Hardware reviews for the Vox...turn off...

[Reader Paradice]

....quite frankly, with at least two obviously biased/agenda (my personal opinion) reviews of the Vox

1. Verge
2. Mobile Syrup

....I'm starting to doubt the actual intent of reviews of any product, now. Are reviewers creating their reports with no hidden agendas? Are they truly without bias...and based on personal findings? Did they have at least two of the subject units to compare, to make sure that they, at the off-chance, were not reviewing a product that had a manufacturing defect? Even a common purchaser of a subject piece, would most likely take a 'perceived', (it just might be the user) malfunctioning unit back for another,...and try out a second attempt, rather than walking away with hands washed. Also, THEY don't review for fame or financial compensation!!!

I'm reviewer fatigued, I guess.

Why?

Well...both the Verge and Mobile Syrup literally seemed to show a malice or glee in trashing the Kobo product. Also, both of the above, highly and negative reviews couldn't be more wrong on their major trashing points of the Vox's capacitive screen.

1. Sensitivity and display quality: The two reviews railed against the Vox for lack of sensitivity and user control input....

Personally, I have to be very, very careful in how much contact the tip of my forefinger does in fact engage the screen with, for I can't tell you how many times I have falsely picked to open a book, when I merely was using a south/north finger brush on the left or right side of the screen to advance my Library view, for to actually find, and open a book or magazine of my choice! The Verge reviewer trashed the Vox harshly on this aspect of usage...and that is for sure! Laughably, I am trying to 'adjust' to the absolute sensitivity of the screen...much to the their contrary.

2. Speed of page turns and orientation:

C'mon Joanna...you merely, lightly tap the screen on the right lower side, and the page turn is faster on the Vox, than you can blink. In fact...I don't have to lightly tap at all...but merely contact the screen with my finger tip and lightning happens..wham...the page past read, is history. Whoosh!

She claims that the spinning busy-disk is visibly turning for around 4 seconds before something happens. Really? R-E-A-L-L-Y? I can't get past 'one thousand, and' before the screen orients to landscape. That is with the published word, or a movie and/or YouTube video.

3. Manufactured 'feel':

She (Verge/Joanna) states that the build not only feels in the hand, cheaply made, but the look is as well. Pardon?!?!? I pick up my Vox...and it feels just fine in my hands. The non-metal frame is smooth to the touch, feels warm and pleasant, and with no burs or blemishes in the plastic, or other non-metallic composites. The edges meet precisely between the screen top and its surrounding framework. The buttons are flush, and do not feel sloppy within their body cavities.

Perhaps I should write reviews....

Joanna....what exactly is your beef with the fit and finish, that is so glaringly (obviously it must be glaringly) apparent, that you'd even linger on the Kobo Vox's manufacturing fit and finish? As I held my Vox in my hands and read and went through your review, I was utterly bewildered! Pardon? Pardon?

I think that I am reviewer-fatigued. I am quite disappointed in fact. To have read the above two reviews, before I had purchased my Vox (thank gawd I didn't!!!) who knows if I might have passed it on by...and not have had the great pleasure and ownership of this eReader gem.

No...I don't work for Kobo. I don't have any interest financially with this company, or its products. I only have an interest in the fact that I purchased one of their products and find it to meet and/or exceed my educated-of-use.

These so-called gadget 'experts', were so far off base with their review, that can so 'colour' a person's purchasing of whatever IS being reviewed--in this case, the Kobo Vox eReader---that I frankly, and personally, most likely will not any longer give much creedence (as I had before) to tech review sites before making, or at least thinking about a tech purchase. No more! Those two couldn't have been more diametrically off-base, than what I read concerning the eReader that was already in my hands as I followed their Vox reviews. I am now turned off of reviews, and turned onto USER FORUMS that truly,...truly at the end of the day, give you a more honest and unbiased 'yay' or 'nay' to whether you bring one of whatever it is....home.

My two cents. OK...I guess a dime's worth...

Mitch

[LauraPony]

This is me, agreeing with you!

