Registered: Feb 2001
Location: Them Twin Cities
Posts: 1758

So, ever since I upgraded to the Plat (which is going soon in favor of the Edge), I've had much better battery life on my NIMH batteries, this despite the faster processor & overclocking. Odd, no? Why does my Plat last longer on a set than my old VDX? Or am I on crack?

Either way, it's academic for me personally.

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Registered: May 2000
Location: St. Paul, MN
Posts: 1429

Is your battery meter set to NiMH instead of NiCAD? The slight difference in meter readings that the 2 provide might of caused this "misconception". I would THINK that a Platinum would use more batteries than a Dlx.. but I'm often wrong on things

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Registered: Feb 2001
Location:
Posts: 268

Plat does use more battery than Dlx.

Anyway, instead of looking at the battery meter that show's percent left, look at the voltage. For NiMH batteries, you should change the batteries when it goes to around 2.35-2.40V.

Registered: Jun 2000
Location:
Posts: 26

The way these things work, for the most part they execute a certain number of steps to do a given task. The Palm OS responds to events and user requests then goes back to sleep (processor halts). The only apps that would draw more current on a Plat than a VDX are those that free run with while loops and such (bad programming practice on the Palm OS). Other than that, they would execute the same number of steps to do the same task. The Plat may draw more instantaneous current but will finish the job faster than the VDX or V.

On top of that it is my understanding that the Plat processor uses less juice on a clock for clock basis than the one in the VDX or V. I've not seen hard numbers but Motorola advertizes the VZ Dragonball (what's in the Plat) to be more power efficient than the EZ (in the VDX and V).

End result is generally better mileage on the Plat overall.