Portable Recorder
Battery Life Test Results

Rather than rely solely on manufacturer's claims, we wanted to find out for ourselves just how long batteries may last in the portable recorders we sell. Here's what we found. Your mileage may vary, of course.

1st Place	2nd Place	3rd Place
Sony PCM-M10 43.0 hours	Sony PCM-D50 25.5 hours	Olympus LS-11 19.2 hours

4th Place	5th Place	6th Place
Olympus LS-10 8.5 hours	Tascam DR-07 7.5 hours	Marantz PMD620 6.4 hours

7th Place	8th Place	9th Place
Zoom H2 6.3 hours	Marantz PMD661 5.8 hours	Tascam DR-1 5.8 hours

10th Place	11th Place	12th Place
Edirol R-09HR 5.3 hours	M-Audio MicroTrack II 4.8 hours	Zoom H4n 4.4 hours (7.7 hours stamina)

13th Place	14th Place	15th Place
Sony PCM-D1 4.0 hours	Korg MR-1 2.8 hours	Zoom Q3 1.6 hours (movie mode) 2.6 hours (audio-only)

16th Place
Tascam DR-100 1.3 hours (AA) 5.7 hours (BP-L2)

How We Did the Battery Life Contest

First, we fully charged the Korg MR-1, MicroTrack II, and Tascam DR-1 and loaded the other recorders with Duracell Coppertop AA batteries - the kind you can find in almost any US retail store.

Second, to avoid the possibility of running out of memory before running out of power, we set all the units (except the Korg, the Sony D50 and the Sony D1) to record in MP3 format at 128 kbps.

The Sony D50 and D1 units were set at 16-bit/22.05 kHz wav files (they don't record mp3s). The Korg MR-1 was set at 16-bit 44.1kHz wav files.

Third, we pressed "record" on each unit and left them on until they ran out of power. The times noted are the total lengths of the resulting files.

Even after giving a "low battery" warning, each recorder (except the Zoom H2, which fully drained its batteries) retained approximately 30 minutes in reserve power.

Most impressive was the phenomenal performance of the Sony PCM-M10. That 43.0 hours is not a typographical error. We literally started it on a Saturday night and it kept going until late Monday afternoon. If battery life is a big concern for you, the Sony PCM-M10 seems to be the clear choice, with the Sony PCM-D50 and the Olympus LS-11 a distant second and third.