Isn't battery life the death knell for the tablet?

[kjk]

Originally Posted by Kali Yuga

• Claims about battery life are, as far as I can tell, exaggerated across the board (including for eInk devices).

Really? I've read that that Amazon's Kindle estimates are pretty close to regular usage. Have people not found that to be true?

And Apple's claims for their iPods have always been conservative, especially in audio.
http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/new...e-claims/11412
http://www.electronista.com/reviews/...eneration.html

Even Microsoft's Zune seems pretty on par with their claims:
http://techreport.com/articles.x/12323/4

[dmaul1114]

Originally Posted by Not_A_Crook

When I read "battery life is not that big of a deal to me", I sometimes wonder if the person who said that lives in the late 2050's or something...

It's more just some of us aren't that on the go. I spend 99% of my time in the house or in my office. I hate the outdoors etc.

So battery life isn't a huge deal as I'm almost always near an outlet, and pretty much every device I have is long enough to last for the time periods I'm away from outlets (on a flight etc.) so it's just not a big deal to me.

Portability in general isn't very important to me. Portability didn't have anything to do with buying a Kindle. I just got one as I knew I'd read more if I didn't have to hassle with the library, or find ways to ditch paper books after reading them (since I rarely re-read anything etc.).

Just different strokes, for different folks. Some care a lot about portability, and place great importance on battery life. Others place less importance on that and would sacrifice battery life to have a device that can do more.

[dmaul1114]

Originally Posted by Bilbo1967

Well, yeah - that is positive thinking, but, for me, the fact that a tablet would run out of battery halfway across the Atlantic when I'm flying over to Vancouver to see my brother (for example) is a big deal and really can't just be dismissed as negative thinking.

My fully charged Sony PRS 505 would last the flight plus most of the subsequent holiday - that's more important to me than the heap of other stuff that I have no need for that a tablet will do.

Yeah, it shouldn't be dismissed as negative thinking. Just like tablets shouldn't be dismissed as worthless because you need the battery life and don't need the other functions.

It's different strokes for different folks.

I seldom take flights of more than 4 or 5 hours, and I've never used any gadget on any flight for more than 2 hours as I get tired of reading, or playing a video game, or listening to music and switch.

I don't care about something lasting for a holiday. No big deal to take an AC adapter along for the haul IMO.

But others like you care a great deal, so that's why e-ink devices are going no where. Some need the screens, long battery life etc. Others would give that up for a having a lot more features on one device.

I'm just continually amazed at the hostility and arguments that pop up over this. For the 900th f'ing time, it's not some zero sum end game. There will be dedicated readers for people who need them, tablets, PDAs, smart phones etc. etc. for the foreseeable future.

It's great to have options, so people can find whatever device(s) suit them. I hate all the bickering. People here are adults, yet you'd think this was video game forum with a bunch of nerdy kids arguing why their game console of choice is superior.

Different strokes for different folks. E-ink is great for it's purpose, smart phones are great for their purpose, netbooks are great for their purpose, and hopefully tablets will end up being great for their purpose. There's no winners or losers here. Just lots of different options so we can all find what we need.

[dmaul1114]

Originally Posted by kjk

Really? I've read that that Amazon's Kindle estimates are pretty close to regular usage. Have people not found that to be true?

Not really. I'm not sure what the claims where but, weren't the 2 weeks? And people here saying the read multiple books etc.

I got a new battery for my K1 as I thought something was wrong with it (bought my K1 used) as I was charging every 7 days or so--and I keep the wireless off and only use it about an hour a day (usually less than that, with some days not using it) and have the font size at 2 (the 2nd smallest).

But it's the same with the new battery. It's not bad buy any means, just didn't hit the 2 weeks, read 3 or 4 books, etc. I read before buying one.

Was silly to buy a new battery anyway as I don't really take advantage of long battery life anyway since I only read on home and some short flights. But I was bothered it wasn't hitting the 2 weeks I'd heard touted so I got a new one anyway.

[Jack Tingle]

Originally Posted by Sydney's Mom

...the battery seems to be the big issue vis-a-vis the ereader.

What am I missing? I would love to start drooling!

Big-ass batteries.

The Ectaco jetBook gets 20+ hours of reading life using a reflective LCD that's not as energy efficient as an eInk display. It partially does it by using a battery almost 3 times the size of the one in my PDA.

They never promised you it would be light.

Regards,
Jack Tingle

[recycledelectron]

Originally Posted by Sydney's Mom

For reading, I need to be able to have a charge whenever I might want to read, and the tablet isn't going to give me that.

What am I missing?

You're missing that (usable) tablets have a battery life of 9-12 hours.

Any tablet without a 9 hour life seems useless to me. I use a Q7 daily, and it runs for 12 hours on a charge.

That outlasts a kindle.

I challenge you to actually measure your reading time with an eInk based device as compared to a tablet that is being used for reading. Turning on the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth capabilities of a tablet seems silly. I know very few people reading these forums will rate their Sony PRS' battery life while listening to audio. (My Q7 outlasts the PRS-505 I gave away when both are used for reading a PDF and listening to an MP3)

I do forget to recharge my tablet at times. My Q7 will recharge while running. I get 24 hours from a Socket MPP battery, or 8 hours from 4 NiMH AAs.

