Sadly, the great kobo battery test experiment has come to an end. This morning, my kobo would not start up. Pressing the power button showed only a red light and no other response. It is now getting a well deserved feeding off my iPad charger. So, here's my observations after the past week of mad blue button mashing:
- Under ideal conditions, it is possible to get the fully advertised 8K page turns! Does this mean we can all expect to get that many? No. The one key data point this test did not address is idle power consumption. I changed pages as rapidly as the kobo allowed. In "real" use, your kobo will be on and consuming a little power while you read the page. Even a speed reader at as little as 5 seconds per page will have over 11 additional hours of "on" time over 8K pages.
- With the 1.4 firmware at least, the kobo provides very definite and clear feedback of low battery. If you're not seeing the "Please charge" notice, your kobo's not empty. It's also possible to go beyond the "Please charge" notice and read at least a couple hundered more pages.
- The D-pad is more durable than I figured. After 8K forward and backward presses, I can detect no change in its response or feeling. I also never experienced the kobo "missing" a press unless I pressed too soon and the prior page wasn't finished rendering. I can assure you, after 8K rapid presses, you get a really good feel for button behavior. The kobo's buttons work absolutely perfectly (well mine do at least).
- The battery gauge is very non-linear initially. I think this is the single biggest "problem" that koobo noobies are experiencing. They start using their new device and freak out when the battery indicator starts dropping after only a hundred or so pages. The battery gauge has 7 levels total from full to empty (showing the "E"). You can basically dismiss the first two as response becomes much more linear from there.
Here's a simple chart of battery level over 8,000 page turns:
Now, if y'all don't mind, I'm gonna go actually
read on my kobo for a bit.
