Nexus 7 vs Kindle Fire HD - battery life

[slackerinabox]

I have a lot of reading to catch up on and my nexus 7 has proven a mediocre ereader due to battery life. I'd expect a week of standby based on 1 hours a night reading but I'm getting maybe 2 days. Maybe I'm doing something wrong but I've uninstall any apps and running completely stock, so I'm just moving on because i don't have time to be Detective Troubleshooter.. My iPad 4 works fine (1 hours a night, over a week standby), but is stupidly expensive and I wouldn't want to fall asleep with it or ride the train (commuting with it to work would make standby important as well).

Anyways, I've consider the kindle fire HD (prime member, lots of cool content) but wondered if I'll get that one week standby goal. A kindle paperwhite seems like the best battery life solution, but should I be considering the fire hd 7? I know reviewers are getting much better battery life on the nexus 7 than I am (continuous is fine, standby miserable), so google's not that helpful.

**UPDATE**
Just got the kindle paperwhite and love the darn thing - perfect size, easy to read in any lighting situation (even outdoors - no glare!), seems to have great battery life so far and it's so much lighter than my nexus 7 (which is light but a little off balance/top heavy which makes for awkward reading ergonomics). The best part is that it's pretty distraction free-I stay on task because there are no email or facebook notifications bugging me. LOVE IT! Thanks for the recommendation.

 

[richierich1212]

The Kindle Fire HD's standby is pretty darn good, much better than what you're getting with the Nexus 7.

 

[lopri]

Something is not right there. My previous Wi-Fi only N7 had an amazing battery life. It took 10+ hours of standby (very very few activities) to drain 1%.

 

[lopri]

But of course nothing beats Kindle's battery life. (Not Fire, the ones w/ e-ink) I loved my original Kindle until it died on me. If your purpose is reading, then go with one of those since you already have an iPad for activities other than reading.

 

[Mopetar]

Sounds like something is wrong. You should be getting much better battery life than that. Is there some process running in the background or otherwise chewing up battery life?

 

[Tom]

our Kindle Fire HD was on standby for a couple of weeks and still had a lot of charge, although I don't remember the % my recollection is it didn't lose much.

btw, it also has a fantastic screen, better than a N7, and speakers that might be the best of any tablet.

 

[Deeko]

Yes, as has been said, the standby time on the Kindle Fire is pretty impressive. As an e-reader, something you may not remember to pick up and charge every day, I would definitely go with the Fire for that reason. I had ICS installed on my KF and went back to stock because the lack of standby was killing me.

 

[Midwayman]

I throw my kindle fire hd on the charger maybe every 3-4 days. Thats with an hour or two of reading and or video every night. Its not dead at that point by any means either, but below half.

 

[slackerinabox]

Awesome - thanks guys. Kindle Fire HD seems to be the pick, though the paperwhite's still in the running (previous poster's right in that I already do have enough tablets lying around and 8 weeks of standby seems pretty awesome if I want to just stash it in my bag.

As for my N7, I've tried everything - I basically just use it as an ereader and web browser (I prefer my iPad for most everything else) so have deleted every non essential app, tried juice defender, got rid of any apps that push notifications, etc. and I've seen an improvement but week long just seem unattainable. Charging also takes quite a while. I've heard of improvements in the latest release (4.2.2?), but last time I tried to force the upgrade it didn't show up, I'll continue to give that a try.

 

[Deeko]

Yea, if your primary purpose here is reading books, the paperwhite is definitely the choice. The battery life is amazing - I think I've charged mine once since I got it in November, and the screen is WAY better for reading than a tablet.

 

[slackerinabox]

Yea, if your primary purpose here is reading books, the paperwhite is definitely the choice. The battery life is amazing - I think I've charged mine once since I got it in November, and the screen is WAY better for reading than a tablet.

Charged once since November? Shit, I'm sold - paperwhite it is!

 

[Midwayman]

Charged once since November? Shit, I'm sold - paperwhite it is!

Yah, e-ink readers you can read several books between charges. Plus you can get them cheap enough you don't have to worry a whole lot about having it stolen from a bag if you take it to the pool, beach, etc.

 

[slackerinabox]

**UPDATE**
Just got the kindle paperwhite and love the darn thing - perfect size, easy to read in any lighting situation (even outdoors - no glare!), seems to have great battery life so far and it's so much lighter than my nexus 7 (which is light but a little off balance/top heavy which makes for awkward reading ergonomics). The best part is that it's pretty distraction free-I stay on task because there are no email or facebook notifications bugging me. LOVE IT! Thanks for the recommendation.