Sage The battery life of the Sage after 3 years of use

Sirtel · 02-22-2025, 02:02 PM

I bought my Sage when it was released, October/November 2021. Since then I've been reading on it nearly every day, 2-3 hours on average. I've never measured the battery life before. But I factory reset my Sage on Monday (calibre had been refusing to back up the database for a while, complaining about a missing row, and the buttons occasionally made double page turns), so I now had a chance to see without much effort how long it took for the battery to empty.

According to my reading stats (which I didn't bother to back up and restore; I only restored my reading progress) I'd been reading on the Sage for 17 hours before the battery dropped to 12% and I charged it. That's much better than I expected, given that the device is more than 3 years old and much used.

This is with wifi and bluetooth off, the full refresh on for every page and the frontlight always at 9-10%. The Sage has never been completely shut down, only asleep.

Quoth · 02-22-2025, 02:28 PM

A good quality LiPoly might be OK for 8 to 10 years, but total cycles and ambient temperature as well as manufacturing date are the factors. Someone in Arizona might get less life than Estonia (unless you have the heating really high!), unless they have expensive air con. Ireland has not a problem for static or temperature for electronics and batteries.

Sirtel · 02-22-2025, 05:08 PM

Yes, hopefully it will last a good while yet. No idea if Kobo ever plans to release another 8'' reader, or maybe it will be Kaleido only, or without buttons.

I do use my Libra 2 too, but less than the Sage (I like the thinner body of the Sage better, and the larger screen; there's no denying the Libra 2 has a gorgeous screen, though). Unfortunately the double page turns still happen on the Sage, even after the factory reset, with both buttons. So maybe I'll use the Libra more in the future. The buttons on it work perfectly.

Aleron Ives · 02-22-2025, 06:28 PM

Didn't you have double page turns a while ago and downgrade the firmware in an attempt to fix it? If so, did the downgrade fix it for a while, and now it's back, or did it make no difference?

DNSB · 02-22-2025, 07:01 PM

So far—knock wood—I haven't been plagued with the double page turn happening very often. OTOH, my battery life seems to be hanging in around 16.5 hours before popping up the warning message.

I was looking at replacement batteries and found one that had the same dimensions as the Sage battery but was rated at 1500mAH. However, that's a back of the mind project until my Sage drops to a battery life that is too low for normal use.

Sirtel · 02-22-2025, 07:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aleron Ives

Didn't you have double page turns a while ago and downgrade the firmware in an attempt to fix it? If so, did the downgrade fix it for a while, and now it's back, or did it make no difference?

It made no real difference; maybe only a little. So after resetting my Sage I decided to stay on the latest firmware.

Sirtel · 02-22-2025, 07:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DNSB

So far—knock wood—I haven't been plagued with the double page turn happening very often. OTOH, my battery life seems to be hanging in around 16.5 hours before popping up the warning message.

I'm pretty sure both of these facts are due to your reading much faster than I.

Quoth · 02-23-2025, 05:18 AM

Also I think large font and big margins uses battery charge up faster per book read than small font and tiny margins per book esp, if light, Wifi & BT is off. So total books read per battery life is related to battery age, temperature and words per page.

Did I write I've ordered another Sage in case they stop making an 8" mono 300 dpi? Should be here tomorrow according to tracking.

It's flawed, but better for me than any of the alternatives.

Dr. Drib · 02-23-2025, 08:09 AM

I don't own a Sage (although I used to lust after one), but I was wondering if the battery in their power cover (or whatever it's called) has the same dimensionas as the one in the Sage.

Quoth · 02-23-2025, 09:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

I don't own a Sage (although I used to lust after one), but I was wondering if the battery in their power cover (or whatever it's called) has the same dimensionas as the one in the Sage.

I don't know, but Kobo's own web page now has a non-Power cover and the power cover gets bad comments here and bad reviews. I think one on one of the Amazon Oasis models didn't work well either.

Looks impossible to add a bigger cell inside the case:

Click image for larger version

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Inside of Sage N778 variant.

It looks like built in cell management, so a custom back with a suitable 2 to 4 times capacity single cell might work.

The contacts on the side are for some more complicated system and not USB plus power, sadly.

An updated Sage should be mono, at least x1.5 cell and no power cover. There is space for a much larger cell if the chassis is designed for it. I'd like also back & menu buttons and the page buttons to move scroll /paging in popups such as TOC or definitions or a note. Also some way of turning off /on the BT sleep so if doing a lot of annotation a BT keyboard stays connected. Sadly the notebooks don't work at all with a keyboard except where one pops up, like naming a file.

Also the magnets for the power cover are really annoying and glued in. There might be 8. I did remove two on one Sage and then gave up. Stupid design.

Sirtel · 02-23-2025, 10:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Quoth

I don't know, but Kobo's own web page now has a non-Power cover and the power cover gets bad comments here and bad reviews. I think one on one of the Amazon Oasis models didn't work well either.

The Oasis cover worked perfectly. The Kobo cover was total crap.

Sirtel · 02-23-2025, 11:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Quoth

Did I write I've ordered another Sage in case they stop making an 8" mono 300 dpi? Should be here tomorrow according to tracking.

It's flawed, but better for me than any of the alternatives.

I will probably do the same if Kobo discontinues the Sage without a suitable replacement. At the moment I'm content to wait for an upgrade.

DNSB · 02-23-2025, 02:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Quoth

Looks impossible to add a bigger cell inside the case:

The battery I was looking at was the same size (15,80,98) but rated at 1500mAH with the variant I was looking at having no connector so just two naked wires. I didn't want to order it and then leave it sitting around for a few years.

