Motorola ZINE Cell Phone Review - Battery Life
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Marianne Schultz Published on January 28, 2009 Comment on this |
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| The ZINE lasted a good chunk of time longer than the claimed talk time, which is a pleasant surprise. With this good call time battery life, we had high hopes for its battery life during music playback, but we were a little disappointed with the result. Web browsing is always a weak point for cell phones and the ZINE posted less-than-average results in this test. For more information about our battery tests see this article. | |
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Call Time (7.80)
To test call time battery life, we charge a phone's battery full, set it up on a simulated phone call, turn the earpiece volume up to its highest level, and time how long the battery lasts. Most carriers will disconnect a call automatically after 4 hours has elapsed, and T-Mobile is no exception, so we immediately re-connect the call at this point. The ZINE lasted a good bit longer than the claimed "up to 5 hours" at 6 hours and 30 minutes, earning the best score relative to our comparison phones. The ZINE should last all day for all but the most chatty Cathys out there.
Music Playback (5.03)
To see how long a phone's battery lasts for music playback, we load a test music album, set the music player to repeat mode, charge the phone fully, and then time how long it lasts with the volume at its highest level. The ZINE surprised us a little with a lower-than-expected result in this test, lasting 6 hours and 59 minutes. However, this is good enough to beat by far the Motorola Razr2 V8 and even out-do the music-oriented Sony Ericsson W580i, though it's still behind every other comparison phone.
Web Browsing (3.38)
To test web browsing battery life, we charge the device fully, point the browser to a test page that automatically refreshes every 10 seconds, and see how long , the battery lasts with the screen brightness at its highest level and always on. There was no setting to keep the ZINE's screen on all the time, so it required input every 30 seconds to stay on, accomplished by pressing the down button the D-pad. This test is usually the toughest for cell phones since powering a screen is power-intensive. The ZINE lasted 2 hours and 49 minutes in this test, putting it head of the Razr2 V8 but behind every other one of our comparison phones.
Idle Time unscored
Testing a phone's idle time, also called standby time, could take several days or even weeks with most phones these days, so in order to complete our reviews in a timely manner, we don't test and score idle time. The ZINE's claimed standby time is up to 8 days. Idle time is largely influenced by cellular signal strength - the further away a phone is from a tower, the harder it works to maintain a connection, which drains the battery more quickly. If you keep your cell phone with you as you go about your day, the constant movement and connections to different towers along the way can make it difficult to predict how long your battery will last even without regular use.
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