Originally Posted by Bremen Cole

I think you will quickly see battery life in the 6-10 hour range for the new generation tablets.

What do you call the new generation? The Smart Devices Q7 and V7 get 12 hours. The Viliv S7 gets 9.5 hours off each battery, and Dynamism ships a second battery with the device (for 19 hours.)

I've been using your next generation tablets this school year, and I've found them good enough.

IMHO, the next generation of tablets will improve by extending the battery life to 24 hours or more, and be readable in bright sunlight by integrating a PixelQi or LiquaVistaColor screen.

Andy

[Alisa]

Originally Posted by DawnFalcon

It's been "a year or two off" for a decade. What solid technological advances can you point me to which will produce that change? As batteries advance, so does the power usage of the devices and their screens, so far...

Well the new display technologies like Liquavista and Mirasol look quite promising for a multifunction device and they will help battery life by using far less power.

[Kali Yuga]

Originally Posted by kjk

Really? I've read that that Amazon's Kindle estimates are pretty close to regular usage. Have people not found that to be true?

The Kindle has excellent battery life. I haven't tested it exhaustively but I find the "two weeks without wireless" (after the latest firmware update) to be really, really optimistic.

In other words, as a rule of thumb, I don't put much stock in manufacturer claims. They usually tweak the tests a bit, not necessarily outrageously but often using rather low-power settings. For example, Apple's "7 hour laptop battery" uses optimized low-power battery settings, 50% display illumination, etc.

I've also seen a lot of batteries lose significant capacity in a much shorter time frame than I like.

Originally Posted by alisa

Well the new display technologies like Liquavista and Mirasol look quite promising for a multifunction device and they will help battery life by using far less power.

As a rule of thumb, I don't put much stock into manufacturer claims. Especially for products that are barely past the prototype stage. Let's face it, they can say whatever they want without dealing with any consequences for a long time, and I've found the products rarely live up to the hype, especially in their early iterations.

[cvkemp]

My point is what works for you is what is important. To me it does not matter what others use for that is what works for them.

Chuck

[HansTWN]

It is kind of sad that battery technology evolves at a snail's pace. "Revolutionary" new batteries usually offer around 20% additional power over the previous generations. Most of the reported savings come from components, power management, etc. If batteries had kept up with the speed of processor development we would have to charge our laptops once a year only.

[Solitaire1]

Originally Posted by DawnFalcon

It's been "a year or two off" for a decade. What solid technological advances can you point me to which will produce that change? As batteries advance, so does the power usage of the devices and their screens, so far...

The issue of battery life reminds me of an article from a 2004 issue of Popular Mechanics. The basic gist of the article is that conventional battery technology (meaning electricity being generated from a difference between two materials) has basically reached a limit as far as stored power is concerned.

To me, one answer to the issue of battery life is to design devices to use user-replaceable batteries. The main reason that I choose to carry a portable CD/MP3 player (which uses two AA batteries) and some CDs when travelling rather than a small flash player with a non-replaceable rechargeable battery (which must be recharged via USB) is that with my CD/MP3 player I can carry several spare AA rechargeable batteries and can purchase more batteries just about anywhere. Another factor in its favor is that it will play for up to 50 hours on one set of batteries, while my flash player will play for 30 hours on one charge.

I think the main reason that battery life has become an issue is that so many devices use batteries that can't be easily replaced by the user. When the battery dies, you only options are to recharge it or attach an external battery pack. This isn't much of an issue as long as you have ready access to a way to recharge your device.

[HansTWN]

Originally Posted by Solitaire1

To me, one answer to the issue of battery life is to design devices to use user-replaceable batteries. The main reason that I choose to carry a portable CD/MP3 player (which uses two AA batteries) and some CDs when travelling rather than a small flash player with a non-replaceable rechargeable battery (which must be recharged via USB) is that with my CD/MP3 player I can carry several spare AA rechargeable batteries and can purchase more batteries just about anywhere. Another factor in its favor is that it will play for up to 50 hours on one set of batteries, while my flash player will play for 30 hours on one charge.

I think the main reason that battery life has become an issue is that so many devices use batteries that can't be easily replaced by the user. When the battery dies, you only options are to recharge it or attach an external battery pack. This isn't much of an issue as long as you have ready access to a way to recharge your device.[/FONT]

Duracell tried that a few years ago for laptops, if I remember correctly. But manufacturers did not go for it for two reasons:

1.)Using standard batteries takes away from their ability to design devices. As they try to make devices smaller and smaller this becomes ever more important, I can imagine.

2.)Manufacturers are probably making money on replacement or second batteries (even though for many high volume devices 3rd party replacements are readily available).

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by recycledelectron

You're missing that (usable) tablets have a battery life of 9-12 hours.

Any tablet without a 9 hour life seems useless to me. I use a Q7 daily, and it runs for 12 hours on a charge.

That outlasts a kindle.

If your Kindle only has a battery life of 12h you need to return it - it has a faulty battery.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Not_A_Crook

When I read "battery life is not that big of a deal to me", I sometimes wonder if the person who said that lives in the late 2050's or something...

No, it simply means that the person who said it is rarely away from a charging source for more than a few hours. A typical laptop only has a battery life of perhaps 3 or 4 hours. Does that make them useless? No, because most people do not, in fact, use laptops away from power sources; they carry them somewhere, and then plug in the charger.