Boox Note Air 3 C Pt 3: Battery Life

One of the key questions About the Note Air 3 C is around battery life. Some folks think it's great and others beleive that it's subpar. Strangely, both can be right and in this video I show how. Ultimately, my goal is to give you enough information to have a sense of what the battery life might be like for you given your own use case for the device.
0:00 Differing Opinions
0:52 Key Details of My Measurements
4:08 The Results
9:52 Examples of What the Results Mean
13:10 Other Battery Observations
14:57 My Overall Thoughts
Stand-by battery drain is TBD and I will insert that here over the next few days.
Update #:1 first measurement indicates 3% battery drain over a day. Working on calibrating that with a second measurement.
Update #2: It looks like the drain is actually a little bit over 3% per day. I estimate that if you charged the device and left it on stand-by, it would last almost 4 weeks.

[@KitBetts-Masters]

This is a really great way to break down the battery draw, excellent work. I wonder if leaving certain apps open in yhe recents tray has any affect on battery drain. (Also, would you be up to join me on a live stream at some point?)

[@jeffreymoss]

That's an interesting question regarding apps that remain open in the background and battery draw. I'd have to think about that. For sure if the apps are gathering notifications, that will impact wifi and create battery drain. But if they aren't pinging, I wonder. And yes, I'd be happy to do a live stream at some point.

[@zzh910]

Thank you Jeff for your very detailed and thorough experiments and discussion!

[@omarvillasana]

Thanks Jeffrey, very useful information, appreciate the effort you put in your tests and videos.

[@mariabenito1284]

This video is very helpful! Thank you so much for your work Jeffrey

[@Trust-Crow]

looking forward to seeing the standby drain. These tests are reassuring my use case is mostly notetaking, reading and planning in semi well lit environments. only using wifi here and there to sync my notes to my other devices, so I doubt I will have any issue with battery life.

[@TheDrnknmnky]

this battery analysis was just amazing thx a lot you helped me making my decision, just bought the 3c!

[@davidr1431]

How have you found the device in practice? Battery life? Screen darkness?

[@jihadalsweed]

also how good the battery is based on how e-ink screen devices perceived. people still expect that old kindle performance where it could last months without a single charge.

[@Mark-bf3ws]

My Supernote A5x legit lasts a week with daily use. Note taking, PDF annotating and syncing with Google Drive. Has the same size battery as the AC3. I want to like the Air 3c, but I don't want another device I need to charge daily.

[@georgeniculescu]

@@Mark-bf3ws i've used my 3c for over 2h today and it still has 78% with a total combined use of 13h. i think the battery is good enough

[@sergiow2131]

Just met the channel. Very clear and objective. Thanks

[@zentiremusic123]

very valuable information. Thx for your work!

[@mscargill1]

Very helpful review! Thank you!

[@drudoni]

Well done. Mine arrives tomorrow with the knowledge and expectation that the battery life will be less than hoped. Like you though, I have tendency to charge my devices overnight. I have no problem trading battery life for weight.

[@jeffreymoss]

Thank you very much!

[@ewritable]

Really appreciate you doing these battery tests, Jeff - very interesting. My experience was that you get a little over a day out of it for general usage and so requires a recharge daily but this was not as scientific as your tests and anecdotal to my own specific usage.

[@jeffreymoss]

I am super happy about how this turned out. I'm hoping to take a similar approach on future devices. It allows the viewer to basically pick from a menu the things they will be using the device for and then figuring for themselves how the battery will perform. I think that personalization is needed, because the battery drain will be directly linked to use cases, so it will vary from person to person.

[@romansozinov]

Great job! Thank you!

[@1233312zxc]

great thanks for the imformation I might decide to have note air 3 c after your video relief most of my concernings msg from taiwan

[@bellissimo4520]

With an older reader von Buoye, the Mars T-80 Likebook, I experienced some high battery drain on standby - until I installed the "Greenify" app. It depends a lot on the device, but I have had also some phones where Greenify really helped reduce the standby power drain.

[@jeffreymoss]

Thanks for sharing. I'll have to check that out.

[@amrragaie7782]

Thanks for the great effort. Question for standby data you mentioned above, can you elaborate on settings? Like is WiFi on and is BT on?

[@jeffreymoss]

Yes, wifi is on but bluetooth is off in my measurements.

[@johnmanley4528]

Thanks for covering this topic as this seems to be the one knock against that device. Looks like it’s not such a big knock.

