PRS-505 Battery life -- unexpectedly short - Page 2

KlondikeGeoff · 12-07-2007, 11:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FairEmma

Another 505 battery grump: I got mine at the end of October. I'd never even tried the audio functionality. The maximum number of page turns I ever got out of it on one charge was 503.

It was painfully obvious for the beginning that the "up to 7500 page turns" was not only absurd, but false advertising.

At any rate, my one-year-old PRS-500 does pretty well. At the beginning, I actually kept track of the number of button-presses I made for the life of the battery, and it ran somewhere between 2500 and 3500. Can't complain about that.

I tried it again a while ago after the 505 came out, and got one time with ~4000 and another with 3200, so don't bother counting any more. I usually recharge with the AC adapter after it gets down to one bar on the meter. I'm beginning to wonder if the USB charging on the 505 is not as effective.

Obviously 500 page turns is not acceptable, and if the new one does the same, I'd get pretty firm with Sony about exchanging through them for one that has a decent battery life. Lots of luck.

saranndipity · 12-07-2007, 04:03 PM

I just received my 505 from the Sony store and I'm averaging ~450 page turns per full charge. I've charged it fully several times so charging it a few more times won't solve this problem.

Back to Sony it goes (there goes my holiday easy reading

)

Mr. Goodbar · 12-07-2007, 06:59 PM

Wow, 500 page turns seems exceptionally bad, but it does depend on what period of time those page turns are over. If that's in one day, you definitely have something wrong. If that's over 3 weeks it might be ok since the unit will drop about 25% per week with no usage and just being in standby.

Since my earlier post on this topic my battery life seems to have improved quite a bit. As an example it just dropped to 50% last night and that was with 1550 page turnes over the past 9 days. I would guess I would have seen at least 3500 page turns which isn't bad. The only change I made was to do a reset and load my books into memory as opposed to having any on an SD card. I've also noticed that it has improved over a few charge/discharge cycles.

My current opinion is that it is a little worse than the 500, but I expected that with a thinner design and more memory.

jakeluck · 12-08-2007, 07:58 PM

same here, with regular reading of 20-50 pages/day, I only get about 7 days or so with the 505, where as before with the 500, i get up to 14-15 days with the same usage. also, I miss the metal studs in between the number buttons, now when i close the book, i often accidentally engage the goto-page screen(2-3 extra wasted screen refreshes)

ps. most of my books are Rastafarian converted PDFs(image LRF), so this may also uses more power than the text-based LRF that were sold.

shen · 12-12-2007, 07:38 PM

I made the same experiences with my brand new 505.
Converted and read 2 books with pdflrf to Image LRFs and got something around 400-500 page turns in 9 days until the battery ran empty.
Didn't shut down the device but put it into standby mode using the power switch.
The 505 was charged using USB.
I found a 5V / 500mA (maybe it's able to serve more amps) Power Supply which I used to charge this time. Full charging took about 1,5 hours while I was reading.
Next time I'll use a professional power supply to see what current is actually taken while charging the 505.

Does anybody know, which capacity the internal LiIon battery is rated?

Stefan

allen.gotwald · 12-12-2007, 09:58 PM

I fully charged my battery on Sunday. 3 days and around 800 pages later it drops a bar. Within 30 minutes it drops another bar. I called Sony who noted the matter but really can't do anything. The guy I spoke with did note that the battery is a source of a lot of phone calls. Looks like I have an AC adapter ink my future.

galaxytodd · 12-16-2007, 01:41 AM

My reader has been down to its last bar for a few days now, after charging it about a week and a half ago. After reading this thread, I decided to see what the remainder of that last bar would give me. So I opened up the Sherlock Homes omnibus, set the font to large, and started clicking. About once a second on average. After 778 pages I got the "Low Battery" warning. So I hit the select key and kept on clicking. I got to page 1452 before the 505 just decided it was time to shut down. Not too bad, it seems. I would say your battery life definitely depends on how quickly you go through the pages. You may even come close to the 7500 if all you do is click without stopping. I bet the 33% per week is right on the money otherwise.

