Battery life is crucial with Pocket PCs, especially when you're traveling. This article compares power consumption of two Windows Mobile devices performing various tasks and describes some of the things you can do to minimize power consumption and maximize the amount of time you can use your device between charges.
One of the main consumers of power on your Windows Mobile device is the Central Processing Unit (CPU). The CPUs on most of the newer Pocket PCs can operate at different clock speeds. For example, the Dell Axim X51v can operate at 624 MHz, 520 MHz, or 208 MHz. The faster the processor is running, the more battery power it is consuming. (You can adjust the processor speed on an Axim X51v from Start> Settings> System> Power> Processor.) In addition, other hardware features consume power. These include screen brightness as well as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and infrared transmission and reception. Finally, some games and other programs use more of the systems resource and consume more power.
Before we can compare power consumption, we need a tool to measure it.
A tool for testing
To measure power consumption you can use a simple freeware program called abcPowerMeter, an excellent program that gives you a precise way to measure the drain on the battery. Download the program here (http://ppc6700users.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=7820#7820), unzip the archive file, copy the CAB file to your device, find it with File Explorer, and tap on it to install the program. It works on Pocket PCs running Windows Mobile 2003 or later versions of the OS and shows you how many milliamps (mA) the battery is expending at a given time. (Note: The program does not work with HP's iPAQ h2210. It's a little difficult to use on devices based on the HTC Wizard design, including the i-mate K-JAM, Qtek 9100, MDA Vario, and the T-Mobile MDA. On those devices, you must perform a soft reset to get a new value displayed.)
After installing the application, go to your Programs folder and tap on its icon to launch abcPowerMeter. You'll see a screen similar to the one shown in Fig. 1. Make sure your Pocket PC is disconnected from its power adapter. Then, try a few different things and see what happens to your power consumption:
- Start running one or more programs on your Pocket PC.
- Enable and then disable Wi-Fi or Bluetooth.
- Increase or decrease the screen brightness.
Printer-friendly version