Battery life!

[matrixsoul]

I exchange it at the Chapters on Rideau in Ottawa. They didn't know how to do the exchange so they only took my PO and gave me a new one. I had it for more than 30 days but it didn't seem to matter. It is a bit heavier but it is much faster to change pages.

[BongoBong]

Originally Posted by StealthyScribe

Has anyone gone through Kobo to exchange their readers if they're outside of the 14 day window?

Kobo replied to one of my issues today regarding the battery and they said they're pretty sure I've got a defective one and want me to exchange it.

If anyone here has done this, a couple of questions. Do they send you a brand new unit or is it a refurbished one? And how long does it take?

I had a preorder unit and managed to exchange it in store 2 days ago (more then 30 days since I got it). They mentioned for defective units you can return/exchange for up to a year so you should definitely try your local Indigo's especially if they have any stock. I also had a Kobo rep say after 14 days I would have to do it through them but on a whim when I was at my local Indigo i asked them about it and whether they had stock and was able to exchange it the next day.

[rischa]

Hi there, I've been reading this forum quite a bit lately to prepare myself as I await my Kobo. Finally today I got the call from Borders to say that it's in! So for a Kobo newbie, what would you guys recommend as soon as I get it out of the box? A full night's charging before I start to play with my new toy?

:-)

[Stinger]

I only charged my new Kobo for an hour or two before I dove into my first book... heh, I guess it all depends on how patient, and/or giddy you are

[Duiker]

Here's the latest from the Kobo team..."Hi Ari,

If you are having battery issues with your Kobo, a firware update will not resolve this. Should you want an exchange, please provide your mailing address, telephone number and original place of purchase.

We expect to release an update by mid-June."

Guess I'll be exchanging my Kobo due to battery issues.

[bayside04]

The Kobo reader appears to have the worst battery performance for all Ereaders I have tried. Is this related to price of the item ( you get what you pay for)? So exchanging the item may merely result in same item-same problem!

A firmware upgrade seems to be the most practical solution (ie, data management processes are simplified and apply less drain on battery life).

What is the real concern is when the battery draws to the end of its life what do we do then, it would not seem this particular battery management problem is going to provide a long battery life.

There lies the real concern, what is the cost of, and administrative process of battery replacement going to be?

[artificial]

Originally Posted by bayside04

There lies the real concern, what is the cost of, and administrative process of battery replacement going to be?

You can't replace the battery.

[Stinger]

Originally Posted by artificial

You can't replace the battery.

Errrm, Wanna bet? You of course meant to say that the battery is not designed to be user replaceable, and doing so will most likely void the warranty.
Be careful with your usage of the word "Can't"

[artificial]

Originally Posted by Stinger

Errrm, Wanna bet? You of course meant to say that the battery is not designed to be user replaceable, and doing so will most likely void the warranty.

Yeah, that's what I meant to say

[HamsterRage]

I bought mine the first day they went on sale here in Canada, and I pretty quickly realized that it wasn't getting anything like 8000 page turns. I figured it probably needed a couple of charge and drain cycles to get to peak battery performance, but I'm not getting anything more than 1500 at the max after a fair bit of use.

So I put in a support request with Kobo, and after some back and forth they offered a replacement. The return box arrived a couple days later. I'll be sending it in on Monday.

[artificial]

Originally Posted by HamsterRage

So I put in a support request with Kobo, and after some back and forth they offered a replacement.

Let us know if the replacement is any better.

There seems to be a big question mark regarding whether poor battery life is just par-for-the-course with the Kobo Reader, or if replacement units actually perform better.

According to the poll I started (https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=85476) about 90% of Kobo's have less than 2000 page turns per charge. Admittedly only 20 people voted in the poll :P

[StealthyScribe]

Decided I'd exchange it through Kobo since no one has any available here. Mine will be going back next week as well. After reporting 3 different issues (battery, syncing problems and the fact that it powers down on its own), they figured I had a defective unit and said I could exchange it through them.

They seem very confident on the fact that we should be getting much more than a few days battery life and much more than 1000 page turns. (I'd be happy with 1000 pages at the moment!) I'm hoping that with their confidence in this that my next unit will perform much better.

[anagel]

I have had my Kobo for about 6 days (Got it on Monday). On the first day I downloaded some books and of course, you have to have it plugged in to do so...so I think it charges a bit there. It died on Wednesday so I plugged it in and posted somewhere on here that there has been some discrepancy about the red light. I said that the red light only comes on a few minutes into the charge and then you DO NOT unplug it until the red light goes off....no matter what! Well today is Sat and my Kobo froze - I knew it was getting close to end of battery again - so it is only lasting 3 days on a charge. With the Kobo frozen, I decided to just plug it in since it needs charging anyway...and the red light came on about 10 minutes into the charge. So I still believe that the red light comes on to indicate "charging" and is fully charged AFTER the red light goes out. Having said that, I am disappointed in the short battery life so far and will see how the next 2 charges go. If I don't see an increase (even 5 or 6 days would be awesome) then I may return it. Some of you are indicating battery life by page turns...how do you know how many page turns you have performed?

[emellaich]

I don't know the reader, but I do have one other suggestion to consider (I also second the calibration comment).

I know that many folks have no problem with USB/Computer connections, but I can report that it can be a problem in some cases. The issue appears to be that some computers do not put out sufficient power to charge via USB. This seems to really confuse the reader. When I attach it to the computer to download books, the reader thinks its also getting charged. For the next charge cycle or two, the reader reports a low charge after only a little usage.

I have had this problem with two different readers (Bookeen, Kindle) hooked to a couple of different Dell computers. It does fix itself over time. However, I've eliminated the problem by making sure I don't leave the book connected to the computer for any lengthy (1 hour or more) time period. Also, I always charge via the wall outlet and not the computer.

With this approach I never have a battery life problem. However, I occasionally forget to unplug the reader from the computer and I have a reoccurrence of the charging issue.

[artificial]

Originally Posted by anagel

Well today is Sat and my Kobo froze - I knew it was getting close to end of battery again

One thing to bear in mind is that the device will appear to freeze when the battery dies. This because the last page you were reading will remain on the screen. You probably know that already, but I thought it was worth mentioning as I think some people get confused when their battery runs out, and believe that the device has 'frozen' because it becomes unresponsive.

Originally Posted by anagel

Some of you are indicating battery life by page turns...how do you know how many page turns you have performed?

Just by counting the page numbers as displayed at the bottom of your reader's screen. Note that some epubs will display an estimated page number, cased on character/byte count, and that the page numbers will not correspond to page turns. In this case you need to work out a multiplier. For instance the page numbers displayed might be:

page turn 0: 1
page turn 1: 1
page turn 2: 1
page turn 3: 2
page turn 4: 2
page turn 5: 3
page turn 6: 3
page turn 7: 3

In which case your multiplier would be 2.5 (for every 2.5 page turns the page number displayed advances by 1). So if your battery lasted from page 1 to page 1000, that would be 2500 page turns.

Obviously your multiplier would not normally be a nice round number, but it will give you a close estimate of total page turns.