# Kindle Fire Battery Life



## MikeFromMesa (Dec 14, 2011)

I am new to the Fire only having bought and received the Fire as a present for my wife. When it arrived, on the 23rd, I fully charged it and set it up with her books, some games and some side loaded apps. She needed a Russian eBook reader (fb2 format) and I was able to install some from the Android store since they were not available through Amazon.

The point of all of this is that today, 12/28, a little more than 4 days from having fully charged the Fire and having loaded the apps on it, the Fire is still 88% charged. It has been used very little, but our prior eBook reader, the Color Nook, ran down, unused, in about 2 days. I am so surprised by the charge still on the Fire after 4 days of little use that I was left wondering if this is most people's experience or if the one I have is somehow different. While it was not used much (sitting with the screen off, but not powered down, and with the wifi connection active), I am astonished at the battery level on the device.

What are people's battery experience with the Fire. I assume this topic has been done to death on the forum, but I also assumed that most people were complaining about battery life. Perhaps I am wrong, but am interested in knowing what other people's experience have been.

Thanks.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

I use mine quite a lot and probably charge once a day.  It will go faster if you're watching movies than reading a book, it seems. Apps seem to drain it faster, too.  But, yeah, if I charge it and then don't use it, it holds the charge really well.  I don't have to worry about picking it up after two days and finding it dead -- assuming it's been asleep, that is.

That said. . . .my eInk kindles last way longer. . . .


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## mkelley (Dec 24, 2011)

It doesn't surprise me it would hold a charge.  Modern li-on batteries are *really* good at this.  The only thing that would drain it at all would be the wi-fi, and even that is minimal unless there is a lot of activity (with my iPhone 4s, for example, a notoriously battery draining device, as long as I don't enable push notifications leaving wi-fi and even bluetooth on is just fine in terms of battery draining -- it will last a week or more with a decent charge).

Playing movies on any device is a killer, but playing them over wi-fi is the true test as you are not only putting the most extreme demands on your CPU but also your i/o.  Again, from another world but relevant, on my Macbook Air I can kill the battery watching Netflix for even an hour, but doing word processing and other minimal tasks I can get 6-7 hours of usage.

If your Nook was not good at just "sitting around" my hunch is that it has some sort of push notifications (did you do email on it?  Did you have other alerts or something that was always being checked?).  If not that, then there was something wrong with the OS (we know that all Android OS are NOT created equal, so whoever tweaked it may have left some sort of backdoor operating on it).


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## MikeFromMesa (Dec 14, 2011)

> It doesn't surprise me it would hold a charge. Modern li-on batteries are *really* good at this.


My experience with small electronic devices like the Kindle has not been so positive. We have a ton in the house - 2 iPhones, an iPod, an iPad, a Nook Color (original version) and some others. Aside from the iPad none of them hold a charge very well. I turned the wifi off on the Nook Color to try to get the battery to last longer, but it sill is dead, even when unused, after a couple of days. After 3 days it will not even turn on without plugging the power in and waiting 15 minutes. And I have to keep shutting down the apps that run in the background because they seem to keep starting. So I am astonished at the Kindle Fire. Pleased, but astonished.



> Playing movies on any device is a killer, but playing them over wi-fi is the true test as you are not only putting the most extreme demands on your CPU but also your i/o.


This was to be my next test. And, to be honest, I am just very pleased with the device.

I use the iPad as an eBook reader, but it is too large and heavy for my wife (and for me if I am not laying down in bed when reading) for extended reading so I have also been playing around with 3rd party eBook readers (Cool Reader, fb2 Reader, etc) to see how they do. There does not seem to be a doc reader on the device that can handle Cyrillic text so I have been converting the doc files to pdf for her. The Adobe Reader is quite nice, but does not allow bookmarking of locations so she has to start all over every time she loads a pdf file. Seems like someone missed adding that functionality. And it is the same with the readers that handle pdf - cannot seem to add bookmarks.

