Oasis Battery Life Concern

[mezzanine]

I know that this has been debated to death here, but I thought I would chime in with my perspective as an Oasis owner for the last month because it contrasts with the consensus here.

There's no way this battery isn't going to be a problem. I keep my Oasis in airplane mode and my light is constant at 10. The rate at which I find I'm charging the Oasis is similar to the pattern of charging a cell phone. I'm guessing I'm getting around 4 or 5 hours to a charge, although I try not to let it discharge below approx. 20% before connecting it to the cover.

I love the reader. I didn't think I would, as I was set on getting the Aura One and am partial to Kobo for the larger size screen that I find preferable to the 6" sized readers. The ergonomics and the weight are the winning characteristics for me.

I don't think I'm going to keep it because of the battery life. It's not that the battery life is insufficient as it is in it's nearly-new state. I read mostly at home and it's simple to recharge it without disrupting my reading habits. The problem is in a year or two, with the frequency with which I'm finding I am charging it, the battery will exhibit the characteristic most of us have experienced with cell phones, where I'm guessing I'll be getting something like two or three hours per charge, and that's unacceptable.

It wouldn't bother me if there was a user-friendly means with which to replace the battery, but there isn't.

Without rehashing the same old discussion about battery physics, am I missing something here in my analysis? I've been very surprised that others don't seem to share my concern when reading past discussions on this issue.

I read maybe an hour a day, and I know there have to be Oasis owners here that are heavier readers than myself. I'm in Canada and my Oasis was $500 with 3G and I can't afford to have a device that lasts a couple years before becoming useless due to battery degradation.

[knc1]

That does not sound like "normal operation" to me.
Call Amazon's Kindle support people and report the problem of needing frequent re-charging.
Its new enough that they may just exchange it.

Note:
I do not own that model, but I am pretty sure of what I wrote above.

[mezzanine]

Thanks for your input. There's nothing wrong with the device, though. The battery drain I'm observing on my Oasis is consistent with the user reports I've read. What's different is my conclusion about how this device will age. I initially dismissed the doubt by posters who didn't own the device, but expressed concern just based on the specs. Unfortunately, my experience seems to be confirming their worries.

I've wondered whether there's a "new device romance" effect, whereby consumers imprint on their purchase and become blind to it's flaws. I assume that the folks at Amazon aren't dumb and wouldn't produce something with an obvious design flaw.

I have to assume that I'm wrong on the rate at which the battery will degrade, but based on my experience, there's an alarm bell going off in my mind telling me that there's going to be problem in a couple of years with battery life.

[shalym]

Originally Posted by mezzanine

Thanks for your input. There's nothing wrong with the device, though. The battery drain I'm observing on my Oasis is consistent with the user reports I've read. What's different is my conclusion about how this device will age. I initially dismissed the doubt by posters who didn't own the device, but expressed concern just based on the specs. Unfortunately, my experience seems to be confirming their worries.

I've wondered whether there's a "new device romance" effect, whereby consumers imprint on their purchase and become blind to it's flaws. I assume that the folks at Amazon aren't dumb and wouldn't produce something with an obvious design flaw.

I have to assume that I'm wrong on the rate at which the battery will degrade, but based on my experience, there's an alarm bell going off in my mind telling me that there's going to be problem in a couple of years with battery life.

If you're that concerned, then return it, of course. However, people who have owned it since the release date are NOT seeing the scenario that you are concerned about.

Shari

[knc1]

Originally Posted by mezzanine

- - - -
I've wondered whether there's a "new device romance" effect, whereby consumers imprint on their purchase and become blind to it's flaws. I assume that the folks at Amazon aren't dumb and wouldn't produce something with an obvious design flaw.
- - - -

I did not mention anything about the device's design.
Only that the behavior you observed is not that intended.

The production process used is very capable of turning out a bad or broken device.
So I stand by my answer: tell Amazon before your warranty runs out.

I read things that seem strange in your reasoning -

1) Battery run-time under the conditions you describe:

You say it isn't any different than what you have read about the subject.
Yet you did not come to question that affect on the battery life-time until now, when you own one yourself.

How do you know that the battery life-time will be shortened by the behavior you describe?
The devices have not been produced, in-use by owners, and reported on long enough yet for anybody to reach any conclusions.

2) How do you know the device is working normally when you at length describe a device that is not?

= = = =

If you are concerned about the life-time of the battery under the conditions you describe;
that is: Less than the length of time you want to continue using the device - -
Then you really should consider trading it in on another model, one that does not have the battery glued into the device.
Which is any model other than the one you have and a K4.

