Kobo Aura One Long-Term Review

[MariusMasalar]

Originally Posted by DNSB

The other item that was not brought out in the review is the lack of extendable storage. I had to remove about 260 books from the collection on my H2O to fit my library on the Aura One -- admittedly, those books were all cooking/foods related so took about the same space as the other 3000 ebooks I have and are likely happier on the iPad where the colour images can shine.

You're totally right, I actually made a note somewhere to mention storage but evidently I forgot.

It's partly because it's one of those things that I don't personally feel the absence of. Your use case (with image-heavy books) makes for a good example of where expanding the onboard storage would be handy, but since I do most of my library management off-device and read image-heavy things on an iPad I never get anywhere close to capacity.

Am I weird to keep relatively few things on my e-reader at any given time? The folks I've spoken to about this tend to do the same but I'm wondering if that's an anomaly.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by MariusMasalar

You're totally right, I actually made a note somewhere to mention storage but evidently I forgot.

It's partly because it's one of those things that I don't personally feel the absence of. Your use case (with image-heavy books) makes for a good example of where expanding the onboard storage would be handy, but since I do most of my library management off-device and read image-heavy things on an iPad I never get anywhere close to capacity.

Am I weird to keep relatively few things on my e-reader at any given time? The folks I've spoken to about this tend to do the same but I'm wondering if that's an anomaly.

According to recent research (reading Mobileread) it would appear that 33% keep their entire library on their device, 33% keep anywhere from 300 to 3000 on their device and 33% keep under 100 and usually under 50 on their device. + or minus 1%.
So I would say you are not an anomaly.

[MGlitch]

I get the analogy, but it's a poor choice given that Kindle runs Android while Kobo runs Linux.

I'm not sure why the weight was compared to a smaller device, much less a smaller device put out within the same year. I'd expect the Oasis to weigh less than the One, if it wasn't I'd expect it to be in a review. As it is, it's a bit like saying 'black is darker than white, this should be held against black'.

'Bigger is not Better' - in which apparently there are a class of books lighter and less clunky than the Aura One? Maybe a children's chapter book, but I graduated from reading those some time ago. I'm currently reading a massive epic fantasy series. Any one of the books in that series weighs as much if not more than the One, but each is very clearly bulkier. Sorry, but for adults even mass market books are not going to be more portable than the One. Again even ignoring that we can have multiple books on the One, while a physical book is only ever going to be that single book.

Then we get to yet another Kindle plug, if I didn't know better I'd think Amazon had sponsored your blog (sidenote you may want to approach them about this, at least you have an understanding of the tech unlike the Good-E-Reader folks). The One is lighter than the only product on the market which compares to it in size, the H2O. Even though the One is an inch bigger in display space.

You seem like like comparing smaller devices weights to larger ones, yet oddly refrain from comparing the weight of the iPhone 6S to the One, I say oddly based on your opening salvo.

Waterproofing, I'll leave aside the personal opinion since you do mention it is popular and could have real world benefits, just not for you. It's -not- a unique feature to Kobo. Though they were the first by a good stretch of time to offer it, Barnes and Noble did add waterproofing in their latest eink device. I'll give you most of a pass here since B&N really aren't competing against Amazon in the US, which is the only Market B&N maintains a digital presence in.

Buying and renting- and here you really do sound like an Amazon shill given how Amazon has come under fire for fraudulent reviews, and generally garbage reviews. Perhaps you're just 'lucky' as you were with reading by the pool.

I'll skip the pocket stuff as I tend not to make much use of it.

Actually most of the rest of the 'review' is actually just a comparison between the One and various Kindles. So lets skip to the end where you appear to imply that Kobo is going to go away. They've been around the block a few times now, they keep putting out competitive devices. Rakuten 'just' plopped down a good amount of money on Overdrive.

This is the passage that seems to imply a doubtful future for Kobo, while being artful enough to dodge saying it right out.

Yes, the Amazon option is more expensive, but even if the individual device is less capable on paper, you’re buying into an ecosystem that may offer a better long-term experience.

Overall this doesn't so much read as a really long review of the Kobo Aura One, it reads as a really long comparison of the Kobo Aura One, the Kindle Paperwhite, Voyage, and Oasis.

