Palm Centro Cell Phone Review - Battery Life
|
Alfredo Padilla Published on October 25, 2007 Comment on this |
|
|
|
|
Call Time (4.96)
To test the Palm Centro's battery performance during calls we made a phone call to the device using Skype and piped an audio book over the connection to simulate conversation. We then timed how long it took for the battery to run out. The Centro lasted 4 hours and 8 minutes in our test. As you can see below, this is at the lower end of our comparison phones, but should be sufficient for all but power talkers. The Centro is hurt by the fact that it is a 3G handset, which is a more power-hungry technology.
| Cell Phone | Talk Time | Score |
| Palm Centro | 4 hours 8 mins | 4.96 |
| Sony Ericsson W580i | 4 hours 25 mins | 5.30 |
| BlackBerry Curve 8320 | 7 hours 24 mins | 8.88 |
| HTC Mogul | 5 hours 30 mins | 6.60 |
| Palm Treo 700p | 4 hours 15 mins | 5.10 |
| Apple iPhone | 7 hours 4 mins | 8.48 |
Music Playback (4.88)
To see how long the Palm Centro's batter lasts while playing back music we set an album to play looped at maximum volume using the phone's speaker. We then timed how long it took for the battery to run out. The Centro lasted 6 hours and 47 minutes in our test. This is a solid time, but is bettered by many other phones, including older Palm phones such as the Treo 700p. You should be able to use the Centro as a music player if you listen for a couple of hours a day, but those who listen to music all day long should probably consider a dedicated music player or have an extra battery or charger on hand.
| Cell Phone | Music Playback Time | Score |
| Palm Centro | 6 hours 47 mins | 4.88 |
| Sony Ericsson W580i | 5 hours 35 mins | 4.02 |
| BlackBerry Curve 8320 | 12 hours 1 mins | 8.66 |
| HTC Mogul | 11 hours 13 mins | 8.08 |
| Palm Treo 700p | 8 hours 8 mins | 5.86 |
| Apple iPhone | 10 hours 46 mins | 7.75 |
Web Browsing (5.24)
To test battery performance while browsing the Web we pointed the phone's browser to a test page that refreshes every 10 seconds. We then ensured the phone's screen stays on and timed how long it took for the battery to die. The Centro lasted 4 hours and 22 minutes in our Web browsing test. This is a pretty decent time — only the BlackBerry Curve 8320 put up a significantly better time than the Centro, although it should be noted that the Curve runs on the 2G EDGE network as opposed to the Centro's faster and more battery-hungry 3G EVDO network.
| Cell Phone | Browsing Time | Score |
| Palm Centro | 4 hours 22 mins | 5.24 |
| Sony Ericsson W580i | 4 hours 11 mins | 5.02 |
| BlackBerry Curve 8320 | 9 hours 43 mins | 11.66 |
| HTC Mogul | 4 hours 8 mins | 5.36 |
| Palm Treo 700p | 4 hours 3 mins | 4.86 |
| Apple iPhone | 5 hours 13 mins | 6.26 |
Idle Time unscored
In order to ensure that we deliver reviews in a timely fashion we do not test idle time. According to Palm the Centro's standby time should be 300 hours.
| Previous Next | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
