do playing games/active content on kindle eat up a lot of battery?

[wyndslash]

my sister was playing crosswords on it an hour or so last night (after i charged it), and while i was reading today, i checked the battery and around a thin bar was chopped off. i wonder if this is normal? i assume the touted 3-week battery is only if you use it to read and not do anything else...?

[RainingLemur]

The more stuff you do on it, the faster the battery drains.

My brother's Kindle lasts quite a bit longer when used primarily for reading. He said that the battery life drops a fair amount of juice, but not like his laptop if he's playing games.

[wyndslash]

Originally Posted by RainingLemur

The more stuff you do on it, the faster the battery drains.

My brother's Kindle lasts quite a bit longer when used primarily for reading. He said that the battery life drops a fair amount of juice, but not like his laptop if he's playing games.

ah well, i guess that's to be expected it's already lasted a few days from my first full charge, and i was doing quite a bit on it already, so i'm happy

[CWatkinsNash]

When I discovered Triple Town, my battery life dropped to less than half of its usual time. So yes, definitely, and noticeably, moreso depending on the game.

[wyndslash]

Originally Posted by CWatkinsNash

When I discovered Triple Town, my battery life dropped to less than half of its usual time. So yes, definitely, and noticeably, moreso depending on the game.

i bought triple town when it was on sale but have yet to try it out

[CWatkinsNash]

Originally Posted by wyndslash

i bought triple town when it was on sale but have yet to try it out

I found it extremely addictive. I had to force myself to stop playing it and go back to reading. It's also a little more challenging than it looks, at least to get the higher scores. Or maybe I'm just not that good at it. Either way, it was fun!

[kranu]

Yes, active content is generally more "screen refresh" intensive, in that the screen refreshes much more than when one is simply staring at a page of a book.

[crich70]

I think it's also that sometimes a game is harder to put down (as they can be addictive) and so you use more battery power than with just reading due to that as well. I mean you can really get into a story and have time pass, but sometimes when playing a game the hrs can pass pretty quickly without you noticing.

Originally Posted by kranu

Yes, active content is generally more "screen refresh" intensive, in that the screen refreshes much more than when one is simply staring at a page of a book.

[kranu]

Originally Posted by crich70

I think it's also that sometimes a game is harder to put down (as they can be addictive) and so you use more battery power than with just reading due to that as well. I mean you can really get into a story and have time pass, but sometimes when playing a game the hrs can pass pretty quickly without you noticing.

It's backwards for me. Most of the games that I have take at most 30 minutes per game, and then I close them after a few rounds. Certain books, on the other hand, can engross me from the beginning to the end, which can take several hours

[Daveoc64]

The Kindle's high battery life when you are reading comes from two things.

Firstly, the Screen only uses power when you change the content of the page. This means that no matter how long you read for, only a finite amount of power will be used when you turn the page.

Secondly, the CPU in the Kindle will be doing very little (and consequently using a small amount of power) when you are just reading.

When in a game or other active content, the screen will be refreshing more frequently and the CPU will be working much harder. Both of these would result in a noticeable drop in battery life.

[Giggleton]

Does someone have a link about how many screen refreshes a full charge of the Kindle3 battery is expected to deliver? My battery seems to only last about a week which is a bit short of a month. I use my Kindle3 for maybe 3-4 hours a day, or about 20 hours a week I guess. Maybe more. lol, I suppose the battery is good enough I was just expecting a bit more time.

Also, do refreshes of partial parts of the screen use less power than full screen refreshes? I suspect they do since they need to move less eink.

[wyndslash]

i recharge every 3 days or so, but that's because i use my kindle usually 5-6 hours a day, then play games and use the light in the lighted cover~