Aura One battery experiences???

[whenthedarkfalls]

I got my Kobo on the release date. Since then, I noticed the battery drain issue overnight twice. It goes from 94% to 9% within few hours. I just read through the forum and trying to follow the turn off sync and wifi advice and will report later.

Just wrote this to make Kobo notice there are more people affected with this issue.

[petercreasey]

w, it's way too much work; however, it ultimately can be worked around with your device.

[MGlitch]

Originally Posted by whenthedarkfalls

I got my Kobo on the release date. Since then, I noticed the battery drain issue overnight twice. It goes from 94% to 9% within few hours. I just read through the forum and trying to follow the turn off sync and wifi advice and will report later.

Just wrote this to make Kobo notice there are more people affected with this issue.

you're better off emailing them. There are kobo officials on MR, but MR's Kobo forum is not an official Kobo support forum. It's all based on users with knowledge of the devices.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by robko

And from what I'm seeing, the battery life IS shorter than the previous devices (which would be expected based on the published marketing specs being 1/2 the life). I read about 8 hours yesterday, light at 50%, and downloaded a bunch of stuff and I'm at about 50%. No drain during sleep. I'd call this a design decision rather than a battery problem.

I think a shorter battery life as compared to a 6 inch reader is to be expected. The ONE has a screen which is 69 percent bigger than that of a 6 inch reader, it has more LED's than most, and some way to control the color.

All of this together leads me to believe that it is very probable that the ONE has a shorter battery life than a 6 inch reader.

How long? I don't know yet. I know my KPW1 ran out of battery very seldomly. Because Collections management is so hard on the Kindles, I never put more than 5-10 books on it.

[John F]

From the Kobo website; Glo HD: "Up to 2 months*", Aura One: "Up to 1 month*".

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by John F

From the Kobo website; Glo HD: "Up to 2 months*", Aura One: "Up to 1 month*".

Shame they didn't put a bigger battery in it. I dislike the modern trend to produce ever-lighter devices at the expense of battery life.

Kobo use the same criteria as Amazon for battery life, I believe: 30m a day reading time. So a 1 month battery life equates to 15h reading, which is not great for an eInk device. One of the selling points of eInk has always been its low power consumption, but some of these new devices, because of their battery capacity, have no better usage times than many tablets achieve. Amazon seem to be following the same road, and I don't like it at all. One of the benefits of an eInk device for me has always been the fact that I can take it away on a week's holiday and not need to bother about taking chargers with me.

[Erich Zann]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

I think a shorter battery life as compared to a 6 inch reader is to be expected. The ONE has a screen which is 69 percent bigger than that of a 6 inch reader, it has more LED's than most, and some way to control the color.

A eInk screen shouldn't need any energy until you refresh the screen. If the bigger screen is used to increase the amount of text, there's less page turns, and therefore the cost of a larger screen on battery life should be close to zero.
And if people don't use the frontlight, the battery life shouldn't be reduced.

I wonder if Kobo has reduce the battery life/size in order to limit the weight (which is really small for this screen size)

Originally Posted by HarryT

One of the selling points of eInk has always been its low power consumption, but some of these new devices, because of their battery capacity, have no better usage times than many tablets achieve.

It's not entirely true. One month battery life is different from 15h battery life. Some LCD tablets indeed have 15…20 hours battery life, but not with a 30min/day on 30 days usage.
A one-month battery life may correspond to 30 to 40 hours reading time depending on how long you read in a day:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=275804

[RZetlin]

The battery has stopped draining quickly with the auto sync off and the the auto light off, light set to 0%.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Erich Zann

A eInk screen shouldn't need any energy until you refresh the screen. If the bigger screen is used to increase the amount of text, there's less page turns, and therefore the cost of a larger screen on battery life should be close to zero.
And if people don't use the frontlight, the battery life shouldn't be reduced.

But most people do use the frontlight the majority of the time. It's really only if you're reading in direct sunlight that it doesn't improve the reading experience. Having WiFi turned on is also a big battery drain, and that too is a constant drain while it's on.

I wonder if Kobo has reduce the battery life/size in order to limit the weight (which is really small for this screen size)

Without a doubt, and it was a poor design choice, IMHO.

[Katsunami]

Because collections management on the Kindle is cumbersome, I've never used it. I haven't got the inclination (nor the time, or patience) to type in and order collections on the device. Thus, I only ever had 5 books or so on the Kindle.

