One of my disappointments with the nook initially was the battery life. I bought it hoping it would really get 10 days of typical use in spite of the pretty color screen. I understood that mean turning off the wireless features, and of course set all my brightness settings, etc. down to the minimum. With a new device it is always hard to gauge battery life. Let's face it, you are showing it off, playing with it every spare moment, and generally using it more the first few weeks than you'll ever use it (that period lasted months with my iPhone). Prior to 1.2 I would run down my nook in 4-5 days with all the "best practices" to conserve battery power.  I'd read 1-2 hours a day with it.

I charged my battery fully last Friday after upgrading to the new 1.2 firmware.  I've had wireless on several times to get books, etc but generally had it off unless I needed it.  I kept my usage pretty level this week, but maybe did show off the new software several times which involved a little extra LCD usage.  As of today I'm at about 15% and need to charge (well, I'm doing it as we speak).  I got seven days of use on a single charge which is a big improvement over the 1.1 software release - for me.

Am I happy? Well, I'm not unhappy!  I still think my daily use is pretty typical and I'm doing my best to conserve. I'd like to see something closer to the ten advertised days - but to be fair to B&N, I don't know what they consider "typical usage".  B&N has proven their ability to improve the device and get pretty reasonable battery performance - that's a plus for nook users.

What's your experience with 1.2 battery life?

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0 #8 2010-02-16 13:36

Yes, I'm on 1.2, but to be perfectly honest, I guess I hadn't used it enough since updating to 1.2 to get a firm idea of how it would effect the battery issues. After using it for the last few days, I'm happy to report that you're right: the battery does seem to be lasting much longer. I don't know that I've gotten the full 10 days out of it that were promised, but it's much more reasonable now.

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+1 #7 Ktrek 2010-02-15 15:35

These types of battery have a learning curve and so battery life should be expected to improve with each charge until you reach its optimal potential. My battery when I first got the unit in December was lasting me about 6 or 7 days with daily use. I now get 8 or 9 days with daily use. So, I'm not complaining. Besides it's not like they have made it all that difficult to charge the unit. If I had to plug it in every few days I would still be fine with it because the nook does what it was designed to do and that is...read books!

Kevin

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0 #6 admin 2010-02-13 11:03

Jason, are you on the 1.2 firmware? There is a battery life fix in it so prior to a week ago your results are normal. My wife has had hers for a week and is still at 40% but she only uses it for 30 min a day this week (busy)

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0 #5 2010-02-12 19:02

I've been very disappoint with the battery life so far. I've had a busy January and February, so I haven't been able to read as much as I'd like. Consequently, my nook might go a couple of days without any use. Yet, I still can't get more than seven days or so out of the battery. (I always have wireless turned off.) If I read every day (I usually read exclusively before bed), I'll need a recharge after 4 or 5 days. Not good at all.

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0 #4 2010-02-12 12:09

Hmm - shrinking the font size isn't an option I had considered. The book I'm reading now is in PDF format, so when I tried getting it any smaller then Medium, it was way too small to read. I may try that for some other books though.

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0 #3 admin 2010-02-12 11:59

Nick you should shrink your font size

Good idea, but I'd be surprised if the screen changed 2x the equation that much. If you just got the nook wait until you have done a couple full charges.

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0 #2 NookOTime 2010-02-12 10:31

That would be an interesting test Mark. Using the screen to turn pages for a charge cycle vs. hardware buttons to turn pages for a charge cycle.

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0 #1 2010-02-12 10:05

I wonder how fast B&N expects you to read on it. I'm turning pages about every 15-20 seconds. Page turns are the only time the eInk display draws power. I've only had my nook for a couple of days, but I'm surprised at how quickly the battery gauge is going down (airplane mode on)

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