Paperwhite 2013 Battery

[sirmaru]

I got through my first cycle of reading sessions for my Paperwhite 2013 recorded in an Excel Spreadsheet and recorded 13:29 with WiFi on and the light at 15 of 24. I got 11 days. I intend to record a second cycle of individual sessions.

My Paperwhite 2012 with WiFi on and a light level of 22 of 24 recorded 10:29 and 10:08. With WiFi off at the same light level I got 12:07. I averaged 13 days between recharges in both cases.

At the Paperwhite 2013 page at Amazon I see this:

"A single charge lasts up to eight weeks, based on a half hour of reading per day with wireless off and the light setting at 10." That works out to 28 hours. That makes sense since the light level and WiFi settings may be decisive.

[Canuck_in_Japan]

Are you timing yourself or does the Kindle do that for you?

[crev]

I have used my PW2 just for a couple of days but I can see how the battery status is decreasing every time I switch it on. I didnt do a comprehensive test yet but I have the impression that it drain quicker than the my PW1.

Anymore impressions from others?

[Yolina]

M PW2 battery seems as good as on my PW1 I always keep the Wi-Fi off though.

I set up my PW2 then fully charged it before reading on it. I read about 12 hours with light at level 12 on average and the WiFi was ON. The battery dropped to about 20%. The 12 hours of reading was over a two day period and is fairly typical usage for me, so it looks like I will need to charge every two days. That is somewhat disappointing. I know you can turn WiFi OFF, but if you do then some of the features will not be available. I have always kept WiFi ON with all my previous Kindles, and they all averaged 2 weeks or more between charges. So it looks like the light really sucks down the battery in a hurry.

[sirmaru]

Originally Posted by Canuck_in_Japan

Are you timing yourself or does the Kindle do that for you?

I use an Excel spreadsheet to time each session (start time, end time, time used, accumulated time).

@JSwinden - I was using light setting 15 and WiFi on. Amazon used light setting 10 and WiFi off. I got 13 hours. They got 28 hours. Thus, light and WiFi settings cost me 15 hours.

See this link for another ID, Julius Caesar, who did battery testing on the PW 2012 with WiFi off and had much greater battery life than me using WiFi on at that time:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...=battery+usage

The WiFi setting causes a huge difference in battery drain. I need it always on since I must sync between many Kindles and apps. If one only owns a single Kindle device and does not need syncing on, then they should leave WiFi off all the time.

[Jdschi]

I don't know what kind of battery is used in the Kindles, but batteries of most Tablets, Smartphones etc. need a couple of cycles to reach their full potential. After charging and discharging it a few times, battery life should get a bit better.

Since receiving mine 5 days ago I have read on it every day for maybe 2 hours, with light on 11 and wifi off and the battery is still at about 80%. I'm really happy with it but I have only used tablets and smartphones to read my ebooks on lately so every gadget that lasts longer than 2 days with a charge feels great to me.

[7hir7een]

Originally Posted by jswinden

I set up my PW2 then fully charged it before reading on it. I read about 12 hours with light at level 12 on average and the WiFi was ON. The battery dropped to about 20%. The 12 hours of reading was over a two day period and is fairly typical usage for me, so it looks like I will need to charge every two days. That is somewhat disappointing. I know you can turn WiFi OFF, but if you do then some of the features will not be available. I have always kept WiFi ON with all my previous Kindles, and they all averaged 2 weeks or more between charges. So it looks like the light really sucks down the battery in a hurry.

I find that wifi is a huge drain on the Paperwhites.

I don't have specific numbers like other posters. However, my battery lasts approximately twice as long at respective light settings with the wifi off vs on.

[dordale]

I've had my KPW2 for just over a week--haven't turned the wifi on since the first day. The battery drain seems a little faster than I experienced with my Sony Readers when they were new, but I'm pretty happy with it so far. I've been hooking it up to the computer on and off to transfer some stuff from Calibre, and that does charge it up a little each time--but that's the only charge it's gotten so far--the meter shows about 3/4 full even after a week of fairly heavy use.

Just be aware that with the WiFi off some features are not available. For example, the Wikipedia tab in the dictionary look up window will be blank except for a statement telling you it doesn't work in Airplane mode. The X-Ray feature will also be unavailable. I suspect other features won't work without WiFi too. If you don't use these features very often, then Airplane mode is an option. If you use these features often, then Airplane mode is a PITA as it takes a several touches of the screen to turn it ON/OFF. Too bad Amazon won't give us a one-touch ON/OFF ability for Airplane mode.

[Jdschi]

Originally Posted by jswinden

The X-Ray feature will also be unavailable. I suspect other features won't work without WiFi too.

Really? I noticed that X-Ray wasn't available in the books I read but I figured it just weren't books where it wasn't available anyway. Now you're telling me it doesn't work AT ALL? Why is that? I need to check that...
With my Kindle Touch, I'm pretty sure X-Ray worked even with Wi-Fi off - it only pulled the information out of the book anyway, so why would it need wi-fi?

Originally Posted by Jdschi

Really? I noticed that X-Ray wasn't available in the books I read but I figured it just weren't books where it wasn't available anyway. Now you're telling me it doesn't work AT ALL? Why is that? I need to check that...
With my Kindle Touch, I'm pretty sure X-Ray worked even with Wi-Fi off - it only pulled the information out of the book anyway, so why would it need wi-fi?

I saw a couple of posts on the Amazon.com Kindle forum that suggested that was the case, including this one. I don't have any books with X-Ray, so I cannot verify if it is true.

[dordale]

Originally Posted by jswinden

Just be aware that with the WiFi off some features are not available. For example, the Wikipedia tab in the dictionary look up window will be blank except for a statement telling you it doesn't work in Airplane mode. The X-Ray feature will also be unavailable. I suspect other features won't work without WiFi too. If you don't use these features very often, then Airplane mode is an option. If you use these features often, then Airplane mode is a PITA as it takes a several touches of the screen to turn it ON/OFF. Too bad Amazon won't give us a one-touch ON/OFF ability for Airplane mode.

Good point Jack--I read mostly fiction--mystery books, so Wikipedia functionality isn't that important for these, although I can definitely see its usefulness when reading non-fiction--for example historical/biographical books. As far as I know, none of my books have x-ray built in and since this is my first Kindle I'm not really familiar with that feature.

I do agree it would be great if Amazon made it easier to switch Airplane mode on and off.

I also don't sync my books to different readers and am not interested in social networking on my Kindle. Because of that, leaving my Kindle in Airplane mode does work for me, but I can certainly see why wanting wi-fi on most, if not all, the time is preferable to some users.

[tashk]

Power consumption of WiFi may differ considerably depending on the strength of the WiFi signal. With a less than perfect signal, the same data packet has to be sent and sometimes received/processed more than once.

This can make it difficult to compare power consumption even when you're always using your Kindle in the same location because WiFi quality can be affected by things outside your control and perception. Examples include a neighbour turning on his WiFi on a similar frequency, or somebody nearby using a microwave, or even certain light sources.

[7hir7een]

Originally Posted by tashk

[...] Examples include a neighbour turning on his WiFi on a similar frequency, or somebody nearby using a microwave, or even certain light sources.

That could explain why having my wifi on at home makes such a huge difference in battery life for me. I live in an apartment complex with lot of other wifi signals floating about.