Wonde Proud's Bluetooth GPS receiver touts unreal battery life
Alright, so maybe "unrealistic" is more like it, but regardless, we highly doubt the latest Bluetooth GPS device from Taiwan's own Wonde Proud can actually live up to its lofty claims. Of course, the GPS-BT760 could indeed be using some early prototype form of EEStor's sensational battery, but considering the company itself proclaims the built-in battery is of the 2400mA/h Li-ion variety, we're a bit miffed. Aside from claiming up to "55 hours of continuous use" on a single charge, the unit is fairly ho hum, and sports a SiRF Star III receiver, -159dBm sensitivity, four hour recharge rate, four LEDs to indicate status, and a "non-slip back pad" for chilling on your dash. Nah, there's no pricing -- or more importantly, actual availability -- information just yet on this one, but if someone manages to scoop one and has just over two full days to prove or disprove a claim, let us in on the results.
Filed under: GPS
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Phil @ Feb 6th 2007 9:11AM
This is very believable. I don't see why all GPS devices don't have such great battery performance. GPS is just a passive listener for the radio signals put out by the satellites. The rest of the circuitry should be not be much more power hungry than a typical digital watch.
NHAnimator @ Feb 6th 2007 9:48AM
Agreed. It's not like there's an LCD screen being powered here or anything.
Vagrant @ Feb 6th 2007 10:17AM
This device uses Bluetooth to transmit it's data and that uses power as well. What gives this device such long life are two things.
- The low power consuming chipset, SiRF Star III, which can be found in most GPS receivers.
- The 2400mA/h Li-ion battery.
The GPS device I have, uses a replaceable Nokia BL-5C 850mAh battery that provides a little over 20 hours of use. It also uses the SiRF Start III chipset.
Dean @ Feb 6th 2007 10:21AM
A lot of the power usage is the bluetooth constantly transmitting though. That'd be where most of the battery would go to.
Kent Beuchert @ Feb 6th 2007 10:35AM
I see from the other comments that this article seems to have been written in a knowledge vacuum. Whenever a company has a product (which does NOT have anything to do with diets,
get rich quick schemes, etc.) in other words a legitimate product and makes claim Y, it is just plain crazy to have doubts about those claims without some strong reasons.
James @ Feb 6th 2007 11:49AM
Vagrant, which GPS receiver are you using?
I use a Holux GPSlim 236 which also uses the Nokia BL-5C battery, and lifespan is about 10 hours (advertised; I've never left it on for that long).
James @ Feb 6th 2007 11:49AM
Vagrant, which GPS receiver are you using?
I use a Holux GPSlim 236 which also uses the Nokia BL-5C battery, and lifespan is about 10 hours (advertised; I've never left it on for that long).
SwissFreek @ Feb 6th 2007 2:03PM
I, too, vote with Vagrant. Totally believable. After reading the title, I thought the claim would be something like a week or two. That would be hard to believe. But 2400 mAh... that's a *big* battery for a GPS receiver.
Consider that the Treo650 and 700 come with 1800 mAh batteries, and those suckers will run for just about five days on a single charge.
Granted, they don't have bluetooth running constantly, but they are still connected to the cell network, and we're talking about a battery that is 35% bigger than that.
Ken @ Feb 7th 2007 1:23PM
You can stick a Nokia BL-6C into the Holux 236 for more battery life. It shares batteries w/ my Nokia 6620 phone so I only have to bring one charger on vacations :-)