Zire 72 Battery Life?

[+ritzvin]

For those who use the Zire72 with a gps receiver, how long does the battery last in it?

 

I'm considering upgrading my palm vx to this one with the nav package (color handheld w/ camera & mp3 player, gps receiver, tomtom software for $400). My main concern is the battery life while using bluetooth. Separate programs for in-car nav and geocaching wouldn't bother me (since tomtom is supposed to work with the contacts program). (I currently use a magellan meridian color).

[+Marky]

If you are actively using the BT-GPS caching with the Zire 72, you will be lucky to get 3 hours of battery life. Then again, it's not really meant for that. I've done a bunch of 'Zire 72' only days including long hikes. For the hikes, I'd turn off the Zire between caches to conserve batteries and that worked fine, but you have to know where you are going to do that (i.e. be familiar with the trails, and maybe have a trailmap printout). The batteries in the BT-GPS will last for more than 12 hours, however, so I never worry about turning that off.

 

Other than the novelty of caching with the Zire only, I wouldn't really recommend it.

 

--Marky