is far better than to accept they lie and you have to put up with what you get.

It would be far better if there was an independant testing body that stepped in here, like crash test safety for cars to give the public a genuine figure rather than letting them get away with this kinda stuff.

 

[sageuvagony]

It's like a slap in the face for TomTom to claim our GPS gets that much battery life, but then only provide HALF of that, even with a brand new battery.

 

[brian_m]

Great thread as I was wondering what kind of battery life I should expect on my brand new 630. I'm getting about 1.5 hours max, and playing with the thing an awful lot as I get to know it, so I'm guessing I could get two hours max under normal conditions.

Sounds about right after reading the posts here. And it's DEFINITELY not just TomTom. My phone is supposed to have a standby life of about 600 hours. That's 25 days! Anyone ever go without charging their phone for three and a half weeks without turning it off, even if you didn't make a call? I also just got a battery for my Dell laptop. The advertised life was up to 6 hours. I get 3 max and that's with wireless disabled.

The "up to" number is established by an electrical engineer in a lab environment setting up the unit so that it draws the least amount of juice possible. Since it can be documented by lab results they can get away with advertising it. Of course none of us would ever use our unit in the same manner.