I had a late meeting last night, and since it didn’t kick off until almost 7:30pm, my plan was to stop along the way for dinner. As I headed out the door, my choices for dinner reading material were the Camangi Webstation or my Kindle. I grabbed the Camangi, since I am in the middle of a few books on that device and have not yet started any new ones on the Kindle. Now, the Camangi has a rated standby time of 4-5 days, and around 5 hours of use. I hadn’t charged it in a few days. And you see where this is going…

Yep, the Camangi was d-e-a-d when I wanted to sit in a rest stop and read while I ate my crappy fast food dinner. It was my own fault for not thinking about charging, but it’s because I have been trained by my Kindle. Amazon did a great job of making it a frugal battery sipper, and my brain clearly rewired itself to believe all devices I use for ebook reading should be that stellar.

While it’s impossible to comment on devices that aren’t out yet (cough, iPad, cough), this incident does shine a light on one of the benefits of eInk. With a Kindle (or a Sony, or nook, etc), battery life is measured in days and weeks, not hours, as long as you turn off wireless connections. There’s no “Oh crap” moment, like there was for me.

And that’s why ebook readers have been and will continue to be successful. There’s no moment of hesitation, no mental calculations of “Well, I used it last night, and for a while the night before, but maybe it’ll have the juice for tonight too”. eInk just quietly sips the battery, and as long as it hits a charger once every few weeks (instead of every few days), you’re all set. That’s why my Kindle won’t lose a spot in my gear bag so fast. I don’t ever want to be faced with “US Weekly, Seventeen, or the Burger King wrappers” as my reading choices again!

Of course, once the Notion Ink Adam and some of those other multipurpose tablets with power sipping screens hit, all bets are off…