Buying a new Kindle - PW vs. Voyage questions

[knc1]

Originally Posted by Braid

The total amount of battery time is important, of course. But I've been thinking just now, that what really matters just as much, is the issue of how accurately the battery life is displayed by the reader's firmware.

If the remaining battery amount is displayed accurately and reliably, then I don't need to worry about it. Nobody reads for 14 hours without taking a break, and during a break you can easily plug in the reader to charge.

It is inaccurate, inconsistent readings of remaining battery that are what causes real problems, in my view.

I've used devices (not my Kindle Voyage), whose battery readings decrease slowly and steadily from 100% down to 60%, then they decrease quicker from 60% down to 30%. I'm thinking, "well, I got several hours from 100% down to 70%, so I should have at least a couple of hours left in this 30%". But then the battery cuts out soon after, interrupting my using the device. So essentially, I can only confidently use the device when it is charged above 70% - anything below that and I can't feel confident about how long it will last.

That is the normal discharge curve for the type of battery installed.

Originally Posted by Braid

All of the Kindle and Kobo devices I've used (except the Aura One) have consistently displayed the gradual decrease in battery life in a way that makes me feel confident about when I can keep reading, and when I'll need to top up in between reading sessions.

Those are the ones that are technically inaccurate but compute a more useful indication. I.E: They include discharge curve correction.

Also the curve from 100% .. 65% compared to the curve from 65% to 30% varies with use history and age.
With lit-ion, recharge early (don't let it go below 30%) and recharge often (don't it go above 70%).
The battery management chip in the Kindle is pretty sophisticated, but nothing as good as the one in your electric car with a $12,000 battery.

[manawydan]

Thank you for your opinions.

I have ordered the voyage to check it out.
Amazon allows 1 month trial time here as well (I think all local Amazon stores do) and I have never had a problem with returning something.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by manawydan

Thank you for your opinions.

I have ordered the voyage to check it out.
Amazon allows 1 month trial time here as well (I think all local Amazon stores do) and I have never had a problem with returning something.

I really wouldn't make a habit of buying high-value items just to try them out and then returning them. Amazon will close your account if you do it too often.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I really wouldn't make a habit of buying high-value items just to try them out and then returning them. Amazon will close your account if you do it too often.

Or just cut off your return privileges.

[barryem]

I don't think I've ever let any of my ereaders get below 50%. I usually charge them about 75%. I do find that I have to charge the Kindles more often than the Kobos or the Nook.

The one I'm reading on I charge when the battery is noticeably low; usually 75% to 85%. That might be every 2 or 3 days or more for a Kindle, depending on how much I read. For a Kobo it's about twice that long.

The ones I'm not using I charge on a schedule. Every Saturday for the Kindles and every other Saturday for the others. The Kindles are usually down in one week as much or more than the Kobos in 2 weeks.

I've done no testing of any kind. I have no idea how accurate any of these gauges are. I just treat them as if they're telling me the truth and if they're not I guess I really don't care that much. It's just a guide.

By the way, I always read with Wifi on since I look up things I read about a lot on Wikipedia. I try to remember to turn it off when I'm not using it but I forget more often than not. I don't worry about it much.

Really, to me none of these differences are important. Charging once a week or every 2 weeks is of no consequence to me. If it affects overall battery life I don't know about it. I've never had a Kindle battery die yet. Even the first Kindle I bought, a Kindle 3, is still being used by a friend of my Sister and she says it's doing just fine. That one would be about 8 years old now.

Barry

[Breathinlady]

Originally Posted by manawydan

Thank you for your opinions.

I have ordered the voyage to check it out.
Amazon allows 1 month trial time here as well (I think all local Amazon stores do) and I have never had a problem with returning something.

I think you will LOVE the Voyage! Congrats!

My new toy arrived today..new laptop!

[Barty]

Originally Posted by LadyKate

I was just looking at kindles thinking they had superior battery life. Now I find the low end kindle that lasts 4 weeks is a 4 weeks based on .5 hour of reading a day. That is a total of 14 hours! Not my idea of something that lasts a long time lol.

So my question is, as users of the various kindle models what are realistic battery times? Reading time type timing. It is not unusual for me to sit down and read an entire book in one day or to read for 12 plus hours on a given day so perhaps an estimate of how long the battery lasts in hours of reading?

