We'll never forget Kevin's bold (pun intended) attempt to find out the true limits of BlackBerry Messenger with our original BBM Stress Test. His Bold 9000 exploded with Messenger requests and gave us a good look at what the application can handle. Well after spending 4 days listening to him go on and on (and on and on and on) about the great battery life of his Bold 9700, I have been searching for a way to shut him up once and for all (an impossible task, but I like to try). I do have to agree that the battery life on the BlackBerry Bold 9700 is nothing short of amazing. I didn't hold DevCon as a true test (thousands of BlackBerry Smartphones all using the same towers and Wifi all on top of each other) of battery life, but back on my home network I have not been disappointed. I pulled mine off the charger at 8am yesterday, and at Midnight I was only at 65% with normal usage. It's crazy good battery life for a 3G device - especially compared to the original Bold 9000.
Beyond improved battery life under normal device usage thanks to its re-written radio stack, we heard it through the grapevine (or is that blackberryvine) at DevCon that music playback on the BlackBerry Bold 9700 is also a wonderful and much improved thing. Apparently a LOT has happened under the hood to ensure that when the new Bold is playing or streaming music, that other device functions are really put to sleep to squeeze every minute of life possible out of the battery. According to the features page at BlackBerry.com, the 9700 can playback music for a whopping 35 hours. Kyle at BBCool took a stab at it and from his initial tests have proven the device to actually exceed this limit. So since we can't let the CrackBerry Nation down, I'm proposing "Stress Test Part 2" where I'll run the BlackBerry Bold 9700 to the ground both streaming music (Slacker? Pandora?) and via the built-in media player (MP3s from media card). To add some flair I'll even run my Tour and Curve 8520 side-by-side and see how they stand up.
So the question is this - what do you think is the best way to run the test? I think that running Slacker on all 3 devices with a full charge, radio (and Wifi) on with the same settings (screen brightness, profiles, no other apps running etc.) would give us a pretty good comparison (obviously won't be perfect). Drop a comment below and let us know what you think. We'll take a look through and decide what you all want to see, and put this to the test.
41 comments
Digg
Facebook
I would recommend turning off the wifi. One less app running on the device.
I can't wait to see the results. If this is the case why haven't we seen a dramatic improvement in battery life for all of the devices running 5.0?
This should be interesting :)
As Adam states in the post, the improved battery life is related to the rewritten code for the radio that is built into the device that connects to the network. Unless I interpreted this wrong?
It all depends what you want to do... if you want to test only the music and battery life, turn off the mobile network and wifi and bluetooth so that the phone is ONLY running music. If you want to do a true test with normal phone functions running in the background, just leave everything on and play music all day.
For streaming you'd have to have the network turned on (obviously).
I think most (if not all) people would have their mobile network on at all times when doing anything on their BB's.
I'm with you .. at first I thought maybe I wouldn't use the device during the test, but I think I'll just try to use it less and run the music to get a good feel for normal use. Maybe I'll do one test with normal use and one test with just the music .. decisions decisions.
I think you need to do two sets of tests. One set with wi-fi on and connected to a network and one with it off.
Ok, so now maybe it is 3 sets.
1) Wi-fi off
2) Wi-fi on but after stream is started on the data side
3) wi-fi on, start the stream on the wi-fi side
Can you do it this way?
Not sure how to tackle this .. I think maybe having Wifi on the 9700 and 8520 will be a good comparison, and have the Tour without Wifi will be a good test as well. Want to try to be as close to "normal usage" as possible, and most people will have Wifi on I think. If I can I may try to do a test without Wifi as well.
Personally, I don't ever have Wifi on. As long as I'm connected to a 3G network, why do I need Wifi? Doesn't it drain the battery faster anyhow? I say do one test without Wifi on. :)
The Tour doesn't have wifi, so if you want to compare the two devices fairly, wifi should be turned off on the bold.
you should also include the 8900 in the test, so you test most of the blackberries that people use on a day by day bases
I actually don't have an 8900. I only have servie on the 9700, 8520 and Tour for the test - but maybe down the road we can give it another go with different devices.
this has been done before
http://www.blackberrycool.com/2009/11/18/stress-test-how-long-can-the-bl...
adam references/linked to kyle's initial test in the post above. the idea for this test actually came up last week at DevCon... we were all in the same room. kyle has one set of results, but it needs to be done up CrackBerry-video style. and we need to agree on the testing criteria.
plus ya know.. any reason for us to continue raving about the bold 9700's battery life.
lol :)
Wifi on on all devices.
All with new batteries (just in case they shud b of same age).
Music with full volume.
EDGE or 3G network ON.
All on latest update OS.
Note their temperature too at the end of the test. Some might even restarts i guess just to take themselves a nap! haha
I'd say you load the same song on each device (same format, same volume etc) and play them through the media player on repeat.
I preordered mine from AT&T last night. My wife being on the corporate plan allowed us to be Premium business accounts. I'm excited to get this new hardware and software. I've been tempted with Droid and the rest of the new Johnny Come latelys to the smartphone market but I'm a purist and have enjoyed the superior engineering and quality construction of the BlackBerry Bold 9700. I'll put it through the paces after getting it. Only couple of more days before I get my fresh dose of Crackberry!
