What drains the battery so much on the Pix?

[decepticoncrown]

Title says all, really. I've read repeatedly that the batteries on the Pix die easily but is there any reason why? I figured for a while it was because of the camera and using that regularly drained them, but I haven't read anything that backs up that hunch. I also read that specific shells have this problem more then others. I'm curious if there is a feature on it that I can avoid so the battery life lasts longer? Or no matter what you do it dies easily?

 

[tamaninjacat]

You can turn the brightness all the way (or close to all the way) down, but tamas with LED screens tend to run through the batteries pretty quick anyway.

I also read that specific shells have this problem more then others.

I haven't heard of this before, but now I'm curious! Which shells run out battery the quickest? (Hopefully not mine...)

 

[Alchemist Kitsune]

I have no real evidence to support this, and it is all hearsay that I think might be on the right path, but I have seen it be suggested that it might be the animations themselves that drain the battery so much. For such fluid animations when compared to something like the On, the device probably has a harsher strain on the batteries longevity every time it gets booted up. Add to that the camera component and the potential possibility that not much work was done to preserve the battery life on the toy by the developers - not maliciously I wouldn't think, but maybe a small oversight - when they were originally released and you've got a pet that drains battery like there is no tomorrow.

What I can say for certain is that of the people I know with Tamas, most have original pix tamas from either wave 1 or 2, and those of us with wave 1 devices definitely have to change batteries more often even with less camera or overall use. It could be that due to all of the complaints regarding the battery life Bandai decided to silently fix the issue on the second wave, making the blue and green shells last longer overall than the pink and purple. The most I have had my pink Pix last me is a little over a week, and that was a mightily busy week for me in which I had next to no time for my virtual pets. Most of the people I know with the blue one get maybe two weeks battery out of theirs. I know no one with the green shell, so can't comment on that. I just started a Party Pix confetti color for the Christmas hatch with fresh batteries, so I'll keep track on how long those last me to see if there really is a difference or if it's just coincidence between me and my friends and I just use the darn things too much even on my busy-no-time-for-nonsense weeks.

I will also agree with tamaninjacat here on turning the brightness down all the way. It doesn't save the batteries for anything close to good battery life, but it does extend the life from a couple of days to almost a week. I have also seen it said that turning the volume off helps as well, but I enjoy the beeps of my little guys, so I haven't tried this to confirm, either.

 

[tamaninjacat]

I have no real evidence to support this, and it is all hearsay that I think might be on the right path, but I have seen it be suggested that it might be the animations themselves that drain the battery so much. For such fluid animations when compared to something like the On, the device probably has a harsher strain on the batteries longevity every time it gets booted up.

This is actually a really good theory! The Pix has probably some of, if not the most, fluid animations of any of the LED screen tamas, so it would make sense that they drain batteries particularly quickly.

What I can say for certain is that of the people I know with Tamas, most have original pix tamas from either wave 1 or 2, and those of us with wave 1 devices definitely have to change batteries more often even with less camera or overall use. It could be that due to all of the complaints regarding the battery life Bandai decided to silently fix the issue on the second wave, making the blue and green shells last longer overall than the pink and purple.

Ohhh that makes a lot of sense. It's been awhile since I've ran my Pix for a significant amount of time, but I think my batteries lasted about two weeks like you said. (I've got a green one.)

 

[decepticoncrown]

Thanks for the suggestion of lowering the brightness, I hope that helps. This thread was where I read that specific shells have better battery lives than others, but it does seem like a fact that the Party has a better life span than the standard Pix. I've noticed every time I've turned mine on it has a loading screen before showing my Tama, maybe some of the reason why the batteries exhausts themselves so easily is because there's so much content in it.

My Tama is only at its toddler stage as I'm writing this, so I haven't experienced a lot of the Pix yet, but from what I've seen the animations seem fairly average and comparable to the On. (It's been a while since I have ran an On though, my memory might be hazy) The sprites in it are wonderfully detailed though.

 

[Shiken]

I just had to change my batteries for the first time in my green pix after 5 days, with the screen dimmed down. This sounds about right to me, and it probably depends on how often you are using it. Light use will probably give you a week to two weeks as mentioned, but in my case of HEAVY activity (being new and all) it lasted about 5 days.

This is still longer than even the best case scenario of the wave 1 Pix though, which makes me really feel for those with the pink or purple shells.

 

[Not Elliette]

VERY late response, but I have a Pix. I use DURACELL batteries, and put the brightness all the way to 1. It usually lasts 1 or 2 months. The battery might last longer if you are aiming for a 6+ CM tama.