[koboy]

Originally Posted by MGlitch

I get the analogy, but it's a poor choice given that Kindle runs Android while Kobo runs Linux.

I'm not sure why the weight was compared to a smaller device, much less a smaller device put out within the same year. I'd expect the Oasis to weigh less than the One, if it wasn't I'd expect it to be in a review. As it is, it's a bit like saying 'black is darker than white, this should be held against black'.

'Bigger is not Better' - in which apparently there are a class of books lighter and less clunky than the Aura One? Maybe a children's chapter book, but I graduated from reading those some time ago. I'm currently reading a massive epic fantasy series. Any one of the books in that series weighs as much if not more than the One, but each is very clearly bulkier. Sorry, but for adults even mass market books are not going to be more portable than the One. Again even ignoring that we can have multiple books on the One, while a physical book is only ever going to be that single book.

Then we get to yet another Kindle plug, if I didn't know better I'd think Amazon had sponsored your blog (sidenote you may want to approach them about this, at least you have an understanding of the tech unlike the Good-E-Reader folks). The One is lighter than the only product on the market which compares to it in size, the H2O. Even though the One is an inch bigger in display space.

You seem like like comparing smaller devices weights to larger ones, yet oddly refrain from comparing the weight of the iPhone 6S to the One, I say oddly based on your opening salvo.

Waterproofing, I'll leave aside the personal opinion since you do mention it is popular and could have real world benefits, just not for you. It's -not- a unique feature to Kobo. Though they were the first by a good stretch of time to offer it, Barnes and Noble did add waterproofing in their latest eink device. I'll give you most of a pass here since B&N really aren't competing against Amazon in the US, which is the only Market B&N maintains a digital presence in.

Buying and renting- and here you really do sound like an Amazon shill given how Amazon has come under fire for fraudulent reviews, and generally garbage reviews. Perhaps you're just 'lucky' as you were with reading by the pool.

I'll skip the pocket stuff as I tend not to make much use of it.

Actually most of the rest of the 'review' is actually just a comparison between the One and various Kindles. So lets skip to the end where you appear to imply that Kobo is going to go away. They've been around the block a few times now, they keep putting out competitive devices. Rakuten 'just' plopped down a good amount of money on Overdrive.

This is the passage that seems to imply a doubtful future for Kobo, while being artful enough to dodge saying it right out.



Overall this doesn't so much read as a really long review of the Kobo Aura One, it reads as a really long comparison of the Kobo Aura One, the Kindle Paperwhite, Voyage, and Oasis.

it won't surprise you that i tend to agree with some of the earlier posts on this thread it is a fair objective good review, if anything a little bit too generous towards the KA1 imho.


best wishes koboy

[MariusMasalar]

Hey MGlitch,

Thanks very much for the thoughtful reply.

The review does lean heavily on comparisons, and specifically Kindle ones at that. When people are making a decision about which e-reader to buy, my assumption is that they're going to be weighing their options, not necessarily just the directly comparable ones.

For me, the purpose of a review is not to describe a device as if it were the only solution to a given problem. That's what the press releases are for. It's to help people make a purchasing decision. Evaluating it on its own merits is only part of the equation; the other half is seeing how it measures up to the alternatives.

So yes, clearly the Aura One is more or less in its own class with respect to size, but chances are good that if someone wants to buy one, the main alternative they'll consider is a Kindle. And in that price range, The Oasis and Voyage are the ones they'll be looking at. I specifically included a comparison shot with the H2O to make sure that potential alternative was mentioned and discussed my recommendations from the perspective of existing Kobo users as well.

The comparison to physical book weights is accurate, but also somewhat irrelevant in this discussion, don't you think? Of course all e-readers will be more compact than a physical novel, or a stack of them. That's not really the comparison that's going to be going through someone's head if they're buying a flagship e-reading device. I would think we long ago left behind the need to compare e-readers to their physical counterparts in terms of bulk—that battle was won years ago.

You're right about reviews though.

They certainly invite criticism, but I look at it like a healthy app store. The more successful you get, the more crap gets in. Managing the signal to noise ratio is a difficult problem, but having a lot of signal to filter in the first place is a good sign. In the case of reviews I'm giving the benefit of the doubt to people's ability to survey and critically interpret reviews for themselves, ignoring the dubious ones. The simple fact that they have an assortment to choose from is an improvement, and that was the core of my point.