Another reason to report the behavior to Amazon, claiming you think it is not correct (or at least not as advertised by Amazon) and want to exchange it.
Do it now, while you still have that option.

[Atunah]

As someone that has owned and heavily used the Oasis for 1 year now, I see no difference in battery life at all. I look at the Oasis as a package, so I use battery life as a combination of the cover and the device. They cannot really be separated. But I know that my Oasis, out of the cover can last from 5-7 hours reading time. Now this depends on the light, if wifi is on, how strong the signal is and size of font. Mine is on #4 and my light on 10 most of the time.

I am a heavy reader and I have used that thing like crazy. I read outside the cover, but when I take a break of any kind, I put it in. Even just to make tea or coffee gets it a bit of a recharge since it charges pretty fast from the cover.
So mine gets constantly charged and read and charged and read. Lots of use.

I also still charge the whole package at the same rates than 1 year ago. Pretty much like I charged all the newer kindles. 4-5 days average. When one reads a lot, the weeks on charge means nothing really. I say newer kindles because my K1, the first kindle I used to charge almost daily, or every 2 days, because I read a lot. I think part of that was the lack of wifi and having 3G and using 1000's of books on the SD card.

I said this when the Oasis first came out and some folks were critical of the battery system, without actually every having used one. I said then, I'll report back in a year. Well, its a year and I see no degradation in my Oasis battery. If there is any, which is in any battery, it is not noticeable or yet measurable in real life situation. Tells me its not a concern.
I can check in again on that subject in yet another year. I think there will be some that are still not sure then if it would hold up.

[knc1]

The system running your Kindle (all models) measures the battery capacity before entering suspend and records it in a log (and a few other things, like the percentage of that capacity it is charged to).
You can print the log to /documents and then use a string search tool (on your pc) to print out only the capacity measurements.
Searchbar, enter:
;dm
The semi-colon is part of the command, which stands for: dump messages, making it easy to remember.

Don't expect to find any clearly defined trend in less than two years, unless something is going wrong.

[Sirtel]

I have used my Oasis for a year too and have not noticed any degradation in battery life. But I don't read only on the Oasis, I switch with the Voyage.

[barryem]

I like the design of the Oasis for the most part but I decided not to get one because of my concern for battery longevity. The small size of the battery means it'll deplete more often than other Kindles. Batteries typically get between 500 and 1000 full charges and this should use those up faster than other Kindles.

When I spoke up about this a number of people disagreed with me. I didn't think much of most of the arguments but there was one argument that I do completely agree with: those who say they like the thing and simply don't care if it lasts a long time. I think that's a perfectly reasonable way to approach it, although it's not my way.

One thing you might do to improve your situation is to keep it in the cover more. Lithium ion batteries tend to do better if they're discharged less, unlike NiMh and Nicad batteries, which like longer periods between charging. The benefits of charging lithium ion batteries more often are small but they are there.

Barry

[Strether]

Originally Posted by Atunah

As someone that has owned and heavily used the Oasis for 1 year now, I see no difference in battery life at all. I look at the Oasis as a package, so I use battery life as a combination of the cover and the device. They cannot really be separated. But I know that my Oasis, out of the cover can last from 5-7 hours reading time. Now this depends on the light, if wifi is on, how strong the signal is and size of font. Mine is on #4 and my light on 10 most of the time.

I am a heavy reader and I have used that thing like crazy. I read outside the cover, but when I take a break of any kind, I put it in. Even just to make tea or coffee gets it a bit of a recharge since it charges pretty fast from the cover.
So mine gets constantly charged and read and charged and read. Lots of use.

I also still charge the whole package at the same rates than 1 year ago. Pretty much like I charged all the newer kindles. 4-5 days average. When one reads a lot, the weeks on charge means nothing really. I say newer kindles because my K1, the first kindle I used to charge almost daily, or every 2 days, because I read a lot. I think part of that was the lack of wifi and having 3G and using 1000's of books on the SD card.

I said this when the Oasis first came out and some folks were critical of the battery system, without actually every having used one. I said then, I'll report back in a year. Well, its a year and I see no degradation in my Oasis battery. If there is any, which is in any battery, it is not noticeable or yet measurable in real life situation. Tells me its not a concern.
I can check in again on that subject in yet another year. I think there will be some that are still not sure then if it would hold up.

My experience is identical to this, and I also am a heavy reader. I charge it about the same as I charged my Voyage.

Jim

[mezzanine]

Originally Posted by Strether

My experience is identical to this, and I also am a heavy reader. I charge it about the same as I charged my Voyage.

Jim

If you get a chance, could you explain how you charge your Oasis as frequently as you did your Voyage, while maintaining the same reading habits?