Quoth · 02-23-2025, 02:37 PM

The Sage battery on mine was just "naked" wires and I can see it has a taped in integrated controller, so likely any cell with the controller built in will work. Very basic soldering iron skills needed, though cutting existing wires (one at a time!) is possible, and some sleeving.
The front has everything except the PCB for the 4 contacts on it, so pop open at other corner and be careful of the flexible pcb ribbon to the small PCB mounted on the rear casing. An old credit card or plastic pry tool just to start. Easily pops back together.

02-22-2025, 02:02 PM	#1
Sirtel Grand Sorcerer Posts: 13,073 Karma: 237109613 Join Date: Jan 2014 Location: Estonia Device: Kobo Sage & Libra 2	The battery life of the Sage after 3 years of use I bought my Sage when it was released, October/November 2021. Since then I've been reading on it nearly every day, 2-3 hours on average. I've never measured the battery life before. But I factory reset my Sage on Monday (calibre had been refusing to back up the database for a while, complaining about a missing row, and the buttons occasionally made double page turns), so I now had a chance to see without much effort how long it took for the battery to empty. According to my reading stats (which I didn't bother to back up and restore; I only restored my reading progress) I'd been reading on the Sage for 17 hours before the battery dropped to 12% and I charged it. That's much better than I expected, given that the device is more than 3 years old and much used. This is with wifi and bluetooth off, the full refresh on for every page and the frontlight always at 9-10%. The Sage has never been completely shut down, only asleep. Last edited by Sirtel; 02-22-2025 at 02:05 PM.

02-23-2025, 05:18 AM	#8
Quoth Still reading Posts: 13,647 Karma: 103503445 Join Date: Jun 2017 Location: Ireland Device: All 4 Kinds: epub eink, Kindle, android eink, NxtPaper	Also I think large font and big margins uses battery charge up faster per book read than small font and tiny margins per book esp, if light, Wifi & BT is off. So total books read per battery life is related to battery age, temperature and words per page. Did I write I've ordered another Sage in case they stop making an 8" mono 300 dpi? Should be here tomorrow according to tracking. It's flawed, but better for me than any of the alternatives. Last edited by Quoth; 02-23-2025 at 05:20 AM.

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02-22-2025, 02:28 PM	#2
Quoth Still reading Posts: 13,647 Karma: 103503445 Join Date: Jun 2017 Location: Ireland Device: All 4 Kinds: epub eink, Kindle, android eink, NxtPaper	A good quality LiPoly might be OK for 8 to 10 years, but total cycles and ambient temperature as well as manufacturing date are the factors. Someone in Arizona might get less life than Estonia (unless you have the heating really high!), unless they have expensive air con. Ireland has not a problem for static or temperature for electronics and batteries.

02-22-2025, 05:08 PM	#3
Sirtel Grand Sorcerer Posts: 13,073 Karma: 237109613 Join Date: Jan 2014 Location: Estonia Device: Kobo Sage & Libra 2	Yes, hopefully it will last a good while yet. No idea if Kobo ever plans to release another 8'' reader, or maybe it will be Kaleido only, or without buttons. I do use my Libra 2 too, but less than the Sage (I like the thinner body of the Sage better, and the larger screen; there's no denying the Libra 2 has a gorgeous screen, though). Unfortunately the double page turns still happen on the Sage, even after the factory reset, with both buttons. So maybe I'll use the Libra more in the future. The buttons on it work perfectly.

02-22-2025, 06:28 PM	#4
Aleron Ives Wizard Posts: 1,644 Karma: 16302664 Join Date: Sep 2022 Device: Kobo Libra 2	Didn't you have double page turns a while ago and downgrade the firmware in an attempt to fix it? If so, did the downgrade fix it for a while, and now it's back, or did it make no difference?

02-22-2025, 07:01 PM	#5
DNSB Bibliophagist Posts: 44,512 Karma: 167912829 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Vancouver Device: Kobo Sage, Libra Colour, Lenovo M8 FHD, Paperwhite 4, Tolino epos	So far—knock wood—I haven't been plagued with the double page turn happening very often. OTOH, my battery life seems to be hanging in around 16.5 hours before popping up the warning message. I was looking at replacement batteries and found one that had the same dimensions as the Sage battery but was rated at 1500mAH. However, that's a back of the mind project until my Sage drops to a battery life that is too low for normal use.

02-23-2025, 08:09 AM	#9
Dr. Drib Grand Sorcerer Posts: 45,312 Karma: 59447733 Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Peru Device: KINDLE: Oasis 3, Scribe (1st), Matcha; KOBO: Libra 2, Libra Colour	I don't own a Sage (although I used to lust after one), but I was wondering if the battery in their power cover (or whatever it's called) has the same dimensionas as the one in the Sage.

02-23-2025, 02:37 PM	#14
Quoth Still reading Posts: 13,647 Karma: 103503445 Join Date: Jun 2017 Location: Ireland Device: All 4 Kinds: epub eink, Kindle, android eink, NxtPaper	The Sage battery on mine was just "naked" wires and I can see it has a taped in integrated controller, so likely any cell with the controller built in will work. Very basic soldering iron skills needed, though cutting existing wires (one at a time!) is possible, and some sleeving. The front has everything except the PCB for the 4 contacts on it, so pop open at other corner and be careful of the flexible pcb ribbon to the small PCB mounted on the rear casing. An old credit card or plastic pry tool just to start. Easily pops back together.

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