[BradenW]

I think it needs to be remembered that gadget reviewers see a *lot* of gadgets, and therefore cannot help but compare them side-by-side. Just like how movie reviewers see so many movies all day, every day, they cannot help but raise their expectations of what a good movie should be, simply because they have to wade through so many of them.

When you and I actually purchase a gadget, we become personally involved in it, we take our time, and get to know its quirks and strong points. Truthfully, the Kobo Vox is not exactly the most svelte "tablet" out there, and it's hardware specs are rather low-end in the tablet race ... but if it does what *you* want it to do, isn't that what matters? I agree, stop reading the reviews ... if you've decided you like your reader, then enjoy it and forget everything else. After all ... pouring over reviews is a good way to develop TAS (Technology Aquisition Syndrome).

[pokee]

There were a lot of people (not just Joanna) that were eagerly calling the Vox a piece of sh*t in the comments section of that review. People love to hate...nothin' you can do about that...

[TonyToews]

I'm quite puzzled too. I did post a rebuttal to the four seconds mistruth.

[Darnielle]

I originally planned to buy a Touch, but when I thought about how little difference in cost there was between the Vox and a Touch with a booklight and a memory card upgrade I opted for the Vox. I actually thought it was just a touchscreen colour eReader with a backlight and was quite happy to pay £169 for this, so when I found out it had Android I rushed to buy one almost immediately.

The reviewers comparing it to the Playbook or even the iPad are completely wrong to do so. The fact of the matter is that for around £30 more than a Touch with accessories, you get a 7" colour screen and Android. That the processor isn't good enough to run HD video or a Playstation emulator or something is of no concern to me - that's not why I bought it, and that's not what it's designed for.

[hieronymos]

The reviewers stumble generally about two things:

I) They fail to read the specifications and start thinking about what AFFS+ is. If they did, they would recognize a) that some backlight bleeding on black background is inevitable with these displays, and that this bleeding will usually only be visible on black, b) that Kobo spent a little less on the hardware and a little more on the screen. Of course, the colors outside cannot be as good as inside, but the contrast is still there - You can not read as well in direct sunlight with any other tablet.
I always told myself that as long as screens cannot perform well in sunlight, they cannot replace pen and paper. The Vox does.
That the screen isn't as anti-glare as it should be (I'm facepalming a little here from a design standpoint), might have simply kept a few reviewers from finding out that you can actually see the image pretty well behind your reflection (from a user standpoint, I just order an anti-glare film).

2) It's not the hardware that is from before yesterday (it's only from yesterday), but the software that doesn't by all means even come close to what the hardware could deliver. That is Kobo's fault and where the reviews, although they fail to understand that, are somewhat justified. The product was rushed and many of us don't have a nice out-of-the-box experience.

In general it's so-so. I can partly understand the reviewers, as many users might actually have felt like them. The Verge review however is simply bad - a person who tries to push harder on a capacitive touchscreen shouldn't write about tech (contrary to a resistive touchscreen, you have to tap lighter, because sometimes the algorithms can't interpret too much 'finger').

I don't know why plastic is considered "poor build" either, rather than a design choice. When you drop them 2 meters, they're all the same anyway, so there is no real way to test build quality.
(My old MacBook frequently fell 2 meters - that was build quality! It's still working!)

End of the line is: I wouldn't have bought any other device, since I want to use my portable device wherever I want - in my basement at night and on a mountain top on a sunny day. For all the other stuff I have a laptop anyway.

[GJSmith]

I whole heartedly agree with you on every point. Including almost scaring me off the Vox in the first place.
Sensitivity is astounding but I am not sure if in drier climates there is more of a charge between finger and glass. I can say that I have not removed the film it shipped with and sensitivity is great.
I turn pages by touching the right middle and I can not see it change. If the text is aligned differently then I can see it but many times I have to double check to see if it changed.
I guess you can't please some of the people any time.

