Battery life

[n3arlyn3w]

Hi, I'm thinking of buying my first ereader, a sony pocket edition prs-350 and was just wondering how many charges does the battery last for and can it be replaced or will I have to buy a new reader? Thanks for any help as I can't seem to find this info.

[Drumzman · Accepted solution]

Hi, I'm afraid I don't know the answer to your exact question, but wonder if the following information is of any help to you.

Battery life for a Reader is expressed a little differently to most other electronics products, in that it is not defined in number of hours or days of use, but in the number of page turns.  This is because no battery power is required to maintain a page display on the screen, only a tiny amount is used each time you change it (as in when you turn the page).  I think the life of the battery on a full charge is supposed to be something like 10,000 continuous page turns!  So really it depends on how much reading you do as to how frequently you will need to recharge the battery.  That said, one little tip I've found is how you manage the device when you are not reading it.  This is because you effectively have two forms of switching the unit off.  If you slide the power switch briefly to turn it off, the unit goes to 'sleep' mode (with a standby picture on the screen if you have it selected).  Whilst displaying the standby picture itself doesn't use any power, in this state the battery will be depleted automatically (albeit very slowly).  If you're using the Reader frequently then this sleep mode is absolutely fine and does give you the 'instant on' each time you turn the power back on.  If on the other hand you use the Reader rather infrequently, with quite a few days or even weeks between reads, then it is better to use the 'shut down' option - you do this by sliding and holding the power switch for a few seconds until the shut down prompt appears on the screen.  When shut down, the Reader's battery charge will be retained for much longer during periods of inactivity - many months.  The only downside is that when you switch the unit back on from shut down, the device re-boots, a bit like a computer and so isn't the instant on as before.  However the re-boot only takes about 45 seconds, so I guess a small price to pay - and would certainly cut down on the amount of re-charging that would be required.

In terms of replacing a battery, I really don't know what is considered its overall life expectancy so to speak - all I can say is that I know it's not a DIY job and would mean being sent away to a service centre I guess.  I've owned a Reader now for nearly 3 years and I can't say I've noticed any deterioration in battery life so far.  I'm thinking that my battery is quite likely to outlive the point where I can't resist upgrading to the next technologically advanced incarnation of the Reader .... whatever that might be!  It's a crazy, fast-moving world we live in these days!! :smileygrin:

[n3arlyn3w]

Thanks for the reply Drumzman, altough you didn't answer with the exact details of battery life, you have put my mind at ease. I was just worried about cost in replacing the battery and how often it would need replacing. Your probably right about upgrading to a newer model before even needing to replace a battery.

I think it's time to buy an ereader.:smileygrin:

Thanks again.

n3arlyn3w

[pesimps27]

Drumzman must be lucky!!

rechargeable batteries are notorious for poor long term performance. I think if you regularly charge and discharge them they will last a while. But if you ever leave them a while without using them them then they are useless. My reader battery had intermittent use and after 6 months there was a 50% reduction in battery life. IF they can be replaced at all then it will be prohibitively expensive and not worth it.

[carpetmojo]

Sorry this is a bit late ! MobileRead Forum has a lot of good info regarding this topic, well worth joining anyway..

These batteries have improved a lot.

Briefly, the informed general advice is the battery will last for a very long time - 3 + years seems be the figure, and they can be replaced (by Sony theoretically).

What damages  Lithium batteries is a total discharge, while a so-called "overcharge" does no harm.

Do not run the charge right down is the important thing to go by.

When the charge indicator is on 2 bars, think about it, and re-charge on one bar is the best practise. Constant recharge when higher than two bars does shorten life & efficiency. By what extent is debateable.

But charging from one bar all the time actually improves the battery's efficiency.

So, overcharge OK, total run-down very very bad !

Hope this helps someone.

[carpetmojo]

Oh yes, as  Drum says, keep it on stand-by unless you won't need it for a good while - and bookmarking uses hardly any power.

[Francescosv67]

Hi, I have a problem with the battery of my laptop. Sometimes Vajo control center tell me that the battery healt is critical (also once a week) but when I restart the battery health become excellent. What do I do? I have to change the battery? I have bought my laptop 2 years ago. Thanks for any help.