Still the device is no nicely put together and feels so good when used that I am hard pressed to be really upset about much of anything ...


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## mkelley (Dec 24, 2011)

I'm buying the Fire for my wife for the same reason (my iPad 2 is too heavy for her.  Obviously you can prop up nearly any device on your lap, but she's petite and just manipulating it isn't pleasant for her).  She hates e-Ink (the Kindle Touch I bought for Christmas was a dud) so this hopefully will be the answer.

We'll be using Aldiko as our third party reader (because of collections, but it's also supposed to be a much superior reader than the Kindle app).

As for batteries -- your iPhones (we have three) and iPods *should* last just fine assuming you aren't doing things on them that drain them.  As I said, push notifications (emails, messaging, etc.) can be very draining.  It's also an issue if you leave wi-fi areas, because they continue to search outside.  And IOS5 is much improved (I assume you have it on all your phones) in terms of battery usage.  But look at it this way -- when these devices are shipped and arrive to you (at least Apple devices) they always have a good charge, even if they've been sitting at the store for weeks.  That's because they aren't doing anything (nothing at all because they aren't even activated yet).

If a device does run down it's all up to the OS -- something is wrong, something is turned on you can turn off, etc.  Sounds like the Nook is just written badly, but you ought to be able to set up your iPhones and pod so they last (visit the Apple forums for help on this).


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## MLPMom (Nov 27, 2009)

I have been very impressed with the battery life of my Fire. I always have Wi Fi on and still the battery has been fantastic on it.
My girls watched two movies on it yesterday and played games on it and I did have to charge it but not until the end of the day, at that was with me playing Angry Birds on it for literally an hour.


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## Beatriz (Feb 22, 2011)

MikeFromMesa said:


> I am new to the Fire only having bought and received the Fire as a present for my wife. When it arrived, on the 23rd, I fully charged it and set it up with her books, some games and some side loaded apps. She needed a Russian eBook reader (fb2 format) and I was able to install some from the Android store since they were not available through Amazon.
> 
> The point of all of this is that today, 12/28, a little more than 4 days from having fully charged the Fire and having loaded the apps on it, the Fire is still 88% charged. It has been used very little, but our prior eBook reader, the Color Nook, ran down, unused, in about 2 days. I am so surprised by the charge still on the Fire after 4 days of little use that I was left wondering if this is most people's experience or if the one I have is somehow different. While it was not used much (sitting with the screen off, but not powered down, and with the wifi connection active), I am astonished at the battery level on the device.
> 
> ...


I would charge it once a day to be sure.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

I use the Fire *a lot* for streaming video. And email. And as a result often have to charge it at mid day. If I don't stream video, the Fire easily lasts all day with moderate use. I usually plug it and my iPad (which also sees heavy use all day long) in at night.

With the heavy use I give it, I'm pleased with the battery life. Not like my eInk devices which last at least a week with WiFi on...but I don't expect it to last like those, a lot more demand on the battery.

Betsy


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## MikeFromMesa (Dec 14, 2011)

mkelley



> But look at it this way -- when these devices are shipped and arrive to you (at least Apple devices) they always have a good charge, even if they've been sitting at the store for weeks. That's because they aren't doing anything (nothing at all because they aren't even activated yet).


When you first receive them they are powered completely off have to be booted up to start. They are not using any power at all and the only power loss would be due to battery leakage. But when I am using these devices at home I do not power them off. They are still running and power is still being used.



> If a device does run down it's all up to the OS -- something is wrong, something is turned on you can turn off, etc. Sounds like the Nook is just written badly, but you ought to be able to set up your iPhones and pod so they last (visit the Apple forums for help on this).


Or perhaps the OS version I have on it.


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## MikeFromMesa (Dec 14, 2011)

Beatriz



> I would charge it once a day to be sure.


