hours of battery life for current owners? and a question about flash on the j3

[Gundamgrl]

Hey everyone! So after 6 years I have finally decided to get a new mp3 player to replace my H320. It's given me its best years but the battery life went kaput (less than 10 minutes and it's drained) about 2 years back. I'm debating between the m1, the j3, and the itouch but it looks like I'll be going with the j3. (though you have to give itouch props for even making me consider it as a finalist b/c of its wifi and game library considering how anti-apple I usually am)

I just had a few questions before I ask for this for my birthday/Christmas present.

1) If anyone has done a battery test on their J3 what has been their average battery life? Or even if you haven't done a test b/c you're having too much fun using it, give me your best guess.
I have tried to look for user tests but mostly found posts about battery issues (i.e. faulty ones). Even the people who were happy with their battery said they only got around 35-40 hours playing mp3 with display off. While 35-40 hours is still good, that's a significant decrease from the 66 hours advertised. Though, I did find 2 websites that reviewed the J3 who said they got 50+ hours. So if you guys can, post hours of video/mp3 playback, how many recharges you had under the belt before this test or roughly how long you had it, what model you have (some people said 32gb got less batt than 16gb), how often display was on in your testing, anything else that might be important to battery life I might've missed. I know this has been somewhat discussed in other threads but this exact question was more danced around or didn't get a lot of answers.

2) I was wondering what is stopping the J3 from using adobe flash player 10.1? Is it a question of just a firmware update? Or can the hardware not support flash 10? The reason I'm asking is because I know kongregate has created a bunch of mobile games for the android, but I'm pretty sure those are based on flash 10.1. On a related note, Flash 10.1 games I read can support multi-touch, does the J3's hardware have the ability in the future to support such games since it can do pinch zoom?

[CrowdAds]

[Luchico638]

FML accidentally clicked back.
I'll make it simple

1. Battery life is good. Unless you go travelling to far away places with no power outlets you should be charging the thing as often as you can anyways (as recomended by Cowon in their manual). Ive been using mine for a week now without charging and its still at 25% (I have been playing games alot on it too which drains the battery quickly). Again, follow Cowons advice and charge it often. 40-60 hours is a little unncessesary to go without charging.

2. I don't know what you're talking about here... J3 DOES have flash support as Ive been playing a bunch of flash games on my phone. I got my games from this site (and are the same games you cna get from here http://www.flashgames247.com/). The games I have are all .swf files (or .flash files). You can find a bunch of them here. I'm also pretty sure none of us here actually WORK for Cowon so we cant really tell what the future holds for the J3. Even if we did work for Cowon I don't think they'd be allowed to talk about such things.

It's a great product. While full charge time is 3.5 hrs... Partial charge time is short. I chraged mine in about 5 minutes. So if you're near a computer or you have an AC adapter that converts AC > USB it'll work since all USB ports use the same voltage (if not we wouldnt be able to plug our devices into any computer without messing something up.

[Emc209i]

I've only done a single leak down, and that resulted in a 50 hour battery life, with the screen on for a large portion (brand new device, couldn't put it down). You won't find another DAP with the same sound quality that will stay on as long. Lasting as long as it does is just a bonus.

[Gundamgrl]

Thanks guys for your quick reply. This is really helpful for potential cowon j3 owners to know and I really appreciate your responses Hopefully more people will post soon too.

Originally Posted by Luchico638

FML accidentally clicked back.

2. I don't know what you're talking about here... J3 DOES have flash support as Ive been playing a bunch of flash games on my phone. I got my games from this site (and are the same games you cna get from here http://www.flashgames247.com/).

I was mistaken about this before also, someone on iaudiophile pointed it out to me. I had mentioned kongregate which had a bunch of flash games remade so that they work on mobile devices (specifically the droid). He said that he wasn't sure the games on that site would even work on the j3. Cowon supports Flash 7, which is/used to be the standard for mobile devices who support flash. Flash Player 10.1 is the newer version of Adobe's flash player which has been out for a while but not yet integrated as far as I know onto mobile devices other than the android. The guy on iaudiophile said that Flash 7 can only handle very basic games whereas Flash Player 10.1 can handle more complexly built games and also supports multi-touch games. I can't quote anywhere off the top of my head but I don't think Flash 7 supports multi-touch. I'm not exactly sure how all the flash/games/multi-touch all work which is why I asked if it's more of a software limitation or hardware. It's not a deciding factor for me in buying the player, but I was just curious since some of the games on kongregate seem pretty fun (i was playing them on the computer yesterday).

[deadohiosky]

since there aren't any definite numbers thrown around here atm anyway i'm gonna help out (although i don't own one, yet).

The J3 has a rated 64! hours (not 66, but that's peanuts, just for clarification) it might reach those hours only under certain conditions, with display off the whole time, very low volume and low bitrate mp3 files (128kbit, i guess) etc. .

under "normal" circumstances, but also dependent on usage of the display and bitrates, volume etc., you will get around 50/55+ hours out of the player.


@flash 7 vs 10.1: i'm pretty much sure that the cpu inside barely matches the requirements for 10.1, if at all (and i think the J3 doesn't have enough RAM to handle it, either). it would be a screenshot orgy/crash fest trying to launch any graphic or other applications on it.

