“Senior Product Manager Ryan Bidan said that the tablet will have a 5,300-milliamp-hour battery that will offer plenty of battery life, but he wouldn’t quote a specific estimate,” Fried reports. “‘We’ll have good battery life,’ he said. ‘Don’t worry about the battery life.’
MacDailyNews Take: Yeah, okay, so what about the apps? And the lack of a software iPod and iTunes support? And the lack of AirPlay? And the third-party accessories?
Fired continues, “UPDATE: Asked whether RIM is still aiming for eight hours of battery life, as it claimed at CES, Bidan said, ‘That is the case–our goal is to get a full day.'”
MacDailyNews Take: The operative word, of course, is “goal.” It’s nice to have goals, but as we’ve clearly seen with RIM’s OS releases since iPhone stunned them senseless in January 2007, they have difficulty hitting them.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The thing, when it arrives, is supposed to have a 7-inch screen, 45% the size of iPad’s, and RIM is struggling to come close to iPad’s battery life. This is what you get when you’re stuck with off-the-shelf parts and trying to cobble together shrunken pretend iPads.
The ironic thing is that something named “playbook” is being built by a company that for years has been operating without one — beyond doing a lot of talking, teasing, and stalling while seemingly angling for a buyout, Palm-style.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Vatdoro” for the heads up.]
Why do they even bother! RIP
Okay, so milliamp-hours confuse me, but isn’t that twice the battery size of what the iPad has? In a tablet, half the size, and it weighs less? Is that really possible?
Okay, I just checked, my Macbook, has a battery rated for about 5000mAh, which is 55 watt hours.
So, the PB has a battery at least as powerful as 55 watt hours, while we know the iPad has a 25 watt hour battery. So, it’s at least twice as large. in a form factor, half the size, and weighs less. Either the iPad’s case weighs a ton, while the PB’s does not, or something seems fishy.
One last thing I forgot, the PlayBook doesn’t even have a 3G cell radio, as it connects over wifi, so it should be using even less power. I guess Shaw Wu was right. This thing IS a power hog.
I’m surprised he did not say, “We’re on track for a goal of getting a full day of battery life.”
To me, a “full day” can me anything from about 6 hours (since you can’t use it while sleeping, eating, taking a shower, driving, etc.) to actually 24 hours (unlikely in this case).
A full day on Jupiter maybe.
“It will last a full day… on standby”
The funny thing is, outside of America, Playbook sounds like some kind of kids book. Bad name.
He just conveniently didn’t mention the Die Hard battery backpack that comes with the PlayBook.
I hear Mophie is working on the Ab Pack for PlayBook, which you wear very comfortably around your abdomen and connect with a convenient micro USB cable snaked through your sleeve.
The only holdup is that TSA thinks you’ve got a bomb strapped to yourself . . . guess the Israeli security will have fun with that one! (Remember they shot an iPad?)
Last a full day?
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Is that a work day? 8 hours.
Is that a banker’s day? 6 hours. (JK)
Is that a government worker’s day? 4 hours. (JK)
Is that a union worker’s work day? 2 hours. (JK)
*(JK) – Just Kidding. Lighten Up people. Be Civil!!!
@Rudedog,
What is even funnier is that RIM IS outside of American and still picked the name ‘Playbook’.
watt hour is the product of current capacity x voltage, so for the Macbook it would be 5000 mAh x 10.8v. If the Playbook only has a single 3.6v cell x 5000 mAh = 18 watt hours. We need the voltage to say for sure.
@ChrissyOne, thanks, Best one I heard all day!
The iPad’s battery is 3.75 volts. Assuming the Playbook’s battery is the same voltage, 5300 mA-H is equal to 19.9 Watt-hours, which means it has about 80% of the capacity of the iPad’s battery. This makes sense given the smaller size of the unit.
Let me get this straight, the playbook has a battery twice the size of the iPad and a screen 45% of the size and most likely will not exceed the iPads 10 hours of battery life. So they either suck at battery friendly programming or flash really does kill battery life.
BTW, how are the Rim fanboys supposed to battery pull without a removable battery?
Originally called “Playboy Me Last You Long Time”, but they pulled it out to avoid the sticky mess of rubbing Hugh the wrong way. hehe
I think the tides have turned, and I think people need to revisit how they view RIM.
The original Blackberries were worth of giving RIM the bad rap it now has. I was amazing people thought Blackberries were easy to use and the best thing since sliced bread.
But RIM has done well with the new Playbook. No doubt about it.
I’m cheering them on.
Hugh Hefner will be all over the PlayBook when it arrives. He’ll use it as wall decoration on his Playboy mansion playing Centrefold of the month videos.
Meanwhile in the offices & boardroom of corporate America…crickets.
Who wants to have a half sized iPad with a quarter of the battery life that has no apps???
@ Bizlaw
“the Die Hard battery backpack”
Oh! Stylish!
Any battery will last “a full day” when it sits not being used. Hell, They might even squeeze 2 days out of it.
@sully,
The Playbook battery has less capacity than the iPad’s, not more.
@C1 I always had a sneaky suspicion that you were really Leela from Futurama.
Say hi to Nibbler, Zapp and the Wongs; Leo and Inez from me … ta
@ skylark
The good news is I don’t have to waste money on 3D movies.
Worse battery life, 45% the size, 100% the costs.
Sucker born every minute.
Is that full day in stand-by?