Some people care more than others about overall battery life on dedicated ereaders, and people often ask which ereader has the best battery life.
If you’re one of those people that puts a premium on how long the battery can last between charges, the 6.8-inch Kindle Paperwhite seems to have the best battery life of any ereader on the current market.
I can’t believe how infrequently the new Paperwhite needs to be charged. The wireless charging dock for the Signature Edition model is one of the least used accessories I’ve ever bought for an ereader—it’s more useful as a stand than a charger.
E Ink screens only use power when changing the screen so they can get a lot better battery life than devices with LCD screens that are always sucking power whenever they’re turned on.
The Kobo Clara HD and Kobo Libra 2 both have really good battery life as well, although I’m not sure which is “best”. They do seem to use more power when asleep than Kindles, however, but Kobos can be completely turned off, unlike Kindles.
A couple of models with the poorest battery life are the Kobo Sage and the Kindle Oasis, which is weird since both models are more expensive than ereaders with really good battery life.
Every time I try to use the Kobo Sage, I’m surprised by how bad the battery life is. Every time I pick it up the battery is lower than when I put it down, and it can easily drop by 10% or more in less than an hour of reading. A lot of people have complained about battery life on the Kindle Oasis as well, but to me it’s not quite as bad as the Sage, especially when using lower frontlight levels.
Devices that run Android tend to have shorter battery life, but then again those devices are often used more like tablets than ereaders so that’s to be expected to some extent.
From your experience, which ereader do you think has the best battery life? Should companies put more emphasis on longer battery life, or should they try to make ereaders as light and thin as possible?
In my opinion PocketBook devices have the longest battery life. And they have the advantage of the speed of switching on from the completely off position.
Agree. I have the Pocketbook Inkpad X that I am using exclusively to read and the battery is great. When first setting it up and downloading all of my books, the battery level barely moved. My Kindle, Kobo or Nook always drained quickly when downloading my book library. Reading with the Pocketbook – I have only charged the reader twice and I have had it for only three weeks and have read four books. Really love this reader.
I think my Pocketbook InkPad 3 is the best. It holds a long time in use, I felt like it never would run out if battery. Now I also have Boox Poke 2, which easily drops battery while reading, and also powered off. I never have on internet, unless I am using it.
Kobo Libra 2 is okay, but still I think my 4 year old Pocketbook InkPad 3 is better.
But the Kobo Libra 2 has the best hardware, and screen, no question. So that is my main device. I simply love it, but battery could been a little better…. I’m spoiled from the InkPad 3.
Don’t care that much about battery life, as long as it’s not so bad I have to charge more than daily!
Not a single one of the many I’ve owned (FOUR different brands, ELEVEN different models since 2011) has EVER lasted me past a week of reading. I read a LOT.
Lighter is good. If I need to charge oftener, so be it. I own two devices and switch off at need. As long as I can get 4-5 years out of a reader, I’m happy. Most last twice that! My Sony PRS-350 from 2010 only died late last year.
The device that would last me weeks would be WAY too heavy for comfortable use. At any rate, no manufacturer I’ve tried (Nook, Sony, Kindle, Kobo) has built that device.
I agree, I prefer lighter over battery life.
Every eReader I’ve owned gets weeks of battery life. I don’t need them heavier.
Regret not sending back my Paperwhite 5, I never use it because it is not comfortable to hold. I have gone back to 6” eReaders.
I recently purchased a Kobo Elissa and have been pleasantly surprised at the battery life. I also own a Sage and the Elissa battery life is at least double the length of the Sage.
Spell check doesn’t like Elipsa. I should have said I only use for reading no stylus or audiobooks use in battery tests.
I would lean more towards longer battery life than a lighter device. Especially wince I use the voiceview and audiobooks often with my kindles. When using audio features the battery drains a lot faster. On my basic I get about 6 hours of voiceview. I don’t know how much on my PW5, but certainly a lot more than 6 hours. Being rather ignorant on the science of modern rechargeable batteries, I would guess that the bigger batteries last longer (as in longer life, not about how long they can power a device) since they don’t go through as many recharge cycles as smaller batteries. Would this be something to consider since the life of any ereader is tied to how long the battery lasts. It would not be such a big deal if they made these devices with the ability to replace worn out batteries.
My Onyx Nova 3 has pretty abysmal battery especially compared to the Oasis which has a much smaller battery. Wish there was a way to turn off the WACOM layer as it drains the battery unnecessarily when reading.