Dajala · 12-16-2007, 02:51 AM

Buying an AC adapter for my 505 would make life easier. As I'm in Australia purchasing from Sony is not an option. Can anyone give me the full specs of their adapter so I can track one down at my local electronics shop?

gwynevans · 12-16-2007, 05:08 AM

https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/PRS505 says "5.2V tip positive for charging. This CAN be used to charge the reader while reading books on it. This accepts PSP chargers. "

HarryT · 12-16-2007, 05:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dajala

Buying an AC adapter for my 505 would make life easier. As I'm in Australia purchasing from Sony is not an option. Can anyone give me the full specs of their adapter so I can track one down at my local electronics shop?

Go to a video games shop and buy a mains adaptor for the Playstation Portable. It's the same charger spec that the Reader uses, and works fine.

HarryT · 12-16-2007, 05:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KlondikeGeoff

It was painfully obvious for the beginning that the "up to 7500 page turns" was not only absurd, but false advertising.

I'm not so sure it's "false advertising". It's like the fuel consumption figures that manufacturers quote for a car - it's an idealised figure obtained under highly artificial conditions. If you fully charged a Reader, and then paged forward as fast as possible, continually, you'd probably achieve the stated figure.

It is pretty meaningless, I agree.

Ervserver · 12-16-2007, 11:49 AM

its the same with cell phones, I think when they are rated for battery life its under ideal conditions, I never get the battery life from them as advertised

rsdavis9 · 12-17-2007, 02:11 PM

I have a prs505.
I just got 6 days and 3 days out of 2 charges. I decided something was wrong and came across this thread. I was getting much better battery life when I first got it. So the only change was memory cards. I got a memory stick and sd card on black friday and stuck both of them in the prs-505. I dont have a need for this many books but I was purchasing for the future at $15 for 2g sd and $20 for 2g memory stick. Now I also have a camera that uses the memory stick. So it looks like the flash sucks the battery done big time because I removed the cards and charged 5 days ago and the meter still shows 4 bars. I dont read a lot of pages. Currently I am reading a pdf2lrf converted book that is 600 pages and I am at 100 pages right now. So when my battery finally runs down to 1 bar I will put the memory stick only, back in and see how long it lasts. I have not been opening the books on the flash. It does show the books in the book list. The books on the flash are pdf2lrf books. I read on another thread that the memory stick uses less power.

bob

jakeluck · 01-17-2008, 12:40 AM

this is the 3rd month now since I got my 505 in October, still no improvements in battery life, battery drains to poweroff in 9 days with less than 50 page turns.

HarryT · 01-17-2008, 08:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jakeluck

this is the 3rd month now since I got my 505 in October, still no improvements in battery life, battery drains to poweroff in 9 days with less than 50 page turns.

Are you using a memory card?

If not, it certainly sounds as though you have a faulty battery; if you're not using the Reader very much, you should get about 3 weeks' life from a battery charge.

12-07-2007, 04:03 PM	#17
saranndipity Junior Member Posts: 2 Karma: 10 Join Date: Nov 2007 Device: Sony Reader PRS-505	Me too. I just received my 505 from the Sony store and I'm averaging ~450 page turns per full charge. I've charged it fully several times so charging it a few more times won't solve this problem. Back to Sony it goes (there goes my holiday easy reading )

12-08-2007, 07:58 PM	#19
jakeluck Groupie Posts: 193 Karma: 3252 Join Date: Dec 2004	same here, with regular reading of 20-50 pages/day, I only get about 7 days or so with the 505, where as before with the 500, i get up to 14-15 days with the same usage. also, I miss the metal studs in between the number buttons, now when i close the book, i often accidentally engage the goto-page screen(2-3 extra wasted screen refreshes) ps. most of my books are Rastafarian converted PDFs(image LRF), so this may also uses more power than the text-based LRF that were sold. Last edited by jakeluck; 12-08-2007 at 09:03 PM.

12-12-2007, 07:38 PM	#20
shen Member Posts: 20 Karma: 46 Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Germany Device: Sony PRS-505	I made the same experiences with my brand new 505. Converted and read 2 books with pdflrf to Image LRFs and got something around 400-500 page turns in 9 days until the battery ran empty. Didn't shut down the device but put it into standby mode using the power switch. The 505 was charged using USB. I found a 5V / 500mA (maybe it's able to serve more amps) Power Supply which I used to charge this time. Full charging took about 1,5 hours while I was reading. Next time I'll use a professional power supply to see what current is actually taken while charging the 505. Does anybody know, which capacity the internal LiIon battery is rated? Stefan Last edited by shen; 12-12-2007 at 07:52 PM.

