Pocket Pro battery issue?

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by Xerxes

If Fry's sold them too low, wouldn't that lead to them needing to buy more from you.

[RichyRich]

Well, having not charged my EZ Reader Pro since last Tuesday, i have read 3 EPUB ebooks so far, totaling 981 pages before I finally dropped 1 bar on my battery meter today. The page count is based on the smallest font size, where the previous post indicated the count at one or two font sizes higher. Now, to see if the counts remain consistent across bars.

[oncdoc]

i was told that the pro reader unless turned completely off has something running in the background to suck up battery. as per email from support.

[gargoyle67]

Yes the ppro does use a little power when not turned off, But I used to leave my bebook 6" on all the time (you can't beat grab and read) and that lasted way longer than my ppro before showing less then a full charge, And thats with a 6" display !

[theducks]

Originally Posted by oncdoc

i was told that the pro reader unless turned completely off has something running in the background to suck up battery. as per email from support.

Something is wrong with this idea.

The power button is a Logical power Switch. It needs to be powered to work, just like most modern PC's that don't have a rocker/toggle to power off which draw a few watts when "off".

I see little battery charge difference powering "OFF" or "Locking". I get a week of hours of daily use out of a single "charge" I suspect that "Green LED on time is a good indicator of power being consumed (and has no way of indicating "how much" total)

The screen uses NO power (see the picture of the disassembled PEz) when not changing the screen image.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by theducks

...

The screen uses NO power (see the picture of the disassembled PEz) when not changing the screen image.

Where this really sunk into my consciousness was after I received my Kindle2 which when powered off displays a random image on the screen.

[dcalder]

Originally Posted by gargoyle67

Yes the ppro does use a little power when not turned off, But I used to leave my bebook 6" on all the time (you can't beat grab and read) and that lasted way longer than my ppro before showing less then a full charge, And thats with a 6" display !

Agreed! Now, mind you, I expected the battery life on the Pocket Pro to at least seem slightly less than on the 6" Bebook for the simple reason that the screen is smaller and therefore it requires more page turns to read the same book. However, after doing considerable testing (charging with different USB cables; charging from PC versus wall charger; using keyboard lock versus powering off versus leaving on between uses; using different SD cards, using no SD card; etc.), it's clear that, under all circumstances, the keyboard lock uses pretty much the same amount of power as simply leaving the device on. There may be a slight difference but nothing of significance. The battery life that I see when turning the Pocket Pro off between uses is in line with the battery life that I saw from the 6" Bebook when using the keyboard lock between uses.

So, no matter what the official story may be, if you're experiencing unacceptable battery life with the Pocket Pro, try powering off instead of using the keyboard lock between uses. There is a significant difference.

Unfortunately, I don't consider powering it off to be an acceptable alternative since, added delay of boot time aside, there's the additional hassle and delay caused by the darn thing returning to the main menu every blasted time that it's turned off and back on again. Very, very irritating, to say the least.

[Robertb]

Originally Posted by kennyc

Dear Kenny:

Yes, at first I thought: GOOD!! They sell too low and we sell more!!

Then the phone starts ringing from all other online stores selling the EZ Reader Pocket PRO and from all the prospective ones who are wanting to carry it. They are furious as they think we must have given a phenomenal price to FRYs and are gouging them. Prospective carriers want the same deal as we gave FRY's.

Trust me, we sell a few units more but all hell breaks loose!! My boss wants me shot and other carriers want to buy the ammunition!!

There is an old saying: "You can never do JUST ONE THING!". Everything is inter-related!