G3 battery life

[knackers]

I've had my G3 for a few months now. I'm happy with it and have had no problems. Some of the info on the screen is microscopic, which is an impediment to my really getting into it, if you know what I mean. mp3 player manufacturers should learn that a big screen is a huge plus for usability. Hell, I'd like it if *both* large faces of the player were full screens. Anyway, I said I was going to talk about battery life...

I put a brand new Walgreens (a chain of pharmacies in the U.S.) alkaline battery in and listened only to audiobooks on the G3. Thus I was able to get an accurate measurement of battery life, by adding up the play times on the mp3 files. Of course in the 25 hours, 40 minutes, there were various actions like a few USB uploads, on/off, etc. Result:

Life: 25 - 26 hours
Volume: Roughly 15 (listening at night, in bed)
Format: mp3, mostly 64 kbps
Backlight: Out of the box settings
Battery: Walgreens alkaline

Occasionally I would miss a few words and wind back 10 seconds, and trigger the backlight.

So I don't buy this 40 hr battery life stuff. The battery was not especially cheap, but to be sure it was no-name (well, it says "Walgreens"). Make of that what you will. All the studies I have read say that the prestige brands do only a few percent better.

I'm content, but I *do* wish manufacturers would level with us.

One day I'll try to post a photo of the nifty little belt holder I made in 5 minutes from a clip ripped from a cell phone holster, the clear case, and some self-adhesive velcro.