Odyssey How are people finding the battery life?

[bob123]

How long are people finding the Odyssey's battery lasts? Is it better than the Orizon?

[EowynCarter]

Yes. (The orizon is not an example there).
And at least it warns you when battery get low.

[DuckieTigger]

I cannot compare it to the Orizon, since Odyssey is my first Cybook. But I am so far very happy with it. Had it at work last night - and the whole time (about 12 hours worth) the Odyssey was connected to the company WiFi and I was browsing - mostly reading here on Mobileread. The battery meter lost maybe 10% with it never shutting off ( got the shutoff time set to 1 hour) - with heavily scrolling during that time. Bookeen says though that their modified vizplex screen is very energy efficient compared to the normal pearl - and I think I have to believe that. Have not tested epub reading exclusively. And I start to curse Bookeen for putting WiFi and a browser on this damn thing. It was another night I did not get to even read a single page in my book. Its perfect for reading forums - never got tired from reading it for extended times which I cannot say for my LED-LCD screen on my computer. But its a shame that it is so addicting to browse on it - little advice - if you plan to read a book on this thing, make sure you are not in a spot where WiFi is available.

Compared to my prs-300 the Odyssey seams to hold its charge for a lot longer time. And thanks Eowyn for finding out that it warns you if it gets too low - I have not got it down so far since I still plug it in every few days and upload stuff to it. Very happy with battery life so far ...

[EowynCarter]

[QUOTE=DuckieTigger;1919752]Bookeen says though that their modified vizplex screen is very energy efficient compared to the normal pearl - and I think I have to believe that.l/QUOTE]
It's a pearl screen.

[bob123]

[QUOTE=EowynCarter;1919793]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

Bookeen says though that their modified vizplex screen is very energy efficient compared to the normal pearl - and I think I have to believe that.l/QUOTE]
It's a pearl screen.

Well they do claim that their HSIS pearl screen is more power efficient than other pearl screen.

EowynCarter: How does it compare to the prs-t1?

Thanks!

[EowynCarter]

[QUOTE=bob123;1919814]

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

Well they do claim that their HSIS pearl screen is more power efficient than other pearl screen.

EowynCarter: How does it compare to the prs-t1?

Thanks!

The T1 have a good autonomy.
But, i don't use them the same way, it's hard to make an actual comparison.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

It's a pearl screen.

That is what I meant. They modified Vizplex V220 (the Pearl screen). Since they claim to have changed soft- and hardware I am not sure if it is still called Pearl or if it has a new pet-name. I remember seeing them calling it HSIS and not Pearl-HSIS. Sorry if it seamed like I tried to confuse - and I definately do not want to start a fight over it.

[bob123]

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

Yes. (The orizon is not an example there).
And at least it warns you when battery get low.

So it lasts a lot longer?

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by bob123

How long are people finding the Odyssey's battery lasts?

I am jusr done testing how long the battery will last reading. Using The Lord of the Rings with 1344 epub page and with a fontsize approximately good to read for most people with 21 lines per screen and about 3 screens per page. First i fastforwarded through the whole book back and forth holding down the sidebutton. It took 12 minutes forward and 13 backwards. The Odyssey struggles at page breaks and appears to render the next page on the fly. The next and last step in my test was to go slow from page 1 to 1344 going one screen at a time with full refresh (flashing). Afte that was all done I checked the battery meter (I know those things are not always reliable).I still had 8 of 10 bars left so still at least 75% full. Sure it will eat up more battery a you canot read that fast and I doubt anyone would read lotr all in one session without breaks and putting reader to sleep. You do the math how much on one charge.

[DuckieTigger]

oh and please excuse the few typos - but i am unable to fix them at the moment as the odyssey's one line text input is poorly implemented. you cannot even go back in that line to edit without deleting the last part. :-(

[Godzil]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

That is what I meant. They modified Vizplex V220 (the Pearl screen). Since they claim to have changed soft- and hardware I am not sure if it is still called Pearl or if it has a new pet-name. I remember seeing them calling it HSIS and not Pearl-HSIS. Sorry if it seamed like I tried to confuse - and I definately do not want to start a fight over it.

HSIS is only marketing twaddle.. They don't have any magical eInk screen that other does not have. They may have optimized some thing on the software, but it's mainly the same hardware as the Nook Simple Touch

[HarryT]

The real difference in power usage between devices tends not to be how much power the screen uses, but rather how much power they use when "asleep".

Eg, the Opus battery will last about a week with the device left in sleep mode, whereas the Kindle genuinely uses zero power when asleep - you can leave it sleeping for a month, and the battery level will be pretty much the same when you turn it back on as it was when it was put to sleep.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by HarryT

The real difference in power usage between devices tends not to be how much power the screen uses, but rather how much power they use when "asleep".

Eg, the Opus battery will last about a week with the device left in sleep mode, whereas the Kindle genuinely uses zero power when asleep - you can leave it sleeping for a month, and the battery level will be pretty much the same when you turn it back on as it was when it was put to sleep.

Ok, I give you that. It probably depends all on marketing strategies. Amazon advertises that a Kindle will last you 1, 2 or whatever many months - the catch is, they also mention that it is based on reading (only) 30 minutes a day. For whom are they making those ads? They are trying to sell the ereaders to people that normally don't read that much, never read recreational at home and try to kill some time waiting on the bus, driving the bus, waiting at the doctors office. Me personally, I would not care for a second if I had to plug my book in once a week - if that would make sure that I could read all I can handle during that week - e.g still be ok if I read a few hours every day. Example (and don't quote me, just hypothetically): Opus vs. Kindle: Opus will die after a week, no matter if you read or not (beeing on sleep the whole time) and Kindle will last a month (including the 30 min a day reading). Now within that week you might still get more reading time out of the Opus, b/c it will be able to handle 20 hours of reading if used within a week after charging (again don't quote me on the number just an example) whereas the Kindle can only handle 15 hours of reading time, because of its superior zero battery drain in sleep mode. So milage will vary - and your priorities. Do you want the reader you don't have to plug in for a month or the reader that has all the reading experience and features you might want.

Oh and HarryT, no offence, but I do not believe for a second that Kindles battery won't suffer after a month on sleep even if the device does not drain any. I am not aware of any battery type that won't lose charge if left laying around doing absolutely nothing - rechargables are even worse than alkalines from my own experience.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

Oh and HarryT, no offence, but I do not believe for a second that Kindles battery won't suffer after a month on sleep even if the device does not drain any. I am not aware of any battery type that won't lose charge if left laying around doing absolutely nothing - rechargables are even worse than alkalines from my own experience.

Certainly there'll be a small discharge - as you say, any lithium battery will discharge over time - but I speak from practical experience here. I have both a Kindle Touch and an older Kindle 3 which, since I bought the Touch, I now rarely use. It's probably been a good month now since I used it but, turning it on now, the battery gauge shows the same level I remember it being at when I last used it. There must, as you very rightly say, have been some small loss of charge, but it is only small.

At the end of the day, though, battery life is really not a concern with any eInk device; they all have superb battery life compared with any rival technology. As you say, who cares if you have to charge it once a week, or once a month?