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Fujitsu-Siemens LOOX 720: All Inclusive

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Operating time

This handheld comes shipped with a 1640 mAh battery. The monstrous battery capacity successfully compensates for the multiply increased power consumption. At present only HP iPaq hx4700 (1800 mAh) surpasses LOOX 720 by this parameter. The manufacturer claims 12 hours of operating time. We managed to get this result in our tests only when using this handheld as an mp3 player (the display is off, average music volume, music files are stored in the main memory, wireless interfaces are disabled, operating mode of the processor – Power Saving). Minimum operating time is 1 hour 45 minutes. To obtain this result you should enable all wireless interfaces, set the maximum LED backlight, and watch a DivX movie via WiFi. The battery in this mode will heat very much: for the first time in my life I saw a battery overheating warning window in Windows Mobile. With this tendency, we are going to see active cooling used...







In regular usage mode (dictionaries, book reading, web-surfing GPRS via bluetooth, games, and music) this handheld operates from 6 to 9 hours. A worthy result, I should say! Enabled WiFi halves the operating time.

Interesting peculiarity of LOOX 720: it uses a Ni-Mh backup battery. This exotic solution has its pros: you have fewer chances to freeze by accident the backup battery. Customers may be worried to see a completely discharged battery in a brand new handheld, but that's exactly the way this battery (Ni-Mh) should be stored. Fujitsu-Siemens guarantees the safety of data for only 30 minutes with a fully discharged main battery. In practice, the backup battery holds on much longer (at least 3-4 hours, it's quite enough to find a power source).

Another important moment should be noted: the handheld consumes power even when it's off (to maintain memory). According to the manufacturer, LOOX 720 will drain its main battery for two weeks by simply lying on a shelf.







Such a capacious battery takes long time to be charged. This process will take from 2.5 to 3 hours from a standard electricity supply network. Charging from USB is still a more meditative process (the charge level grew by 60% for 6 hours), you'd better not take this feature seriously.

We should additionally note the special design of a cradle, which allows to charge the second battery (installed behind the decorative plastic cover) together with the battery in your handheld.

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We express our thanks to Fujitsu-Siemens for the provided handheld.

Maxim Fedorov (dane@ixbt.com)
December 10, 2004


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