Originally Posted by Reader Paradice

....quite frankly, with at least two obviously biased/agenda (my personal opinion) reviews of the Vox

1. Verge
2. Mobile Syrup

....I'm starting to doubt the actual intent of reviews of any product, now. Are reviewers creating their reports with no hidden agendas? Are they truly without bias...and based on personal findings? Did they have at least two of the subject units to compare, to make sure that they, at the off-chance, were not reviewing a product that had a manufacturing defect? Even a common purchaser of a subject piece, would most likely take a 'perceived', (it just might be the user) malfunctioning unit back for another,...and try out a second attempt, rather than walking away with hands washed. Also, THEY don't review for fame or financial compensation!!!

I'm reviewer fatigued, I guess.

Why?

Well...both the Verge and Mobile Syrup literally seemed to show a malice or glee in trashing the Kobo product. Also, both of the above, highly and negative reviews couldn't be more wrong on their major trashing points of the Vox's capacitive screen.

1. Sensitivity and display quality: The two reviews railed against the Vox for lack of sensitivity and user control input....

Personally, I have to be very, very careful in how much contact the tip of my forefinger does in fact engage the screen with, for I can't tell you how many times I have falsely picked to open a book, when I merely was using a south/north finger brush on the left or right side of the screen to advance my Library view, for to actually find, and open a book or magazine of my choice! The Verge reviewer trashed the Vox harshly on this aspect of usage...and that is for sure! Laughably, I am trying to 'adjust' to the absolute sensitivity of the screen...much to the their contrary.

2. Speed of page turns and orientation:

C'mon Joanna...you merely, lightly tap the screen on the right lower side, and the page turn is faster on the Vox, than you can blink. In fact...I don't have to lightly tap at all...but merely contact the screen with my finger tip and lightning happens..wham...the page past read, is history. Whoosh!

She claims that the spinning busy-disk is visibly turning for around 4 seconds before something happens. Really? R-E-A-L-L-Y? I can't get past 'one thousand, and' before the screen orients to landscape. That is with the published word, or a movie and/or YouTube video.

3. Manufactured 'feel':

She (Verge/Joanna) states that the build not only feels in the hand, cheaply made, but the look is as well. Pardon?!?!? I pick up my Vox...and it feels just fine in my hands. The non-metal frame is smooth to the touch, feels warm and pleasant, and with no burs or blemishes in the plastic, or other non-metallic composites. The edges meet precisely between the screen top and its surrounding framework. The buttons are flush, and do not feel sloppy within their body cavities.

Perhaps I should write reviews....

Joanna....what exactly is your beef with the fit and finish, that is so glaringly (obviously it must be glaringly) apparent, that you'd even linger on the Kobo Vox's manufacturing fit and finish? As I held my Vox in my hands and read and went through your review, I was utterly bewildered! Pardon? Pardon?

I think that I am reviewer-fatigued. I am quite disappointed in fact. To have read the above two reviews, before I had purchased my Vox (thank gawd I didn't!!!) who knows if I might have passed it on by...and not have had the great pleasure and ownership of this eReader gem.

No...I don't work for Kobo. I don't have any interest financially with this company, or its products. I only have an interest in the fact that I purchased one of their products and find it to meet and/or exceed my educated-of-use.

These so-called gadget 'experts', were so far off base with their review, that can so 'colour' a person's purchasing of whatever IS being reviewed--in this case, the Kobo Vox eReader---that I frankly, and personally, most likely will not any longer give much creedence (as I had before) to tech review sites before making, or at least thinking about a tech purchase. No more! Those two couldn't have been more diametrically off-base, than what I read concerning the eReader that was already in my hands as I followed their Vox reviews. I am now turned off of reviews, and turned onto USER FORUMS that truly,...truly at the end of the day, give you a more honest and unbiased 'yay' or 'nay' to whether you bring one of whatever it is....home.

My two cents. OK...I guess a dime's worth...

Mitch

[Anjohl]

It seems to met hat very few peole take value into consideration when rwvviewing.in my opinion, the Vox does 5-10 different things well,maybe 6/10 in each. An Ipad does these maybe 8-9/10, but isn't just a third more expensive. The vox reminds me of my Android Optimus One phone, which i considared a starter smart phone. With somewhat realistic expectations, a user can get a lot out of the Vox.