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12-07-2007, 06:59 PM	#18
Mr. Goodbar Wizard Posts: 1,005 Karma: 98078 Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Atlanta, GA Device: iPad Mini 4	Wow, 500 page turns seems exceptionally bad, but it does depend on what period of time those page turns are over. If that's in one day, you definitely have something wrong. If that's over 3 weeks it might be ok since the unit will drop about 25% per week with no usage and just being in standby. Since my earlier post on this topic my battery life seems to have improved quite a bit. As an example it just dropped to 50% last night and that was with 1550 page turnes over the past 9 days. I would guess I would have seen at least 3500 page turns which isn't bad. The only change I made was to do a reset and load my books into memory as opposed to having any on an SD card. I've also noticed that it has improved over a few charge/discharge cycles. My current opinion is that it is a little worse than the 500, but I expected that with a thinner design and more memory.

12-12-2007, 09:58 PM	#21
allen.gotwald Advocate Posts: 44 Karma: 34094 Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: ohio Device: SONY PRS-505 and Nook Color	I fully charged my battery on Sunday. 3 days and around 800 pages later it drops a bar. Within 30 minutes it drops another bar. I called Sony who noted the matter but really can't do anything. The guy I spoke with did note that the battery is a source of a lot of phone calls. Looks like I have an AC adapter ink my future.

12-16-2007, 01:41 AM	#22
galaxytodd Junior Member Posts: 2 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2007 Device: PRS-505	My reader has been down to its last bar for a few days now, after charging it about a week and a half ago. After reading this thread, I decided to see what the remainder of that last bar would give me. So I opened up the Sherlock Homes omnibus, set the font to large, and started clicking. About once a second on average. After 778 pages I got the "Low Battery" warning. So I hit the select key and kept on clicking. I got to page 1452 before the 505 just decided it was time to shut down. Not too bad, it seems. I would say your battery life definitely depends on how quickly you go through the pages. You may even come close to the 7500 if all you do is click without stopping. I bet the 33% per week is right on the money otherwise.

12-16-2007, 02:51 AM	#23
Dajala Enthusiast Posts: 41 Karma: 10 Join Date: Nov 2006 Device: Palm TX, Sony PRS-505	Buying an AC adapter for my 505 would make life easier. As I'm in Australia purchasing from Sony is not an option. Can anyone give me the full specs of their adapter so I can track one down at my local electronics shop?

12-16-2007, 05:08 AM	#24
gwynevans Wizzard Posts: 1,402 Karma: 2000000 Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: UK Device: iPad 2, iPhone 6s, Kindle Voyage & Kindle PaperWhite	https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/PRS505 says "5.2V tip positive for charging. This CAN be used to charge the reader while reading books on it. This accepts PSP chargers. "

12-16-2007, 11:49 AM	#27
Ervserver Wizard Posts: 2,624 Karma: 1008294 Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Iowa, USA Device: Nook Simple Touch	its the same with cell phones, I think when they are rated for battery life its under ideal conditions, I never get the battery life from them as advertised

12-17-2007, 02:11 PM	#28
rsdavis9 Junior Member Posts: 9 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: nh Device: none	I have a prs505. I just got 6 days and 3 days out of 2 charges. I decided something was wrong and came across this thread. I was getting much better battery life when I first got it. So the only change was memory cards. I got a memory stick and sd card on black friday and stuck both of them in the prs-505. I dont have a need for this many books but I was purchasing for the future at $15 for 2g sd and $20 for 2g memory stick. Now I also have a camera that uses the memory stick. So it looks like the flash sucks the battery done big time because I removed the cards and charged 5 days ago and the meter still shows 4 bars. I dont read a lot of pages. Currently I am reading a pdf2lrf converted book that is 600 pages and I am at 100 pages right now. So when my battery finally runs down to 1 bar I will put the memory stick only, back in and see how long it lasts. I have not been opening the books on the flash. It does show the books in the book list. The books on the flash are pdf2lrf books. I read on another thread that the memory stick uses less power. bob

01-17-2008, 12:40 AM	#29
jakeluck Groupie Posts: 193 Karma: 3252 Join Date: Dec 2004	this is the 3rd month now since I got my 505 in October, still no improvements in battery life, battery drains to poweroff in 9 days with less than 50 page turns.

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