Aura NEW Kobo Aura Impressions Thread!

[speedtouch]

I got a new Aura today! Sadly, it has the scratch lines at the top of the screen. Bummer. But, no pinholes as far as I can tell. I'm going to use it for a while and see if I like it---and if I can get over the scratches at the top.

But man, it is fast compared to my PocketBook 301+!

[Canuck_in_Japan]

Originally Posted by speedtouch

I got a new Aura today! Sadly, it has the scratch lines at the top of the screen. Bummer. But, no pinholes as far as I can tell. I'm going to use it for a while and see if I like it---and if I can get over the scratches at the top.

But man, it is fast compared to my PocketBook 301+!

If you hold it in a normal reading position then you shouldn't even see them. The only time I noticed them was when I took it out of the box and I haven't seen them since. I'm really enjoying the new reader so far, especially now that I've gotten Pocket on it. I really appreciate the capacitive screen tech. Before, selecting endnotes was a game in and of itself but now I never have a problem with it.
I'll update again once I've tried some more books, especially those with pictures. I do wish Kobo had a better dictionary.

[Antioch]

Now that it's on sale in Japan, I went to a local store to check out a demo unit. On it's own, it's not a bad device and I was about to buy it - but then I looked at the Glo next to it and all of it's flaws became glaring.

Like Canuck says, I don't think the "scratches" from the screen are an issue in normal usage (I couldn't see them at all in the highly illuminated store). What did kill it for me was the lower screen/ink contrast (as compared to the glo and new paperwhite) as well as the uneven backlighting (The top 1/3 of the display is a warm yellow, and the bottom 2/3 is the standard white/cool blue).

I also didn't experience any real issue with glare from the plastic screen on top. The glare was almost the same as that from the glo and paperwhite. Also, for those curious, the pink case is smooth and has no texture (it's quite slippery) whereas the black has texture and felt relatively grippy.

Compared to the glo on display next to the aura it was pretty obvious that Kobo somehow took a step back in their application of eInk screens. I was a bit disappointed. If they simply took the glo, made it a bit thinner and shaved the bezel down it would be perfect. I suppose I'll wait to upgrade my original Nook STR until the Aura 2 comes out.

[Canuck_in_Japan]

Perhaps that was a bad unit? I haven't noticed any uneven lighting with mine nor poor readability.

[Icedlink]

Hi Im new to this forum.
and just recently purchased an Aura from Japan,
got pocket up and running with a quick text edit.
and running the latest 3.1.1

Just wondering if anyone has issues with certain PDF files.
I notice on some files after opening them they are at a default zoom
i can't seem to zoom out or pan, the page is loaded in a zoom state.

if the pdf has table of contents opening it and then choosing any chapter fixes the issue, temporarily.
But for pdf with no TOC, I can't find any fix to it.

any one knows if theres a solution to this ?

Thanks

[user38]

I bought an Aura two days ago in Australia. The retailer (JB Hi FI) had advertised it on their website but the product was so new the store hadn't even put them on display.

They only had pink and there were no covers available.

The software version is 3.1.1. There are no scratches or pinholes that I can find. I imagine this Aura is from the latest batch in which the pinholes and scratch issue has been addressed.

I am extremely happy with the Aura and it is a huge upgrade from my Sony PRST-2. Like most e-readers (and for those with a large number of books) this product only makes sense if used in conjunction with Calibre as Calibre allows users to update metadata (collections) painlessly. I note that the speed of the product is dependent on the number of collections. In Calibre I have over 400 tags. When loaded onto the Aura the Aura appeared to lock up when selecting "My Collections": it took over 20 seconds to open the collections screen. When I reduced to tags to 20 (translating to 20 Collections) the transition took 1 or 2 seconds.

The Aura seems to be pretty happy reading books from the SD card: my PRST-2 exhibited some slowdown unless the books were on the main memory. Pocket is great and my heart bleeds for Canuck_in_Japan. I understand this product does not have the screen resolution of the Aura HD but the Aura is a significant upgrade from the PRST-2 which has a coarser screen resolution and no glow light.

It even has games, although they are mostly lame and I can't seem myself playing any of them.

I note the initial set up requires one to open a Kobo account and provide a credit card. Kobo must have learned this from Apple. It makes it incredibly easy and almost impossible not to buy books from the Kobo store.

Regardless, I am very happy with the purchase. If I dropped my Aura and broke it I would definitely buy another one.

Stephen

[Uschiekid]

Originally Posted by user38

I note the initial set up requires one to open a Kobo account and provide a credit card. Kobo must have learned this from Apple. It makes it incredibly easy and almost impossible not to buy books from the Kobo store.

While you do need to set up an account (or use the workaround), you do NOT need to provide credit card details. Even if you want to buy books from them, this is not necessary, as you can buy using paypal, gift cards and e-cards.

[Canuck_in_Japan]

Originally Posted by user38

I bought an Aura two days ago in Australia. The retailer (JB Hi FI) had advertised it on their website but the product was so new the store hadn't even put them on display.

They only had pink and there were no covers available.

The software version is 3.1.1. There are no scratches or pinholes that I can find. I imagine this Aura is from the latest batch in which the pinholes and scratch issue has been addressed.

I am extremely happy with the Aura and it is a huge upgrade from my Sony PRST-2. Like most e-readers (and for those with a large number of books) this product only makes sense if used in conjunction with Calibre as Calibre allows users to update metadata (collections) painlessly. I note that the speed of the product is dependent on the number of collections. In Calibre I have over 400 tags. When loaded onto the Aura the Aura appeared to lock up when selecting "My Collections": it took over 20 seconds to open the collections screen. When I reduced to tags to 20 (translating to 20 Collections) the transition took 1 or 2 seconds.