[@t0dd000]

Very interesting. Yeah. For me, sure, I'd love something that I could go on a trip with and not have to think about bringing a charging cable. I don't worry about bringing my watch charger, for example, because I knew I have about 10 days. I guess the fact that it is USB-C makes this short of a moot point since I need a charger for my laptop and my phone. Anyway. My point: the battery life is at least an all day battery unless you are doing weird things with it, and that seems good enough for me.

[@Werionae]

Thank you for your deep battery review. I would like to ask why do you think standby mode of the NAC3 will be between TUC and TMC, I am assuming that NAC3 will be worse because the battery (3700mAh) is noticeably smaller compare to batteries in TUC (6300mAh) and TMC (5000mAh).

[@jeffreymoss]

Yeah, I just threw that out there because those were two devices with a GPU that I had measured previously. So that's why I considered them comps. I think the Ultra C was a particular stretch given how large the battery is. So that was a swing and a miss on my part. However, as it turns out, the 3C and the TMC actually have very similar battery life, including with standby. The TMC is slightly better, at about 3% per day when I ended up clocking the 3C at 3.4% per day. So I guess I kind of lucked out on that one.

[@georgeniculescu]

@@jeffreymoss it's an older SOC on TUC, makes sense

[@jimmcdonald2148]

Thanks Jeff, considered and balanced as always 👍 So you're slow charging at 3-5W. It would be useful to see what time a full 15W from a wall wart yields, 3-4 times faster (ish).

[@jeffreymoss]

I will take a look at that.

[@karlgozo]

Agree... If it charges in 2-3hrs it would be good.

[@georgeniculescu]

I'm using a PD charger, and it charges from empty in about 1.5h

[@torleifaskedal9205]

Thank you for this important battery test! I saw that you got the snapdragon 2,4 Ghz and Kit got the 2,8 Ghz. Will the processor make any difference on the battery. Very strange btw, that they ship with different processors!

[@wernerarts]

None of the analysis programs recognize the SOC correctly - it is an SM6225

[@jeffreymoss]

I'm not sure the processor itself is an issue, but it is speculated that the GPU results in battery drain. I can't say for sure that's true, but it feels like that might be the case.

[@thelibra101219]

Hi, could you please let me know what refresh mode you used while reading?

[@jeffreymoss]

While reading on Kobo, I have it on Balanced mode.

[@arilublin]

Hi Jeff! Do you know if there is any saver battery mode on this tab?

[@jeffreymoss]

It has the standard auto sleep and power-off toggles plus a few other switches to help manage the battery. If you go into power-off mode, the battery will be pretty much preserved, but the trade-off is that it takes a bit over 30 seconds to boot up.

[@tkhan0827]

Can you help me anyone in this thread. I just got a note air 3c. Just found it comes with only USB and no charger block. There is no accessories on boox site. What charger do I need to purchase. I read it needs a 5v 2a or 2.4a. Any help would be great!

[@jeffreymoss]

That particular question is outside my expertise so I will defer to others on it. However, I do recommend charging via a computer's USB port overnight. It gives a nice, slow charge that doesn't wear on the battery and when you wake up in the morning your device is fully charged. I've done that with my devices and it's worked out great. I know other people prefer a faster charge though, so hopefully someone can help you there.

[@HealthyLiv1ng]

I wonder how much battery life you get per charge if you keep bluetooth, wifi, and the front/back light off putting the apps aside since they vary?

[@jeffreymoss]

Do you mean, just using the native apps on the device like the reader or notetaker? Unfortunately, that will also vary based on how the device is used, so the impact is harder to measure. The notetaking was an example of that, which showed a lot of drain, but that was with continuous writing which is not common.

[@HealthyLiv1ng]

@@jeffreymossI would only use it with neoreader for PDF's, kindle, google apps like Drive, docs, and sheets

[@krzysmis2366]

My thinking is this ... ok its nice to have color and refresh rate plus resolution ... o ompare note air 2 pro with it of coourse pro do not have them :/ byt Ive bought pro because of battery while I mostly read books and the rest functionality is just an addition. Ok so I do not need color or refhrest etc and 3c would give me the same on those specs ...right but I was thinking about upgrade and I do not want to get those new features at expense of battery ... boox note 2 air pro battery for my usage is from 2 weeks up to 2 months (If I use it just one time per day just to make some notes or read some things there etc) so For my case I prefer not tho remeber if I have charged this device ... If I would want to have high refresh and colors etc with low battery time in comparition to air 2 pro I would choose tablet. I think that with technology there should be closly marching power sustainability (batery times) and now they dint provided it. But Its not their fault because power technology is artificialy slowed/not developed and thats a shame.