It's confusing because the Oasis has a much smaller battery than the Voyage and therefore it's hard to understand how you could be re-charging it at the same rate as the Voyage.

[mezzanine]

Originally Posted by knc1

I did not mention anything about the device's design.
Only that the behavior you observed is not that intended.

The production process used is very capable of turning out a bad or broken device.
So I stand by my answer: tell Amazon before your warranty runs out.

I read things that seem strange in your reasoning -

1) Battery run-time under the conditions you describe:

You say it isn't any different than what you have read about the subject.
Yet you did not come to question that affect on the battery life-time until now, when you own one yourself.

How do you know that the battery life-time will be shortened by the behavior you describe?
The devices have not been produced, in-use by owners, and reported on long enough yet for anybody to reach any conclusions.

2) How do you know the device is working normally when you at length describe a device that is not?

= = = =

If you are concerned about the life-time of the battery under the conditions you describe;
that is: Less than the length of time you want to continue using the device - -
Then you really should consider trading it in on another model, one that does not have the battery glued into the device.
Which is any model other than the one you have and a K4.

Another reason to report the behavior to Amazon, claiming you think it is not correct (or at least not as advertised by Amazon) and want to exchange it.
Do it now, while you still have that option.

I appreciate your desire to help, but yes, we're having some communication issues. Point #2 is especially odd.

I have already explained that there is no difference between what I've observed of the battery in my device and those of others. Could you try to explain how you've concluded that I've described, at length, a malfunctioning device?

Regarding point #1, I am extrapolating based on my experience with charging other devices with similar frequency with a similar sized battery. A perfect analogy? No, the Oasis is unique among ereaders. I have yet to read any rebuttal of the logic underlying the analogy.

I don't anticipate any problems or signs of deterioration within a year, so the folks claiming that they haven't noticed any change in the year they've been using their Oasis is no evidence against what I'm concerned about: the longevity in years two and beyond. I should have been more clear that my concern is beyond a year's usage. My mistake there. Doesn't change the underlying point.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by mezzanine

I appreciate your desire to help, but yes, we're having some communication issues. Point #2 is especially odd.

I have already explained that there is no difference between what I've observed of the battery in my device and those of others. Could you try to explain how you've concluded that I've described, at length, a malfunctioning device?

Regarding point #1, I am extrapolating based on my experience with charging other devices with similar frequency with a similar sized battery. A perfect analogy? No, the Oasis is unique among ereaders. I have yet to read any rebuttal of the logic underlying the analogy.

I don't anticipate any problems or signs of deterioration within a year, so the folks claiming that they haven't noticed any change in the year they've been using their Oasis is no evidence against what I'm concerned about: the longevity in years two and beyond.

On point 1, do the other devices operate exactly as the Oasis? If not then you are comparing oranges to Armadillos.
Are you referring to the device or the cover for charging?
Oh and those ads on the battery life are based on 30 minutes of reading a day.
So I don't think you have anything to worry about.
If you are still concerned contact Amazon and return it if it is still under warranty.
With your comments in the OP, I would recommend either a paperwhite or basic kindle.

[mezzanine]

Originally Posted by barryem

I like the design of the Oasis for the most part but I decided not to get one because of my concern for battery longevity. The small size of the battery means it'll deplete more often than other Kindles. Batteries typically get between 500 and 1000 full charges and this should use those up faster than other Kindles.

When I spoke up about this a number of people disagreed with me. I didn't think much of most of the arguments but there was one argument that I do completely agree with: those who say they like the thing and simply don't care if it lasts a long time. I think that's a perfectly reasonable way to approach it, although it's not my way.


Barry

Hi Barry,
I appreciated reading your perspective in the Oasis threads that I researched.

Yes, the logic used by some folks is indeed odd, and is why I decided to create this thread. Again, it's quite possible that I'm wrong on this, but I haven't been satisfied with the reasoning to suggest there's no cause for concern, and I see you haven't been either.

[mezzanine]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

Are you referring to the device or the cover for charging?
Oh and those ads on the battery life are based on 30 minutes of reading a day.
So I don't think you have anything to worry about.
If you are still concerned contact Amazon and return it if it is still under warranty.
With your comments in the OP, I would recommend either a paperwhite or basic kindle.

I am referring to the device itself. I read without the cover.

Perhaps the Oasis is intended only for lighter readers? That would come closest to a reasonable explanation yet. It's strange, though, that such a high-end niche device as the Oasis would be targeted at lighter readers. It's seems self-contradictory to me.

If you're a heavier reader, and you read without the cover, my charging experience is far more similar to a cell phone. Yes, a cell phone will show little change in charge capacity in the first year of use. It's years two and beyond that will be telling.