I also have to apologize for that line you quoted as I absolutely was not trying to imply that Kobo is in any danger of going away. It wasn't meant to read as Kobo not having a long term future; I'm confident that they'll be just fine. It's more that things like the Lending Library, Family Sharing, Prime, etc. may offer additional value to people beyond the life of one individual device. I was also quick to point out immediately after that line that if the entire ecosystem aspect isn't relevant to you, the Aura One is the clearly superior device.

Hopefully that clarifies my intent a bit!

[MGlitch]

Originally Posted by MariusMasalar

Hey MGlitch,

The comparison to physical book weights is accurate, but also somewhat irrelevant in this discussion, don't you think? Of course all e-readers will be more compact than a physical novel, or a stack of them. That's not really the comparison that's going to be going through someone's head if they're buying a flagship e-reading device. I would think we long ago left behind the need to compare e-readers to their physical counterparts in terms of bulk—that battle was won years ago.

I'd make, in fact I feel I did make, the same argument when comparing the weight of the One with the Voyage or Oasis. Yes folks who are looking for an ereader will have weight of the device on their mind, but common sense would tell them a bigger device will weigh more. And while I'll agree common sense isn't what is used to be, I don't think it's fallen quite so far as to have folks think bigger will be lighter.

[MariusMasalar]

Originally Posted by MGlitch

I'd make, in fact I feel I did make, the same argument when comparing the weight of the One with the Voyage or Oasis. Yes folks who are looking for an ereader will have weight of the device on their mind, but common sense would tell them a bigger device will weigh more. And while I'll agree common sense isn't what is used to be, I don't think it's fallen quite so far as to have folks think bigger will be lighter.

And yet bigger is lighter in the case of the H2O versus the Aura One, so perhaps things aren't always as they seem.

Since the fact that one is bigger than the other is obvious, my goal was to offer an opinion on whether or not that matters and in what way a larger size is better or worse. Sometimes people approach this decision without knowing what size is best for them, and each company says their way is better: Kobo says bigger, Amazon says smaller.

It's hard to know which is the case, but given enough reviews I think people can get a good enough sense to figure out what makes sense for their needs. Mine is just another perspective.

[koboy]

Originally Posted by MariusMasalar

Mine is just another perspective.

as everything in life is it's all about perspective, a good informative unbiased review.


best wishes koboy

[John F]

I'm curious why you recommend the Aura Edition 2 (vs the Glo HD)?

Also, maybe you say it indirectly, but library borrowing seems like a rather large minus for Kindles (outside the U.S.)?

And I liked the review.

[RZetlin]

It doesn't make sense to compare the weight of the 7.8" Aura One to the 6" Kindle. Any device that is larger will be heavier.

It makes more sense to compare the weight of the Aura One to other devices around its size like the Kindle Fire HD 8.

[koboy]

usual disclaimer applies for the following comments, my opinion and mine only no hands tied behind my back etc etc etc. i believe there are four schools of thought.

firstly you will have those that just want the latest gadget just for the sake of having it no matter what, fair enough.

secondly you will have those that believe (bigger is better) plus the overdrive an light thingy, again fair enough.

thirdly you will have those that believe less is more (size wise) also fair enough.

fourthly last but not least, you will have those that want extra or different features altogether, and again also fair enough.


ps. in other words each to their own


best wishes koboy

[rogerinnyc]

Excellent review. As an owner of an Aura One and a Kindle Voyage, I think you pretty much nailed the pros and cons of each. Thanks.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by MGlitch

I get the analogy, but it's a poor choice given that Kindle runs Android while Kobo runs Linux.

I was under the impression that both the Kindle and Kobo eInk devices used a customized version of Linux.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by DNSB

I was under the impression that both the Kindle and Kobo eInk devices used a customized version of Linux.

The e-ink kindles are Linux. The Fires are a customized version of Android.
*I spend way too much time in the Kindle Developers Forum.

[tnforpaul45]

I will say one thing about your review: The stability of the software/firmware and the frequency of crashes across the Kobo line is an ongoing issue and needs to be resolved. After the first occurrence, the whole device feels cheap.