[MattG]

About
This article will outline some ways to make your Zune battery charge last longer. The Zune has an estimated 12 hours of music playback or 3.5 hours of video playback. Some of these techniques are well known and common sense, and some are lesser known tweaks, in any case if you read and use what you learn in this article you can squeeze as much as 2 extra hours out the the Zune battery.

Tip 1


Complete Power Down
When many people are done listening to their Zune they hold the play button thinking they are turning their device off. WRONG, holding play puts your device into a suspended sleep mode. This sleep mode is good for people who use their Zune off and on a lot throughout the day, but if you are going to shut off your Zune and keep it off for longer than 10-15 minutes a complete power off is a good idea.

Turn Off Your Zune
To turn off your Zune, you hold 'down' and 'back' simultaneously for about 5 seconds. This will completely turn off your Zune. The only downside to turning it completely off is that when you choose to turn it back on (hold 'play') it has to boot up, which takes 5-10 seconds.

Tip 2


Backlight Timer
Changing the backlight timer is an easy way to improve your battery life. The Zune backlight timer works by automatically turning off your Zune screen backlight after a period of inactivity (not touching and buttons). In most cases the average user would find 15 or 30 seconds plenty of time for the backlight timer.

How to Change It
Start at the main menu, going down to 'settings', then navigate down to 'display' and hightlight 'backlight' and click the select button. The choices are: '1 second', '5 seconds', '15 seconds', '30 seconds', and '1 minute'. For optimal battery life use the lower settings. (below 30 seconds)

Tip 3


Turn down the lights!
This one goes along with Tip 2. The brightness of your Zunes backlight can also be adjusted. By default it is set to medium, which for most people may be a good option, but for best battery life set it to low.

Set your Backlight Brightness
Start at the main menu, going down to 'settings', then navigate down to 'display' and hightlight 'brightness' and click. There are 3 settngs: 'Low', 'Medium', and 'High'. For optimal battery life use the 'Low' setting.

Tip 4


The Wireless Transmitter
Everyone loves the WiFi features of the Zune. Sharing songs, sending pictures, and see what others are listening to. It's a first in the mobile music player business. But the WiFi transmitter also eats up battery life, and if you can keep it off during normal use, and only turn it on when you are going to make a transfer it will increase your battery life.

Toggle Your WiFi On/Off
Start at the main menu, go down to 'settings', and with 'wireless' selected click the select button. There are 2 options: 'On' and 'Off'

Tip 5
The Built-in EQ
Many people don't know this, but using the built-in equalizer actually lowers battery life. This is because your Zune must run all of your music through the equalizer before sending it out to your headphones. But, you will notice little to no difference between EQ settings, and furthermore when set to "None" it will play your song the way it was meant to be heard. Sounds good right.

Turning Off the EQ
Start at the main menu, and head down to "settings". From there navigate down one to "music". From this menu go all the way down to "equalizer". Click the "equalizer" setting until it displays "none".

Tip 6


Movies in Moderation
It's common sense, I know, but it still has to be said. Watching videos on your Zune is the fastest way to drain your battery. Music Videos, Movies, Podcasts etc.. Watching them significantly reduces battery life. The Zune has an estimated 3.5 hours or battery life while watching video. Thats much less than the 12 hours of music it delivers.

Tip 7


Dont Run it on Empty
One last way to ensure your Zune battery retains its full charge for as long as possible is not to let the battery fully deplete. Each time you run your Zune battery to empty the Lithium Ion battery loses a bit of its potential charge. So the more you run your device to empty, the less charge your Zune will hold.


The End
Those are the easiest ways to fully take advantage of the Zunes 12 hours of battery life, and maybe ever beyond that up to 13-14 hours.

[Seatbelt99]

excellent tips. I just turned off wi-fi since I never use it anyway! Thanks!

[MattG]

Haha no problem

[this_is_my_life]

thx dude
that could be some reasons why my batteries dying after a few hours of use

[itami]

I know I read this somewhere before, almost word for word I think.

[MattG]

oh rly :mellow: i posted some of these tuts on other forums? but look for it

[killswitch]

One more thing, If you really want great battery life, get the zune 80..or really any of the gen 2 zunes....I have a 30 and an 80, but the 30s charge lasts for like, 3 days at max from constant use, but my 80 lasts for about a week.

[casper89]

Thanks nice guide!
All i need now is a zune lul...

[b1gg13]

good tips, i always turn mine off completely. the wireless i only turn on when i want to sync it, i love the wireless sync.

[killswitch]

wireless sync FTW

[bounty762]

The last tip was helpful about not letting it run all the way out. I'll start using that knowledge for my DS

[itami]

Another thing...don't be afraid to use the radio. I had it on for about 2 hours today and the batter bar barely even went down.

When you haven't touched any buttons the backlight goes off but the screen is still on. Wait even longer and the screen turns off. Try and refrain from constantly messing with it too.