My New IFP-790

[geedee105]

Had 130$ So I finally came to a decision and picked up the IFP-790, my first mp3. Had some doubts, because I read up about bad controls and horrible software. Softwares easy to use. No point for the long manual. For the controls, just read the manual. I dont know why so many choose not to do so. Anyways, its working fine, the case is great. So many cool features.

But I was just wondering about the battery life. I just wish it was one of those charge up mp3 players. Im using an AA Duracell Alkaline battery. I heard that if you set the battery to "Rechargable" intead of "Alkaline", the battery will last so much longer, no matter the type. This true? This is probably a dumb question, but will dollarstore batteries last as long as high class Duracell or Energizer? lol

[Astec]

Get a set of 4 AA NiMh Batteries 2400mAh or greater and a charger. You will find in high drain applications like this they will out last any "Duracell". Most chargers can charge 2 batteries or 4 batteries at a time so you can have 2 full and the others on charge at any one time or have all 4 to give you days of iFp entertainment.

[moonsparrow]

If you're using alkaline (and if you do, please find yourself a battery recycling container out of respect for your planet), Duracell seems to be the pick of the litter. To the best of my knowledge, the rechargeable/alkaline setting in the options is only used to calibrate the battery meter in the display, and does not actually have anything to do with your battery life.

It's been a bone of contention on these boards before as to whether alkalines or rechargeables last longer, but the answer that I agreed with most at the time is that a flash-based MP3 player, just left alone playing music, doesn't draw a whole lot of current, so alkalines actually do last longer in this case. Whereas if we're talking about something like a digital camera, which has a lot of mechanical parts to power, rechargeables are pretty much the only way to go. Similarly, your iRiver is going to eat power impressively quickly when uploading files, because it has to write them to the memory.

If you're stingy about volume, EQ, backlight, etc., a plain old Duracell will give you something pretty close to iRiver's battery life specs (which were a selling point for me). Rechargeables reportedly don't last quite as long, but who's going to listen to 20-30 straight hours of music anyway?

Cheap off-brand batteries will power your player, but not for as long. Sometimes you'll go to turn it on, and all it will do is make a scary buzzing noise that can only be stopped by taking the battery out and putting it back in. I was feeling cheap once, and picked up a pack of 24 of those hideous sub-Rayovac batteries from Wal-Mart. They were somewhat tolerable. I almost (mistakenly) RMAed my player because of the buzzing noise, which I found out just in time was the fault of the battery, but I went back to Duracells in the end. Here's why: Whatever you do, do NOT use crappy batteries while moving stuff around in iRiver Music Manager. Your battery will die, your files will be corrupted, and you will have to reformat (if you have my luck, you will also be in China with most of your files backed up on a hard drive that you don't have with you). My two cents, in conclusion? Stick with Duracells or rechargeables, use cheap batteries cautiously, and always back up your files and have them in the same country as you.