HandEra's 330 model is one of the very few PDAs with multiple power options - and we've taken a look at the Lithum-Ion add-on battery pack that adds three of them.
Review summary of the :
| Gallery » |
Pros:
Cons:
%
POOR |
Mediocre |
Good |
Very good |
Excellent |
|
|
Full review of the :
 |
One of the selling points of the HandEra 330 Palm OS device was its multiple power options. The device ships with four AAA alkaline batteries, but HandEra later released a Lithium-Ion battery pack and AC adapter for the device, giving it three different ways of getting electricity (four if you count rechargeable AAA batteries).
 | HandEra's Lithium Ion add-on battery pack
|
The LiIon pack weighs in at 45.3 grams, slightly less than a set of AAAs. To install it, you must first remove the battery door on the back of the device, the batteries of course, and unclip the small set of contacts on the top of the battery compartment known by the uncreative name of the "battery bar". The LiIon pack then clips into the device, replacing the batteries and the battery door itself, making contact on the side of the battery compartment instead of the top and bottom. Unfortunately, that means that you have a spare battery door to hold onto. You should be able to swap the batteries in under a minute before the backup capacitor runs out, but it is a good idea to backup the device and place it on AC power first, just to be safe.
Once you have installed the LiIon pack, perform a soft reset to notify the OS that the battery has changed. To do that, stick the stylus tip into the reset pinhole in back without holding down any buttons. The OS will detect the new battery and switch into LiIon mode. Using the shortcut-dot-7 Graffiti stroke to cycle through battery types will always show [LiIon]. If you switch back to AAAs, you should soft reset again.
To test battery life, we placed fully charged batteries in a HandEra 330 running the October 29th release OS 3.5.3. (HandEra has released several OS upgrades with optimizations and tweaks, Oct. 29th being the most recent.) We disabled the auto-off timer with shortcut-dot-3 and ran AtomSmash 2.0 in demo mode with sound off (for our sanity) until the battery ran dry. AtomSmash continually draws to the screen, keeping the device in high-power mode to maximize power draw. (Meaning these times are shorter than "normal use" times, which are harder to define.) With the backlight off, the LiIon battery lasted 10 hours and 40 minutes before the first low battery warning. It continued to throw warnings until it finally shut off after 11 hours and 28 minutes. With the backlight on, the first low battery warning occurred at 7 hours, 51 minutes, with the device finally shutting off after 8 hours and 20 minutes. For comparison, a set of fresh Duracell AAA alkaline batteries with the backlight off lasted 13 hours and 5 minutes before the first low battery warning, and finally shut off after 15 hours and 1 minute.
Lithium Ion batteries run lower than alkalines before powering off, so once the device has shut off you won't have more than an hour to recharge the battery before the device loses power. Alkalines give you several days. Unlike Nickel Metal Hydrides, Lithium Ion batteries have no "memory effect", so charging an already mostly full battery will not damage it. In fact, your battery will last longer if you do "top it off". You can carry a spare set of AAA batteries and their extra plastic with you as a spare if you use your device away from its cradle for a long time. The low battery dialog also correctly instructs you to place the device in its cradle to recharge rather than replacing the battery.
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
» Top 15
|
|
|
» Search (New!)
Search by cell phone features
|
|
|
» Manual comparison (New!)
Select up to 4 cell phones side-by-side
|
|
|
» By release
May 2008, June 2008, Q3 2008
|
|
|
» Top 15 by carrier
Unlocked, AT&T, Sprint, Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile, Helio, Alltel
|
|
|
|
» Top 15 by user type
Average Joe, Business users, Calling addicts, Fashion conscious users, Globetrotters, High-res addicts, Internet addicts, Multimedia enthusiasts, Music aficionados, Outdoor enthusiasts, TV addicts, Video lovers, More...
|
|
|
» Top 15 by brand
Apple, HTC, LG, Motorola, Nokia,
BlackBerry, Samsung, Sony Ericsson Other
|
|
|
» Top 15 by platform
Palm OS, Symbian S60, Symbian UIQ, Windows Mobile
|
|
|
|
» Top 15 by cell phone type
Business smartphones, Multimedia smartphones
Consumer QWERTY phones, Multimedia phones
Concept phones
|
|
|
|
|
_it00.jpg)
|
Archive