Battery life with exam mode

[debrouxl]

We went out our way to test battery life in exam mode on three different calculators of different hardware revisions (DVT, lightly used HW-A, recent HW-C), multiple times each, and all tests yielded consistent results. Therefore, it would be have been highly surprising to see no other Prime users experience the same issue on their own Prime calculators
The battery life variation between runs on the same model can be attributed to the battery indicator's accuracy and amount of trust put in it: up to a point, if the calculator charges for some more time after the battery indicator states 100%, the battery life in exam mode is longer.

The Prime's battery life in normal mode is usually good, but the dependability oddity in exam mode costs the Prime the #1 spot in our recent series comparing, from the point of view of a French high-schooler aiming at school and exam mode usage of calculators, the calculator models featuring support for that counter-productive exam mode craziness unfortunately recently imported from other countries, which can be bought as of today on the French marketplace. The topic linked above is part of that ~18-part series, the summary is at https://tiplanet.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=17145 .
Unsurprisingly, the more expensive high-end models (HP Prime and TI-Nspire CX CAS) top the list, and cheaper old technology (old TI and Casio designs which saw an exam mode being bolted on without improving hardware characteristics, and sometimes even reducing firmware capabilities, as occurred after deriving that TI-82 Advanced stinker from the old 84+) trail the list.
The fact that from 2018 onwards, the exam mode is supposed to be enabled for the main French standardized test, is creating unwelcome differences of treatment against pupils, based on their wealth. Better features for those who pay more and use the right models, no more access (during the exam) to community programs for slightly raising the capabilities of the inferior models and making them less uneven with the higher models... sounds totally fair and sane. A good thing for the calculator manufacturers' sales figures, though.