Has anyone's battery ever died?

[GA Russell]

I was always alienated by Apple's practice with the iPod to require its customers to send in the iPod with a hundred dollars when the battery died. I read about it somewhere, I think the New York Times, and I thought to myself, they'll never get my money.

So now we have many eBook readers that do not allow the user to change the battery (unless you want to void the warranty and play Mr. Fix-It).

I have deliberately steered clear of those, and have gravitated toward the Astak Pocket Pro and the Astak Mentor Lite 2 because the batteries could be replaced. Today I see that the new Ectaco jetBook Lite runs on AA flashlight batteries.

But now I wonder: Has anyone here actually owned an eBook reader long enough, and used it enough, for the battery to die?

I'm not talking about defective batteries. I'm talking about the expected life of a good battery. What is it?

I've never seen anyone here say that his battery had run the course and needed to be changed.

If your battery has died of natural causes, I would like to know what eBook reader it was and how long the battery lasted for you.

Thanks!

[Faenad]

No problems so far with my PRS-505. I haven't noticed any drop in autonomy.

As battery life expectancy depends in large part on the numbers of charge/discharge cycle, E-ink reader batteries should have a very good lifetime.
I charge my reader about one time a week, and generally the battery still have some charge, so I must have a complete cycle every 10 days.

As a comparison my smartphone with a similar battery must have a charge/discharge cycle every 36H. After about 2 year, its battery is now at about 70% capacity. I will probably order a replacement soon on Ebay.

For my reader I expect the warranty to be long gone when the time comes to change the battery, and unscrewing 4 screws is no big deal.

[DrMoze]

My Reader 500 is coming up on 3 years, is currently used daily (has been used regularly for the past 2.5+ years), and still gets at least 2 weeks per charge. No problem here. The single-charge duration is so long on these devices (compared to cellphones, etc., which need charging every 1-3 days) that a few years under normal use should show little degradation.

[The Hooded Claw]

In the course of researching my Kindle 2 purchase, I read a claim by an Amazon spokesperson that after ten years, the battery should still be able to hold 80% of it's original charge (I don't have a link, but am going to try to locate the article again). I suspect a huge load of salt should be applied to that claim, but even if it is 50% after ten years, that's not too bad. If ebook readers behave like other consumer electronics have, in five years we'll be able to buy something three times as good as what we are seeing now for $50, (statistics made up on the fly by me) so I'm not in a panic about it.

[The Hooded Claw]

http://www.wired.com/reviews/product/kindle2

Here we go! That was easier than I'd expected. It actually says 80% after 500 charges. Based on once per week charging, that would indeed work out to almost ten years. Of course, this _IS_ relayed from Amazon marketing folks.

Here's the key quote:

And it flaunts a more powerful built-in battery: Amazon claims that the Kindle lasts four to five days with the wireless on (I got 4.5 days in my first test) and up to two weeks with it off. After a week of limited wireless, my meter is around 50 percent. Amazon also says that after 500 charges, it will hold 80 percent of its original juice. That means that most users won't have to replace the battery (a $60 procedure) for about a decade or so.

[GA Russell]

Thanks Hooded Claw! Still, even if we are to believe the Amazon rep, I wonder if the Kindle is typical.

This also makes me wonder about the life expectancy of the eInk screen.

[Kent Walters]

Hooded Claw,

I think that more than a grain of salt is in order; Wired’s reviewer seems to have made an extrapolation based the battery manufacturer’s claims. They will typically pull a battery from a production run and, fairly quickly, cycle it through 500 charge-discharge cycles, and then test the battery. This has nothing to do with the battery life in terms of months, only charge cycles. Best guess: If you treat it nice, it will last a long time--HYMMV.

For anybody who's interested, Sony has a pretty good manual on Lithium-Ion-Poly batteries.


Kent Walters