[randomremote]

I've had the J3 for around 6 months~ approx and the battery is noticeably better than my old P2 (30~ hrs rated)

I would say the 60 hour battery life is pretty accurate depending on your situation, I've been running a battery test over the weekend:
16GB J3 No MicroSD
Screen Off
EQ Off
Soundmagic Pl-30
Vol: 1-2 (quiet room you see )
Mp3-320kbps
Asurada Music UCI [dunno if these affect the battery life]
Klaus Browser
?uzzle UI
Asurada UCI

Right now it is still going (48 hours) so hopefully it will reach around the magical 60 :P
I'm sure if a full-sized headphone was used with EQ on a high volumes the battery life would never reach 60.

The screen supports multi-touch, it's just that the CPU is nowhere near powerful enough to support flash gaming, you would need a mobile phone for that (ie Snapdragon etc)

[metaldestiny]

i'm curious for results as well on battery life, specifically, a test somewhat close to the following:

-full size headphones
-320kbps mp3
-moderate volume setting (I don't own a J3) whatever the midpoint is
-EQ on custom
-microSD card in
-screen off
-random song play

[randomremote]

I have finished my first battery test: (ie PL30) and i got around 56 hours (this is with 320kbps and not looping [as in shuffle on])

@above,

i'll run one with a full size headphone ie:

AD-300
vol-8->10
EQ-Custom (BBE+ on, bass on, stereo on, MP on, etc)
and your other above options (not microSD as i don't have a spare one, soz

EDIT - just finished the test, got 52 hours in the full size test

So from the slight difference in results, BBE+ and EQ probably doesn't take that much toll on the battery as opposed to EQ off, i reckon it is volume and shuffle play that would drain it sigificantly (if screen was off)

[Gundamgrl]

Originally Posted by randomremote

I have finished my first battery test: (ie PL30) and i got around 56 hours (this is with 320kbps and not looping [as in shuffle on])

@above,

i'll run one with a full size headphone ie:

AD-300
vol-8->10
EQ-Custom (BBE+ on, bass on, stereo on, MP on, etc)
and your other above options (not microSD as i don't have a spare one, soz

EDIT - just finished the test, got 52 hours in the full size test

So from the slight difference in results, BBE+ and EQ probably doesn't take that much toll on the battery as opposed to EQ off, i reckon it is volume and shuffle play that would drain it sigificantly (if screen was off)

thanks so much for your test! 52 hours is great! i'll probably end up getting the 16 gb b/c my mom said "32gb is too much". really i have more than 40 gb of mp3s but she's shelling out for it.

curious though, if anyone else gets around to battery testing, about the 32gb's battery life since i've heard of some problems for it.

[meetooman]

Don't worry for the 8/16/32GB capacity. The expansion slot gives you an extension margin and will give you the opportunity to organize your music in a smart way. As I often say, limitations open new fields for imagination to flourish.

[Gundamgrl]

yay!!! i bought the 32 gb one. thanks to the deal i posted in another thread. 220 for it!!! i'll post my own info on battery life as soon as i get it tested and stuff. crossing my fingers i'll get a good battery and no lifted screen!

[metaldestiny]

thanks for the test results

[g.711]

Wecome to the J3 world. I hope you become the fan that most of us are.!!! Its really a great player.

[Gundamgrl]

Okay so just drained it for the first time. I might drain it again once later. but since it's supposed to be bad for your battery I'm not sure. When I got my J3 it was drained and I charged it for about 9 hours before using. I did not look at when each bar went down because I've heard that the J3's battery bar is kind of inaccurate and didn't want to stare at it all day either.

My time for a 32gb j3 no sd card inside with about 20 gigs of media on it:

1 hour and 15 minutes of heavy use (was trying out all the different features including flash, video, music, etc.)
+
6 hours and somewhere around 20 minutes of video time (turned off while I was watching frisky dingo so didn't notice exactly when). Videos were avi files, some had subs. (bbe turned on, brightness at 6, volume varied (most of the time 24, sometimes 40, sometimes 0), speaker half the time used other half plugged in headset)


I'm a little disappointed with the video time, seeing as how one of the main reasons I chose the J3 over the 4g touch was battery life, but hopefully my battery will improve over time. However, the 7 hours of video/use seem to be about in line with what other people have been getting (i.e. official ABI review + some others). However, some people have been getting more like 6-7, so mine seems to be about better. I don't know exactly how much "heavy use" time is in terms of video time but I'm just assuming equal since the screen would be on the whole time. Actually, use probably consumes even more power than video actually b/c of all the tinkering.

Let me know if any other info would be relevant to know.

[BrokenHalo83]

I know this is an old topic but in case the OP or anyone else was wondering about batteries on the J3. LiPo batteries don’t develop memory or voltage depression. which basically means you don't need to completely drain your battery before charging (actually it can damage your battery by fully discharging it), it's battery life is basically set from the factory.

[krazziejrboi]

All mp3 audio format played from the SDHC card on normal eq, and sound setting +17 = lasts about 3.5 days with my J3

With custom EQ settings on it lasts about 2.5 days.

[freaky_chemist]

I use my j3 with chakra UI, aero-music ui and the rock-eq-settings. I tested the battery during a trip via train:
4h in the train (normal use, shuffle, vol 20, changing tacks, etc) followed by display off, shuffle, vol 20, rock-eq.

Finally i got 48h. The music was playing after 48h, when i turned the display on, the battery died.

[Gundamgrl]

thanks you guys for keeping up with the thread though it's old! i haven't done another battery test, though it was getting low after 5 hrs of video on the plane this christmas. but haven't done a drain or any actual testing. it might also make a difference now that i have an sd card in it.