One thing about newer Kindle ereaders is they can take several seconds longer to turn on compared to older Kindles that turn on in a second or two after hitting the power button or opening the sleepcover.
Newer Kindles have a Power Saver setting that is enabled by default. It puts Kindles into a deeper sleep state when turned off that supposedly uses less power, but it also makes Kindles take longer to turn on after they’ve been off for a certain amount of time (like an hour, or so).
If you get tired of having to see the “Waking Up…” message on your Kindle when you want to get back to the page you were reading, there is a way to avoid that.
It’s especially annoying on ad-supported Kindles. They make you stare at the stupid lockscreen advertisement for an extra 5-7 seconds before you can swipe the screen to turn the Kindle on. When you just want to quickly get back to reading it can be kind of annoying.
Luckily there’s a way to speed up the turning on process on Kindle ereaders and avoid seeing the “Waking Up…” screen altogether.
To turn Power Saver on and off, go to Settings > Device Options > Advanced Options > Power Saver.
As the dialog box states:
“Power Saver is a low-power sleep mode when this Kindle is not in use. Disabling Power Saver makes your Kindle turn on faster for every reading session, but requires more frequent charging.”
I’ve tested it before and the battery difference seemed negligible.
You can try doing some tests with Power Saver turned on and off to see how much of an impact turning it off has on your Kindle. Power Saver mode is enabled by default so you have to turn it off manually.
If you’re overly concerned with battery life you’ll probably want to keep Power Saver turned on, but if you’re using your Kindle all the time it’s probably not going to make much of a difference either way.
The Kindle Voyage and Paperwhite 3 don’t have the Power Saver feature and battery life has never been known to be a problem with them.
Not all Kindles have the Power Saver feature. It’s available on the Paperwhite 4 and 5, and the entry-level Kindle, along with the kids variants. The Kindle Oasis has it too but it unlike the other models it cannot be turned off on the Oasis, probably because it has the worst battery life of any Kindle.
Wonderful information, thank you so much
Idle drain in PW4 seems to be way better than the PW3. In a test conducted by a Mobileread forum member the PW4 drained only 5% over 27 days in airplane mode. Under the same conditions my JB PW3 drains 27-30%, 0.04-0.06%/h. The Battery Saver should be having an impact in this regard I guess.
I agree Anshuman regarding the drain My PW4 uses less battery in sleep mode than the PW3 I had. Maybe it was a bit of battery age also being a factor as well.
Thank you though for the article! I wondered why my PW4 took longer to open up than my PW3 did. I do read a lot on it but I will choose to leave the power saver mode on and just wait a few more seconds to read. I’d rather have the higher battery life.
Good article!
If Amazon sold replacement batteries for the Kindles I wouldn’t have focused as much on the battery longevity. There don’t seem to be very many half-decent third-party alternatives. Plus battery replacement in the PW3 isn’t easy but reportedly much, much more difficult in the later gen. At least the battery in Kindles seems to last a fair few years which is a relief. I am quite satisfied with my PW3 esp. after jailbreaking it and I see no reason to upgrade it for years to come. Software jailbreaking the newer gen. with updated firmware is no longer possible as well.
Thanks so much! You will have made lots of people very happy with this posting.
I wish they’d bring out the Paperwhite Max with the proper rectangular shape like the new PW5 and with an 8″ screen, and retain the option to disable powersaver. I’d buy one and put away my Oasis.
I would really like to see them bring back page buttons (or sensors like the Voyage) on a non-Oasis design like older Kindles used to have. It seems most people prefer the Paperwhite’s design over the odd-shaped Oasis. Some are hoping for an Oasis 4, but I think it’s time to retire the Oasis line and come out with something new.