How to Conserve Your MP3 Player's Battery Power

Battery technology has come a long way since the days of the Ni-Cads, but batteries remain a major source of frustration with it comes to mobile gadgets. They can be expensive, they can be a nuisance, they can take a long time to charge, and they can cause all sorts of misery by crapping out at the wrong moment. Here is a guide to getting the greatest possible amount of music out of your mp3 player's battery.

First, think about what kind of mp3 player you want (of course, this is not helpful if you already have one). The little ones that use flash memory often use the least power, but also have the smallest batteries. Nonetheless, the smaller flash mp3 players remain some of the longest lasting, some going over 40 hrs on a charge. As a general rule, the fewer fancy features you have, (here I am talking primarily about video screens) the longer it will last. Of the iPods, the mini goes for the longest on a charge.

Also, think about players with removable batteries. Short battery life can be a nuisance around home, but if you are a situation when access to an outlet is not going to become an option for a long time (on an international flight, for example) it can be a major nuisance. Players like the Creative Zen series have removable batteries, with spares available for $40. Having a player with an external battery also saves you a lot of trouble and expense when the battery finally dies. I have heard many tales of woe about battery problems in relatively new iPods.

Once you have a player, think about what you can do so as not to drain the battery needlessly. In general, the major power draining features are the hard drive, the backlight, and the headphones. As for the hard drive, don't make it do any more than it needs to. When you are uploading music, plug your mp3 player into the AC adapter. When you are listening to music, don't start to play a song you will skip over. Doing so causes your mp3 player to needlessly load the song into its RAM. Choose what you want to listen to carefully.

It goes without saying that the backlight drains power. Don't set it any higher than it needs to be, and set it to shut off faster rather than slower. Headphones also drain the batteries. In general, the higher the volume, the more power it uses. Consider getting in-ear headphones, which require a lower volume to get the same amount of sound.

And one final word: charge and discharge completely. Although Li-Ion batteries do not have a "memory," they are designed for a specific number of charges, usually around 400. An incomplete discharging wastes a charge cycle.