[@designanthology12]

Wow front light really takes a big hit.. I wonder how many leds the unit has

[@jeffreymoss]

I can't find the answer to that, but historically, I believe past devices have had 36. Having said that, I'm trying to find that information and I can't seem to place it, so I'm questioning myself on this one. My memory might be playing tricks with me here.

[@jessicaleblanc1417]

I just received my NA3C. It was at 93% when I read a chapter in a book via kindle app. Went to bed with it in standby mode and when I woke up the next morning, the battery was completely drained. I never closed the kindle app and am using an aftermarket case. Any idea what potentially happened?

[@jeffreymoss]

Wow, that's a lot of drain. I'd try a few things. First, is wifi on? That could be a factor. Another thing to try is to reboot the device. Every once in a while I experience sudden drain myself, so it does happen, but it's not the norm.

[@jessicaleblanc1417]

@@jeffreymoss thanks. WiFi was on and I had it to power down after a day. I was worried that it actually didn’t go into standby mode with the case and stayed awake in the kindle app. I’m going to mess with it some today and see if I can replicate it. I really like it, so hopefully I can figure this out.

[@Cons2911]

Just saw note 3 online..is that an old model..not air, just note 3..without c also

[@jeffreymoss]

Yeah that Note 3 is an older model.

[@user-li1mj1jx2j]

Do you think reading in dark/night mode on Koreader would increase or decrease battery drain?

[@jeffreymoss]

I would think it would depend more on the frequency of the screen refreshes vs a light or dark background, but to be honest I never tested an app with both to compare battery drain.

[@nosurname9652]

For my type of usage i can hope on 12-15 hours. Too low result for e-reader if honestly.

[@darkstar223]

It seem very inefficient…is that due to laziness of development ?

[@jeffreymoss]

Hard to say, but I tend to see consistent battery results across manufacturers that suggest the underlying tech is a bit piece of the puzzle.

[@Mawa991]

I thought the whole point of the E-Ink tech was to increase battery life. What is the advantage of this tablet over a "real" tablet now? 12 hours means you have to recharge daily which means this isn't at all like a classical book or a magazine or a notebook you take with you. For me, the whole point of the E-Ink was to have all my books and a notebooks without having to carry any books or notebooks. With the air 2 I can easily get through a week without recharging once. 12 hours battery life, for me, is not acceptable and honestly makes the whole E-Ink tech kind of pointless to me.

[@jeffreymoss]

That's a valid criticism of the device, but it does depend on how it's used. I'm finding myself charging about once every week or two, but then again, in my case I'm not using it as a daily driver. There are still advantages of Eink screens vs. LCD screens outside of battery life. For example, I can't stand to read a book on an LCD screen, but enjoy Eink for that purpose. But battery life has historically been a selling point of Eink devices which is certainly less true in this case.

[@Mawa991]

​@@jeffreymoss I understand that some people prefer E-Ink for reading. However, this is the Note Air COLOR. How many books do you read which feature colours? Reading is worse on this device due to the darker white value. I dont want to be controversial but this device is a symbol of an upcoming identity crisis we had many times with EInk. What does it want to be? If you want to read - take the Note Air 2 its objectively better for reading. If you want vibrant colours and speed, buy an Ipad. If you want a device for note taking, you should probably look at the smaller BOOX devices, supernote or Remarkable. The only real application seems to be for reading coloured PDFs. That niche doesnt seem to justify a 500£ device. Also, if thats the primary application, why waste the battery life on fast refresh technology?

[@yensteel]

E-ink has many benefits, but they’re not suited for everyday computing but fill some niches well. It’s absolutely advantageous for reading, where refresh rate is not important. It is more readable under the sun although RLCD is showing some promise. For devices, it is beneficial to reduce eye strain as well. They’re slowly adopted for public use, such as bus stop arrival signs and price labels in supermarkets. Traffic signs in Sydney, Australia use them as well. The biggest concern consumers find is the price vs the features. But it could be a plus in its own way.. it’s a strange concept but it is true for many. They remove a lot of distractions. Because KZbin and games are harder to use, people simply won’t use e-ink devices like that. The general public views technology solely on features and functionality so many find it hard to think about e-ink in this way.

[@AmarjeetAnandsingh]

This is nuts. Am damn sure that even boxx quality check team has not done this much detailed and organised testing. 😅 Thank you for your efforts. Hat’s off🫡