The Aura seems to be pretty happy reading books from the SD card: my PRST-2 exhibited some slowdown unless the books were on the main memory. Pocket is great and my heart bleeds for Canuck_in_Japan. I understand this product does not have the screen resolution of the Aura HD but the Aura is a significant upgrade from the PRST-2 which has a coarser screen resolution and no glow light.

It even has games, although they are mostly lame and I can't seem myself playing any of them.

I note the initial set up requires one to open a Kobo account and provide a credit card. Kobo must have learned this from Apple. It makes it incredibly easy and almost impossible not to buy books from the Kobo store.

Regardless, I am very happy with the purchase. If I dropped my Aura and broke it I would definitely buy another one.

Stephen

Don't worry about me as I was able to get pocket simply by changing the affiliate to Kobo from Rakuten. While I can believe that you don't have any pinholes as I don't have any either that I can see, I suspect that you'll find the scratches if you look hard enough. Try tilting the reader downwards under an incandescent light. I have them on mine. But I never actually see them while reading so it doesn't matter to me in the least.

[user38]

I looked for scratches and still couldn't find any.

I have now read a couple of books on my Aura. Overall, I am very pleased with it. After a few hours use it is apparent that the illumination is a little uneven. However, it is only noticeable if I look for it. (The unevenness is certainly not as dramatic as Antioch reports, and I don't notice it in practice.)

I found the reader extremely responsive. The only issue I have is the SD card is a little too easy to remove. Other than that I am very happy with it.

Stephen

[chrisridd]

I just got an Aura to replace my bricked Sony PRS-T1.

The first thing it did was update its firmware, and it thought the current date was 24th September.

So far though - love it! No scratches, no pinholes. It is nice to hold, and even smaller than the T1, which is great. I'm not used to having a front lit screen, but it seems good and I can turn it off if I want to.

I've just realised that I needed to use a plugin (KoboTouchExtended) that isn't supplied with Calibre, which has wasted a bit of time.

And now I need to spend some quality time looking at covers for the reader... :-)

[PeterT]

There is NO need to use the KoboTouchExtended driver; the base KoboTouch driver fully handles the Aura.

KoboTouchExtended is used by those people who want to use the Kobo ACCESS based ebook renderer as opposed to the Kobo ADOBE RMSDK based ebook renderer.

ACCESS handles "Kobo format"
RMSDK handles "ePub format"

[chrisridd]

Originally Posted by PeterT

There is NO need to use the KoboTouchExtended driver; the base KoboTouch driver fully handles the Aura.

KoboTouchExtended is used by those people who want to use the Kobo ACCESS based ebook renderer as opposed to the Kobo ADOBE RMSDK based ebook renderer.

ACCESS handles "Kobo format"
RMSDK handles "ePub format"

Yes, that was what I was trying to do. Mostly everything worked, but all the book covers were blank until I used the KoboTouchExtended plugin.

[user38]

As I understand it the Kobo Touch plugin will add covers to the Aura. You need to customise the plugin and select the "upload covers" option:



As far as covers go, I got a cheap sleep cover from ebay that I am very happy with: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...58#post2728858

Stephen

[chrisridd]

Originally Posted by user38

As I understand it the Kobo Touch plugin will add covers to the Aura. You need to customise the plugin and select the "upload covers" option:

Yes, I tried that but it didn't work. I could see all the expected JPEG files in the .kobo-images folder, but for whatever reason they didn't get used. It might be related to the books having the .kepub.epub extension.

Originally Posted by user38

As far as covers go, I got a cheap sleep cover from ebay that I am very happy with: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...58#post2728858

Your photos in that thread are very helpful! I'm quite tempted to get one because I like the clip-on back (I have the Sony clip-on cover for my dead Sony PRS-T1). and the non-rigid spine is similar to the Sony cover too.

[manara]

Hi there,

The Aura was the first ereader I had actually bought and was really excited about it. Previously I'd only used a Kindle 2, that I inherited from a friend, for a couple of months.

The first device I received (Dec 13) had a few stuck pixels as soon as the light was turned on. This was extremely annoying. When I returned it the sales person at the store just took it back like it was normal.

I got the second device on Dec 14 after testing a couple of them on store. When I got home and examined it more closely there were a few dead pixels visible without the light on and a couple of stuck pixels with the light on. So this one went back as well.

I thought third time lucky and took this one back as well and finally got the third device on Dec 20. Everything seemed good. The screen was clear, no stuck or dead pixels. I was extremely happy and was reading away.

Then less than two weeks later I looked at the screen and it looked like it has been dropped and cracked. I'd been using it a few hours earlier and had left it on a table. In the little time that I'd owned it it hadn't been dropped or scratched I'd been very careful with the screen especially.

And now is was completely unusable with striations across the screen, the cover from the book I was reading was stuck on part of it and obscuring the view for everything else.

After this experience I don't know whether I want to risk getting a Kobo again.

Am thinking about a Kindle PW, but I'm on the fence. I like the hardware enough that I might just consider giving the Aura a 4th try. All in all it was a pretty poor introductory experience.

Apart from this I did notice the light scratches across the top of the screen. It was a little off putting in certain lights, but I was learning to ignore it.

I live in the UK and bought/returned all of these devices from/to WH Smith. Each time the sales person just took it back and filled in the paperwork. It was like they were very used to getting loads of these returned and were accepting them with no complaints whatsoever.

So no complaints about WH Smith at all. Just about the quality control on the Kobo hardware which was pretty disappointing.