Kobo Aura One Long-Term Review

[MGlitch]

Originally Posted by MariusMasalar

Not quite—I find it most comfortable by far for reading in bed, specifically because I don't have to hold it at all.

I just lie down and it stays propped up perfectly in the Origami cover, regardless of which way around I have it.

So really it's the cover not the device.

[MariusMasalar]

Yup, pretty much.

[rstrube]

I loved the review! I thought it was balanced and presented an excellent overview of the Aura One. I also loved the overall aesthetics of the review (the design, images, colors, etc.). You're very talented at created high quality content. Keep up the good work!

As a side note, I haven't noticed the fatigue you experienced holding the Aura One. I typically read by propping up the reader on my chest, and I find it very light and easy to hold. I can understand if you read by holding it over your head that it might start to get tiring.

[MariusMasalar]

Originally Posted by rstrube

I loved the review! I thought it was balanced and presented an excellent overview of the Aura One. I also loved the overall aesthetics of the review (the design, images, colors, etc.). You're very talented at created high quality content. Keep up the good work!

As a side note, I haven't noticed the fatigue you experienced holding the Aura One. I typically read by propping up the reader on my chest, and I find it very light and easy to hold. I can understand if you read by holding it over your head that it might start to get tiring.

Thank you for the kind words! I'm very glad you enjoyed the review.

The fatigue is a generalization based on usage in a variety of contexts, not just the one in the photo that everyone seems to be getting hung up on. And it's "tiring" in the most first-world-problems sort of way. Only meaningful in comparison to other e-readers I've used, not actually tiring. I guess that didn't come across though.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by MariusMasalar

Thank you for the kind words! I'm very glad you enjoyed the review.

The fatigue is a generalization based on usage in a variety of contexts, not just the one in the photo that everyone seems to be getting hung up on. And it's "tiring" in the most first-world-problems sort of way. Only meaningful in comparison to other e-readers I've used, not actually tiring. I guess that didn't come across though.

I see you have discovered that we all critiqued your review.

[MariusMasalar]

Indeed you did! That's why it's posted here Helps make the next one better.

[filmo]

Originally Posted by MariusMasalar

Indeed you did! That's why it's posted here Helps make the next one better.

Great attitude.

[jscris]

I have the Voyage and Aura One and think the review is very good. I don't experience any fatigue because I always prop the reader either on my desk on on a pillow when reading on my side in bed. I do like less page turns, think the comfort light may not have been quite ready for release. Thanks for your work on the review.

[slayda]

I actually find the Aura One quite light compared to what I was reading on, My iPad Air 2. And it is also much lighter than a hard back paper book, that with age will yellow so that the pages have non-uniform background - which is not even backlit.

I had gotten tired of reading on the too small 6" screens even though I liked e-ink displays. The eyes have had it, at least mine have so I need larger font, and more size on the screen is greatly appreciated. That's why I was using my iPad to read on. So thanks for the review which was very thorough but biased by younger, better eyes than mine.


P.S. in addition to my iPad, I have an EZ Reader, Kindle 1, Nook, Bookine, iPhone 6S+, and have had the original Sony reader & a Kindle Voyage (which I returned for refund due to small screen size but still would not fit into my shirt pocket). The Aura One won't fit in my shirt pocket either but it has a larger screen. And my ideal reader would be one that could fit in my pocket, was unbreakable, water & dust proof, read any format & project directly into my brain - bypassing my bad eyes. Not an audio book since my ears are worse than my eyes.

I quit reading paper because I can't increase the font size.

[howyoudoin]

Originally Posted by slayda

I quit reading paper because I can't increase the font size.

Sure, you can. It's called a magnifying glass and people have been using those for ages

[radius]

Count me as someone who liked the review and thought it was even handed.

I even read in bed with the reader held above me so the Aura One would definitely feel heavy. I even find a Kindle PW2 heavy to read that way and would prefer my Sony T3 if it wasn't for the frontlight of the Kindle.

One area I wish you had gone into more detail is the font rendering. I consider this very important for reader devices and have never understood why lots of Mobilereaders (and you) think this is an advantage for Kobo. When I read books that have embedded fonts, I find that the Kindle renders them too thin in lots of places so I have to use a large font size to make the publisher's font comfortable to read. But fonts that work well on Kindle usually look cleaner and better formed to me.

On Kobo, it is true that you can adjust the weight, but the letter forms also are often not that pleasing. For publisher fonts I found that often one or two letters in the alphabet would render thicker than the others so a page would be peppered with little dark spots. And Kobo's antialiasing seems to tend towards the dark as well; the opposite problem of the Kindle. So the insides of round letters like o or g tend to get a little squared off and delicate fonts tend to look greyed out rather than thin and elegant. Maybe this would look better with more dpi to work with; I don't know and I would have liked to find out.

[howyoudoin]

Originally Posted by radius

One area I wish you had gone into more detail is the font rendering. I consider this very important for reader devices and have never understood why lots of Mobilereaders (and you) think this is an advantage for Kobo.

Lots of Mobilereaders think it is an advantage for kobo because the kobo offers more choice to suit any taste which Amazon doesn't. It's well and good if one likes Amazon's offered choices, but if one doesn't then tough luck. Thin fonts on the kobo can also be fixed at the same font size instead of blowing them up as on the kindle, the latter being such a kludgy solution to a problem that wouldn't exist to begin with if Amazon believed in offering basic font freedom.

[Odyssee]

Great review! Thanks

[chrisridd]

Originally Posted by MariusMasalar

Yup, pretty much.

Are you getting the Kobo cover then? It sounds like it would make the review more like-for-like.

[radius]

Originally Posted by howyoudoin

Lots of Mobilereaders think it is an advantage for kobo because the kobo offers more choice to suit any taste which Amazon doesn't. It's well and good if one likes Amazon's offered choices, but if one doesn't then tough luck. Thin fonts on the kobo can also be fixed at the same font size instead of blowing them up as on the kindle, the latter being such a kludgy solution to a problem that wouldn't exist to begin with if Amazon believed in offering basic font freedom.

I see what you are saying, but for me this is tempered by the fact that Amazon gives you better fonts out of the box and they render more attractively at the default settings. I like both Bookerly and Palatino as default choices. For Kobo, maybe Amasis comes closest to acceptable for me, but none of the choices are all that good looking (which is weird because I think Amasis looks great on a Sony). I don't know what Kobo were thinking with Nickel.

Then again, I am the kind of person who embeds fonts so that I get a look that matches the subject matter better and so I don't have every book with the same "feel"

In any case, like I said, I've never seen a high DPI Kobo so maybe these are corrected or mitigated on a good screen.