Ive got my money on the Tour is dead before you even plug the other 2 in
I say run it to the max, if your gonna test, REALLY test it.
I would use iHeart radio, that way you can insure the same format is being played on all the devices.
It will be very interesting to see the results. I picked up my 9700 on Monday an this thing is just amazing. No joke about the battery life, it keeps going, and going, and going!
Throw the S2 in the mix. I think the bat life is amazing.
Adam, you have a very good idea and I hope I can help you out with that.
Phones:
1- Bold 9000
2- Bold 9700
3- Curve 8520
4- Tour 9630
For in flight, the best way to test is to disable all connections and play either the phone media player or the cache on Slacker so:
Test 1: Disable all connections (No WiFi, No Bluetooth and No Network connection), install the latest Slacker version and let them run.
Isolate phones with mics connected to computers to record the sound, that way you get the start time and the cut off time also. another idea would be a webcam for every phone (might take some time...)
Test 2: For US residents, all connections on, Pandora running.
Test 3: For international users, all connections on and playing the phone media player. (same songs, same bitrate and in loop)
Hope that helps.
Config depends on your goal. Absolute torture test: All radios on, streaming Slacker/Pandora over WiFi, playing through stereo bluetooth phones/speakers. Real world, normal use: Phone only, playing music off the SD card. I don't think most folks leave WiFi on unless they're connecting to a network at that moment for a specific reason (no 3G reception, need the extra speed for something, etc.). At least, that's how I use my radios: Phone only unless I know I'm going to be connecting to WiFi or a bluetooth device.
get me about 5 to 6 hours of play damnit i need t 9700 now
You guys have to check this link I'm posting.
It's not meant be a slam on you, Adam. But after reading this, anytime I hear/read the phrase it makes me think of it. I just thought I'd share
http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=puns
LOL. I agree.
i use my phone for music most of the time but try watching a movie. on fridays i usually watch movie to pass the day away. but with the 9000 i only get about 2 hours of video time. also with the sling box and flash coming out more people will be streaming tv/movies.....maybe add that test.
You should use iheart radio as well.
1.One test with all radios on (wifi, 3G/EDGE, blue tooth, etc.)
2.One test with just mobile network on their fastest speed (3G/EDGE, no wifi, no bluetooth)
3.One test with mobile network on their fasest speed and wifi on only.
On all tests you should test the streaming music battery life and battery life playing music off the sdcard. Load the sdcard with the same songs and play them using shuffle.
My vote is for all devices on Slacker, no apps, all same settings, etc. and then all running wi-fi (except tour) If you run from a media card, then all cards have to be the same brand, size, class, etc. and then still would need no apps open, same settings.
This would just be to test the battery life for just listening to music/radio. If we wanted to test "real world" usage with the radio, it would have a lot more parameters:
wi-fi or data
what apps are running in background
3rd party themes running
edge or 3g
I think that type of test just has way too many variables in it to be accurately tested. I think that testing the battery life on just listening to the radio would be a lot simpler, but maybe not the intended result.
I say Hell YES! Sounds good to me!
Since this is a BB only feature, and a great one at that, why not have three tests. One with caching, one streaming, and media player? It may be overkill as the latter two will be sufficiently enjoyable.
Adam, beg someone to give you a Storm2 (as the other released OS 5.0 device) to test also!
I received my 9700 on Monday. Today is Wednesday. I left it completely charge all Monday as well as overnight to Tuesday as is my normal nightly routine. I began @ 5am used my 9700 for email, calls and Yahoo on Tuesday. And not a lot of use @ that and by 7pm my battery was flashing the red battery of death @ me. So I can't say @ this point that I'm all that impressed with the battery life thus far. Hopefully it will improve.
If you haven't already, you should completely discharge (like until the unit turns itself off) and fully recharge the battery a couple of times. Might help, otherwise maybe you got a defective unit...?
I would like to see how the bold holds up vs the storm 2.
I would recommend running it with Wifi and Bluetooth turned on
if available on the individual device. Also use Slacker or Pandora.
I think that is the way that most users would use their device (and is actually the way I run my 8900 right now). I'm hoping for much better than the four hours or so I get right now.
I agree. I say with both wifi and bluetooth on (as I can listen and walk around at work listening to Slacker or Pandora) and do a separate test with each program.
I agree. I say with both wifi and bluetooth on (as I can listen and walk around at work listening to Slacker or Pandora) and do a separate test with each program.
Adam, I swear to God.... if this test of streaming music goes well on the 9700 as you say, I will *personally* throw my Mytouch 3G into the Ohio River and get the 9700. :D
I think you should do the test with both Slacker AND Pandora streaming, that could give some insight into how they packet and send data and the differences in their compression, etc.
Maybe you could also use a service like Orb (orb.com) to stream the exact same playlists to each device. I know there wouldn't be much of a difference in the amount of data streaming different sounds, but it is one more variable that you could negate.
Don't forget to include these tests if you will include a Bold 9000 for comparison.
Bold 9000 w/ OS 4.6 latest
Bold 9000 w/ OS 5.0 latest (since the 9700 ships with 5.0)
(same if other devices are applicable)
I'd like to see the difference in OS battery life.
I know on the site if you're not active you get a prompt asking if you're still listening, then it will disconnect if you don't respond. If the app does this it will be a pain to pull this off.