14 March 2009 437 views No Comment Email This Post

Now that you have your iPod, you’re going to keep it and play it forever, right? I’m afraid not. No matter how much you love and care for your iPod, one thing will eventually let you down – the battery.

One of the major criticisms of the iPod range is the fact that each has a built in; not replaceable rechargeable battery. iPods are equipped with a built in LiIon (Lithium-ion) battery, which no matter how well you look after it is only good for about 400 – 500 complete charge / discharge cycles. Once you’ve reached that critical point, the battery will no longer take a full charge – all night on the charger may only give you a couple of hours play time as distinct from the 20 to 30 hours you’ve been used to. How quick you reach this point is based totally on how much use your iPod gets.

Once your battery play life reduces significantly, you’ve probably got three options, and unfortunately all cost a fair quid and some are more complex and difficult that the others.

1. Upgrade. The simplest solution is to accept that modern consumer electronic equipment has a designated ‘life span’ and upgrade to a new iPod. Whilst this is a fairly expensive and in some ways a wasteful option, you get a brand new item, probably packing some new or better technology and probably with a new generation battery which may have a longer life span anyway.
2. A new Apple battery. Apple operates a battery replacement program, which sees the installation of a brand new Apple battery into your iPod. The cost can be up towards $100 depending on your iPod model, but the job is carried out by Apple, so everything should be sweet.
3. Third Party Battery. If you have a bit of a look around, you will find that there are a number of low-cost third party replacement battery kits available on the market. Just remember you often get what you pay for and you need a fair bit of skill and patience to install the kits, so even if you try this method, you may end up back at option 1.

At the end of the day, the thing you have to remember is that your battery will eventually give up the ghost, and there’s not much you can do in the mean time to prevent it. You just need to factor this tact into your plans when you make the splash and buy an iPod.