I do not know for certain, but it is my understanding that this is not a good thing to do. I have seen written information that says that you should not recharge these kind of devices until they are low in power and then you should completely recharge them. This is supposed to be due to something called "battery memory" although, as I said, I don't know if what I read is correct or not. One of my re-chargers actually goes through the process of completely discharging the batteries before recharging them. And some suppliers say their batteries do not have "memory".

It seems to me that considering how many devices now use rechargeable batteries there ought to be some complete and accurate information available.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

My understanding that lithium batteries are not supposed to suffer from the memory effects...that being said, if I've been using the device during the day, it is sufficiently discharged by the end of the day that I'm not worried about charging it over night.

Here's a discussion on Amazon's forums about the battery with some links to other information about batteries.

Betsy


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## mkelley (Dec 24, 2011)

Right -- Li ion batteries don't have a memory problem.  Nor can they be overcharged.

Compared to ni-cad they are amazing, both much lighter in weight and able to be charged up to 1,000 times before they start losing the ability to hold a major charge (they should hold at least 80% of their charge throughout that lifetime).  Ni-cads would, at the most, be good for 200-300 cycles.

About the only thing you need to do with li-ion batteries is to perform a deep discharge/recharge about once a month.  Not critical, but it will allow them to maintain a better performance over their lifetime.

(And the next generation of battery technology promises to be even more amazing -- within five years we'll have batteries that are as good again to the li-ion as they are to the ni-cads, charging them once a month for power hungry devices like the Fire, and literally lasting a lifetime.  Apple has already filed for three or four patents relating to this, so look to see them appear there first).


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## geniebeanie (Apr 23, 2009)

I have been charging my kindle fire every night while I am sleeping.


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## ireadbooks (Jan 11, 2011)

I thought my Fire wasn't holding a charge well, but after reading these responses I suppose it's average.

This is my first tablet so maybe I didn't know what to expect. I have to charge mine every day, but I am _constantly_ using apps, even at work. Angry Birds, Scrabble, and Fruit Ninja are in rotation with Pandora or Tune In streaming in the background.

Sometimes I even surf on Kimbella, even though I'm sitting right in front of my laptop. I can't help it, it's so much more fun 

Now that I read back over this, I guess the charge is pretty good


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

FWIW, I was reading yesterday and got to the end of a book.  I'd already gotten the "danger Will Robinson" warning that it was down to 15%.  I put it to charge at about 11% or 12% and it was ready to go in about 2½ hours.  Back up to 100%.


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## Tiffany01 (Dec 29, 2011)

Do you guys wait till your kindle is com. dead to charge it?


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Tiffany01 said:


> Do you guys wait till your kindle is com. dead to charge it?


Tiffany--

welcome to KindleBoards! Looks like you've got lots of questions, LOL!

We encourage you to take at least a quick looks at the existing topics to see if there might be one that answers your question. In this case, I'm going to merge your question with our existing battery life questin, also on the front page of the Fire Talk board. Read through, it should answer your questions...

Betsy


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## fuschiahedgehog (Feb 23, 2010)

My boys charge theirs each night when they go to bed.  So far, neither one has run out of battery power during the day, and they've been doing lots of streaming video and games (along with the Mom-mandated hour of 'real' reading each day  )


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## dori chatelain (Dec 31, 2011)

Amazon says "Up to 8 hours of continuous reading or 7.5 hours of video playback, with wireless off. Battery life will vary based on wireless usage, such as web browsing and downloading content."

I find that my fire battery lives through the day and at night I have to charge it... If my daughter and I both play games on it all day then we have to charge it in the evening. but I don't mind because I get my enjoyment with using it. I do use the wifi alot and was videos and play games so that will eat up more battery than just reading.


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## Meemo (Oct 27, 2008)

Helpful hints on ways to increase the Fire's battery life. Some, like wifi, are obvious. Some, not so much.

http://howto.cnet.com/8301-11310_39-57341857-285/five-ways-to-increase-your-kindle-fires-battery-life/


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

MK,

many of our members have found this app useful to monitor and manage batteries:


Betsy


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