Creative Zen Micro 5GB vs. Apple iPod Mini 4GB
Page 12-A
Creative Zen Micro
Battery Life
I spent several days to do comprehensive battery tests on the Zen Micro with the updated v2.00.12 firmware. So as not to disrupt the flow of the original review, I decided to put the results of my tests on a sub-page.
A 3.5mm-3.5mm audio cable was used to connect the player to the line-in of a computer, with software recording the audio input. The battery life is considered to be the time from which music starts playing till it stops (when the player switches off due to insufficient power). Songs are added to a playlist album by album. No songs are repeated throughout the playlist. Disk Cleanup was performed after the songs were transferred to the Zen Micro. EQ was set to "Rock" Smart Volume set to "On", with the volume at 20 out of 25. I also did two tests without Smart Volume, and one test without EQ on.
| Format | Time |
| WMA | |
| CBR (64kbps) | 07:17:30 |
| CBR (128kbps) | 06:56:03 |
| VBR (~90kbps) | 07:04:01 |
| MP3 | |
| MP3 CBR (128kbps) | 07:11:42 |
| MP3 VBR (~80kbps) | 06:56:59 |
| MP3 VBR (~224kbps) | 06:47:44 |
| Smart Volume Off | |
| MP3 CBR (128kbps) | 10:26:59 |
| MP3 VBR (~224kbps) | 09:44:16 |
| Smart Volume & EQ Off | |
| MP3 CBR (128-192kbps) | 11:37:04 |
To make it easier to see, I put the data into a chart.
As you can see, the differences between the different formats & bitrates are minimal, although CBR formats generally do better than VBR. It may also be worth to note that the Zen Micro seems to handle lower bitrates better.
The biggest change is when Smart Volume is turned off. The battery life jumps up by another three hours. Here, we can also see that MP3 CBR lasts about 40 minutes more than MP3 VBR. When EQ is turned off, the Zen Micro almost reaches the claimed battery life of 12 hours, with only about 20 minutes short.
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