I recharge my voyage once every 2, 3 days. Wi-Fi off. Light ~50%. Sensor off.

I've never gotten weeks of battery life with any kindle I've had, except during fallow periods when I don't read much.

[knc1]

With light at a low to moderate level and WiFi (also 3G) off . . .

Then the big power user is turning a page.
So "pages per charge" is probably a better measure than "days per charge".

My experience with a PW-3 is about the same as Barty above.

A moderately long book on a single charge (over a period of 2 to 5 days).
A long book on one re-charge (over a period of 7 to 10 days).

[shalym]

Originally Posted by Barty

I recharge my voyage once every 2, 3 days. Wi-Fi off. Light ~50%. Sensor off.

I've never gotten weeks of battery life with any kindle I've had, except during fallow periods when I don't read much.

Hmmm...I've been keeping track for the last few months, and reading about 2-3 hours per day I get ~10 days, with charging at around 25%.

I started keeping track because it felt like I was having to charge it more often, and I was afraid that the battery was dying (it doesn't seem to be).

Shari

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by shalym

Hmmm...I've been keeping track for the last few months, and reading about 2-3 hours per day I get ~10 days, with charging at around 25%.

That very much fits in with what I get on my Voyage in terms of total number of hours reading time.

[manawydan]

Very funny Amazon ..

I am testing the new Voyage now and am not very impressed.

Pagepress is ok but I guess you need some time to get used to it so I wouldn't say it is good or bad.
And of course you do need a different cover (if you want to use one).

But what annoys me a lot is that on the first day after some page leafing the brand new kindle crashed.
Exactly the problem why I want to get a new device for.

I use big font size due to my eyesight and of course the bigger the font size the more often you must turn pages.
It might be too much for the device .. or there is some other reason.

This is the nth generation of ebook readers Amazon is putting out and they are not able or willing to solve the (most likely known) problems?
Pfff ..

[HarryT]

Crashing is definitely not a common issue on the Voyage. When it does occur, it's generally down to errors in the specific book.

Did you wait for indexing to complete before reading? That's advisable.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by manawydan

Very funny Amazon ..

I am testing the new Voyage now and am not very impressed.

Pagepress is ok but I guess you need some time to get used to it so I wouldn't say it is good or bad.
And of course you do need a different cover (if you want to use one).

But what annoys me a lot is that on the first day after some page leafing the brand new kindle crashed.
Exactly the problem why I want to get a new device for.

I use big font size due to my eyesight and of course the bigger the font size the more often you must turn pages.
It might be too much for the device .. or there is some other reason.

This is the nth generation of ebook readers Amazon is putting out and they are not able or willing to solve the (most likely known) problems?
Pfff ..

Most likely, as HarryT points out, there is some other reason.

Here is another hint:
"I use a big font size ..."
Some fonts require a significant amount of time to compute (they are computed, not copied).

There is a sub-forum here, the "Kindle Developers" forum where technical folks hang out.

In the search function of the main display (home page), enter:
;dm
the semi-colon is part of the command.

That will result in four new documents appearing.
Go to the sub-forum, post about this problem (or reference your above post with a link) and include the document with 'system' in its name as an attachment.
Somebody there (most likely me) will read the document and let you know what is happening and if you have a defective device.

Note: To add an attachment to a post, you need to use what is called the 'Advanced' editor. (the go-advanced button below the text entry box).

[mystika1]

I also use a large font. I think it is the second to highest font size, and no crashing for me. About 50% of my books are sideloaded mobi format. I did have a freezing issue a while back and updated the firmware on my kindle and cleaned out some finished books. That fixed the problem for me.

Penny

[knc1]

Originally Posted by mystika1

I also use a large font. I think it is the second to highest font size, and no crashing for me. About 50% of my books are sideloaded mobi format. I did have a freezing issue a while back and updated the firmware on my kindle and cleaned out some finished books. That fixed the problem for me.

Penny

The significant part of the post was:

I was testing my new ...

Not only does it take a lot of resources to compute a large font the first time, it requires a lot of memory space for the font cache.

Once cached, then it is just a simple look-up for the precomputed graphic and hence not enough resource demand to crash the system.

Or so I expect.

When the log file gets posted, it should be possible to determine if the problem was a passing system glitch or if the device needs to be returned for exchange.