I would mostly connect the reader to the computer to load a new book or two, before the battery ran out. After uploading I would leave the Kindle connected to the computer.

The result is that I've only rarely seen the "Your battery is almost depleted" prompt. It often goes on for months, without being plugged into a wall outlet on purpose.

The KA1 is different. At this point in time, collections can be managed by just creating a custom column for it (or put something like "authors" or "series" in the collections field in the driver). Therefore I now already have a few collections, such as "Discworld", "Forgotten Realms", "Short Stories", "Historical", etc; and each of those contain the next few books of the type I intend to read. My reading selection on the KA1 is much bigger than on the Kindle (and it'll probably get bigger over time).

The reader will probably be connected to the computer much less than the Kindle, and combined with the shorter battery life, I think I'll be recharging it much more often.

With regard to thickness: I think companies are driving this to absurdity. I device shouldn't be 10cm thick obviously, but I dislike the trend to create devices that have a thickness of 7, 6, or even less milimeters.

The KA1 weighs in at 230gr, compared to the KPW1 at 213gr, and it has a thickness of only 6.9mm vs 9.1mm for the KPW1.

This makes the KPW1 feel much more substantial than the KA1; the Kobo feels too thin and too light for a device of that size. I don't really like using it without a cover; with the KPW1, it's still possible. I'm going to wait with using the KA1 outside the house (transporting it in my work bag, and reading in public transport) until I acquire a hard, sturdy book-style cover for it.

[Erich Zann]

Originally Posted by HarryT

But most people do use the frontlight the majority of the time.

I don't know how most people read. My point is: when Kobo mention a reduced battery life, we don't necessary know which setting is used by the manufacturer. Is frontlight activated? And most important: at which setting? For that reason the number of LED on the One has maybe no impact on the official battery life.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Erich Zann

I don't know how most people read. My point is: when Kobo mention a reduced battery life, we don't necessary know which setting is used by the manufacturer. Is frontlight activated? And most important: at which setting? For that reason the number of LED on the One has maybe no impact on the official battery life.

I'm sure they tell you somewhere in the "small print" what settings they're using for the battery life estimate. Eg, in their description of the Kindle Voyage, Amazon say "A single charge lasts up to six weeks, based on half an hour of reading per day with wireless off and the light setting at 10."

[Canuck_in_Japan]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Shame they didn't put a bigger battery in it. I dislike the modern trend to produce ever-lighter devices at the expense of battery life.

Kobo use the same criteria as Amazon for battery life, I believe: 30m a day reading time. So a 1 month battery life equates to 15h reading, which is not great for an eInk device. One of the selling points of eInk has always been its low power consumption, but some of these new devices, because of their battery capacity, have no better usage times than many tablets achieve. Amazon seem to be following the same road, and I don't like it at all. One of the benefits of an eInk device for me has always been the fact that I can take it away on a week's holiday and not need to bother about taking chargers with me.

As a reading device (rather than a phone which you're not likely to hold for long periods of time) I would rather go for having a lighter device. 15 hours of reading time is more than enough for me. As for going away for a week, how are you going to charge your phone if you're not bringing a charger?

[Erich Zann]

As far as I can remember I was never able to discover those small prints for the Kobo device

https://us.kobobooks.com/products/kobo-aura-h2o :

Battery Life: Up to 2 months*

* Dependent on individual usage

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Without a doubt, and it was a poor design choice, IMHO.

Not sure if it was a poor design choice. It's something the "world" apparently is asking for. Just look at the Oasis. A very light and thin device with a horrible battery life. You want more? Add the cover, which will bring the weight up to "normal".

The sad part is, people ask for one thing but don't think about the consequences. So, they want a very light device, and then complain that the battery isn't as heavy as they wanted. Or a very thin device and then complain that it's not rigid enough to fit in a pocket without bending.

For me, I would have preferred a thicker device. So, I will get a nice book-like cover for it, that will add that thickness. About the battery, I'll have to see, but so far, I've no problems about it. It's still full, even after my normal dosage of daily reading. Which isn't as much as I'd do on a holiday (other hobbies and other things like work eat my time too), but based on the emptyness of my battery now, that'll be way more than 15 hours (and I only read with the light on)