you can buy very cheap smartphone powerpacks at deal extreme ...

whether its worth the weight is a different question

i usually carry an extra power pack when my cell phone is my sole means of calling in help ... it weights < 1.5 oz .. and cost < 10$

ah. i guess i should have qualified battery life.

my e-reader weighs ~5.5oz and the battery lasts 3 weeks

Edited by er0ck on 11/29/2011 13:22:13 MST.

Regarding the Kindle's claimed month-long battery life...

"No battery anxiety - read for up to one month on a single charge with wireless off and a half hour of reading per day."

Do some basic math from their statement and you end up with 15 hours, give or take. That's only 5 hours more than an iPad.

I totally agree that the smartphone is a more useful device overall.

However, when I'm in the backcountry I like to detach from my LCD-dominated life. E-readers are simple and uncluttered and give a book-like experience at a lower weight.

As e-readers approach magazine weight they will be very tempting for solo trips.

(re-battery life: as an owner of both a Kindle and iPad, there is no comparison in the battery life department. Kindle wins by a long shot)

Edited by tunaboy999 on 11/29/2011 14:02:28 MST.

"As e-readers approach magazine weight they will be very tempting for solo trips."

I thought e-readers already approached magazine weight - or are as light or lighter than magazines. I don't have one and haven't researched them, so I don't know. Are they not there yet?

ah. i guess i should have qualified battery life.

my e-reader weighs ~5.5oz and the battery lasts 3 weeks

What does that mean? There's a big difference between leaving it on the entire time while flipping pages every minute or two or the other 'test' of flipping five pages real quick and then leaving it turned off for the rest of the three weeks. The latter is what I see quoted all too often when the former is really what matters.

Yeah, I suppose they have approached magazine weight but not reached it.

e-readers are in the 6-9 oz range.
magazines are closer to 4 oz.

As soon as you have several magazines on the reader for any (single) multiday backpacking trip, you're going to be way lighter with the e-reader, evewn if you don't find time to read all the magazines.

Eric said:
"two words: battery life
otherwise i'd totally agree with you,and it's a good point.
on trips of two days or less i just bring my cell phone"

I used my Droid X on a 5 month trip this year, and battery life was not an issue. I just carried two spare batteries, made sure all three were charged each time I'd leave a trail town, sit next to a wall plug when eating in a diner, etc --- no problem. No solar charger this trip.

I acknowledge that it depends on a person's backcountry 'style' --- less hiking and more camping would mean more time to sit and use the device and potentially run down the battery(s). But at just over an ounce per battery, not a really big hit there, and again --- I would likely be carrying a cell phone anyway, so ... !

I'm not trying to knock eReaders like the Nook or Kindle; it's just that for me personally a device that's primarily designed to read books isn't the optimal thing to carry on a backpacking trip --- not when I can get a "pretty good" reading experience with a more generally useful device.

I should also acknowledge that I rarely read when backpacking --- do my camp chores and then sleep. So perhaps my comments are out of place for this particular thread ... though I do read a fair bit on my phone in other contexts (in trail towns sometimes, and even at or around home).
In any event, I definitely don't mean to lead the discussion off track or disparage folks who see things differently!

i use mine for trail maps, as well as books.

last winter i was out in the gorge and lost in the snow. the reader saved me (time) as my phone battery had died overnight when i thought i turned it off, but it decided better for me.

"What does that mean? There's a big difference between leaving it on the entire time while flipping pages every minute or two or the other 'test' of flipping five pages real quick and then leaving it turned off for the rest of the three weeks. The latter is what I see quoted all too often when the former is really what matters.

At least with the Kindle, technically it's only "on" when the page is being turned or a file being accessed. There's no display power draw in between.

What sucks power in the Kindle is the wireless. If left on, it will drain the battery in two or three days. FWIW the Kindle can be field-recharged with a Solio unit.

Cheers,

Rick

I like where I see the e-readers heading. In 2-3 years they will likely have all the features I'm interested in and I'll finally invest in one.