MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Touch I viewed the Kobo Touch today, minor negative observations made.

Sunspark · 06-11-2011, 10:24 PM

Hi:

I viewed the Kobo Touch today @ Chapters. They only had the black units on the demo stand. Because I like to look at the problems, here is a list of my criticisms.

Coating- The black units are rubberized on the front (a soft touch coating).. it is not a bad thing, my current e-reader has a rubberized coating as well. I do however prefer the non-rubberized plastic bezel like the old Kobo reader case. Also, after a long time if the same as my current device you will find the rubberized coating will begin to wear and eventually peel. Probably around then you'll slap on a skin to cover it up.

Font rendering- This is something I'm _very_ critical of. I have looked at many e-readers to see how they render fonts, and they're all different. It depends on whether they are using the freetype2 bytecode or autohinter interpreter, and how much hinting.. none, slight, full, etc. Well, the old Kobo reader (also on the display stand) has less pixelated better rendering compared to the Touch that was on the display. (This is a software issue and can be fixed, if it's ever noticed.) Yes Virginia, the older device shaped the letters better.

Text darkness- The old Kobo reader on the stand had darker text than the Touch. This is problematic because in addition to the font rendering, other "Pearl" readers have darker text than the Touchs that were on display. It is noticable enough that I found myself wondering if they had run out of Pearl screens and stuffed in a few older generation Vizplex screens. Compare to the other Pearl screen devices on the market and you'll see what I mean, if all the Touchs are the same as the demo units that were present. Could be manufacturing variation with the waveforms, still..

Page refresh flash- Like the Nook, no proper flash until 6th page turn. This is silly. One gets used to the flash and with the flash your text is darker. My e-reader does allow me to turn off the flash entirely or pick the interval it flashes at. My choice is to have it flash every page turn.. can't change this to date on the Touch.

So, for the price you get what you get. Hopefully work on fixing some of the things, especially the ones that can be worked on in software.

06-11-2011, 10:24 PM	#1
Sunspark Zealot Posts: 122 Karma: 2600 Join Date: Sep 2009 Device: EZ Reader Pocket PRO	I viewed the Kobo Touch today, minor negative observations made. Hi: I viewed the Kobo Touch today @ Chapters. They only had the black units on the demo stand. Because I like to look at the problems, here is a list of my criticisms. Coating- The black units are rubberized on the front (a soft touch coating).. it is not a bad thing, my current e-reader has a rubberized coating as well. I do however prefer the non-rubberized plastic bezel like the old Kobo reader case. Also, after a long time if the same as my current device you will find the rubberized coating will begin to wear and eventually peel. Probably around then you'll slap on a skin to cover it up. Font rendering- This is something I'm _very_ critical of. I have looked at many e-readers to see how they render fonts, and they're all different. It depends on whether they are using the freetype2 bytecode or autohinter interpreter, and how much hinting.. none, slight, full, etc. Well, the old Kobo reader (also on the display stand) has less pixelated better rendering compared to the Touch that was on the display. (This is a software issue and can be fixed, if it's ever noticed.) Yes Virginia, the older device shaped the letters better. Text darkness- The old Kobo reader on the stand had darker text than the Touch. This is problematic because in addition to the font rendering, other "Pearl" readers have darker text than the Touchs that were on display. It is noticable enough that I found myself wondering if they had run out of Pearl screens and stuffed in a few older generation Vizplex screens. Compare to the other Pearl screen devices on the market and you'll see what I mean, if all the Touchs are the same as the demo units that were present. Could be manufacturing variation with the waveforms, still.. Page refresh flash- Like the Nook, no proper flash until 6th page turn. This is silly. One gets used to the flash and with the flash your text is darker. My e-reader does allow me to turn off the flash entirely or pick the interval it flashes at. My choice is to have it flash every page turn.. can't change this to date on the Touch. So, for the price you get what you get. Hopefully work on fixing some of the things, especially the ones that can be worked on in software.