Battery life playing from SD

[somora2]

Having additional GB's of music at card looks appealing. But how much does it shortens the battery life compared to playing directly from memory?
Anybody did this test (100% from card vs. 100% from memory)?

[CrowdAds]

[saratoga]

Should be the same. The internal memory is actually also an SD card.

[Infusion]

I read somewhere in the net that a owner did the test of battery life, with/without a 16Gb card, and it shortened the life from 21h to 15h. I'll try to find again.

Anyway, internal memory can be kind of a SD card too, but then there are two cards cosuming power, instead of only one...

[paulr]

Originally Posted by saratoga

Should be the same. The internal memory is actually also an SD card.

I don't think so. Take a look at the teardown thread sticky. It looks like there is a soldered-on memory chip on the board the way you'd expect, not an SD card.

[Skinjob]

I've been using an 8GB card for quite a while and the effect on battery life is negligible. I'm sure there's probably a difference, but it's not enough for me to even really notice. Sansa techs have posted on the official forum that there should on be a few percent difference in battery life with/without a card, which jibes with my experience. I've never heard of any one having such a drastic difference in battery life as the 21h to 15h mentioned above.

[saratoga]

Originally Posted by paulr

I don't think so. Take a look at the teardown thread sticky.

Take a look at the rockbox driver for the internal memory. Its definitely SD.

Originally Posted by paulr

It looks like there is a soldered-on memory chip on the board the way you'd expect, not an SD card.

Ever opened up an SD card? Its not plastic all the way through. Theres a memory chip soldered to a board, just like the e200 . . .

[saratoga]

Originally Posted by Infusion

Anyway, internal memory can be kind of a SD card too, but then there are two cards cosuming power, instead of only one...

At least if its rockbox, we power down the internal and external SD card when they're not in use, so it shouldn't be doing anything unless you're actually using it. Doing so saved an hour or so of battery life when it was added. If you're running rockbox, and find that adding the card decreases battery life that much, it'd be interesting to look at. A powered down card shouldn't be consuming much if any power.

[paulr]

Originally Posted by saratoga

Take a look at the rockbox driver for the internal memory. Its definitely SD.



Ever opened up an SD card? Its not plastic all the way through. Theres a memory chip soldered to a board, just like the e200 . . .

Thanks, that is very interesting. I wonder if I can somehow transplant the chip from a microsdhc card into the fuze, using my yet-undiscovered l33t SMT rework skillz ;-).

[Marvin the Martian]

Originally Posted by Skinjob

I've been using an 8GB card for quite a while and the effect on battery life is negligible.

+1. I didn't think it made much, if any, of a difference either when I had my Fuze and 8GB card.