An investigation by James Kendrick of ZDNET has revealed an unlikely culprit for his decreased battery life: the Amazon Kindle app. Kendrick claims that his devices have been using a lot more energy since he started using the app.
Check battery usage in the settings menu
Apple users can look at how their battery is being used by entering the settings menu, and Kendrick found that the Kindle app was using a greater percentage of his battery than any other app, and sometimes by a long way. Although he spends less time reading books on Kindle than using other apps such as Safari and Evernote, the e-book reader eats up battery life.
Even games such as Halo: Spartan Strike on the iPad Air 2 use less battery than the Kindle app, and games are known to be heavy users of battery due to the intense use of the screen. The strange thing about the Amazon Kindle app is that it seems to use a lot of charge even when the user is not actively reading a book.
Updated Amazon Kindle app now uses more battery?
Kendrick investigated the version history of the Kindle app and found that a minor update, version 4.8.1, was introduced on April 15. According to the write-up, the update made “performance and stability improvements,” but it appears that better performance comes at the expense of decreased battery life.
Although there is no information online which suggests that the issue is widespread, Kendrick is fairly certain that the updated Kindle app is responsible for the onset of his battery issues. If you have noticed a sudden decrease in battery life on your iPhone or iPad, check your battery usage to see whether Kindle has started using far more battery than before.
The Amazon support forums have not had a flurry of complaints about Kindle affecting battery life this time around, but previous updates have been criticized on that count. The company has yet to comment, but it could face a customer backlash should the latest update be found to be eating precious battery life.
