[sniglom]

Originally Posted by haydnfan

Why aren't you considering the Oasis 3? It has superior light uniformity to what you were looking at and is a 7 inch ereader.

As stated in the first post. The main reason to look at other devices was the price of the Oasis. Where I live (Sweden) it's about 300 euros, while the Libra goes for 140 and the Forma for 245.

That said, I have no light uniformity issues with the 7" Libra, only the 8" Forma.

Originally Posted by haydnfan

FYI you needed more time with the Kobo devices before you made a judgment.

Don't think so, I covered your points in my post. I read the manual as well.

Originally Posted by haydnfan

You CAN change the button layout.

I DID change the layout. What annoys me is that the invert toggle for the buttons changes for all orientations.
Default: down = next page / right = next page.
Invert: Up = next page / left = next page.

I want up = next page / right = next page. But you can't do that.
If you can, I didn't find it in the manual or in the settings.

Originally Posted by haydnfan

Changing the light level is easy and responsive, you just swipe up/down on the left (no need to bring up a menu) until it is just right. I've had no problems using either one.

I addressed both of these issues and the issues I have with both of them.

Sliding on the screen:
The touch sensitivity isn't very good on my device. Whether it's this device in particular or every Libra, I don't know. If I had to guess, I would say it's a combination of higher input lag, worse implementation of touch driver and perhaps not proper touch calibration.

Anyway, sliding along the edge to set brightness tend to give accidental inputs, thus switching the page. The issues I have with touch on this device not limited to the brightness slider, but also when trying to click footnotes or selecting text. For reference I tried clicking a footnote on the Forma and that worked without issues, so maybe it's just a matter of quality control.

Change the brightness from settings.
The issues I have with the slider in the settings was just an example of why I find the software on the Kobo worse overall. The brightness slider is a common option, thus it should be implemented in a good manner, but it isn't. Like most things I found with the Kobo, it's not that it's unusable, it's that it isn't polished.

I do software development and electronics both for work and as a hobby. I care about making interfaces great and properly mapping audio volume to sliders, light flow to sliders and so on. I care about the studies on human computer interaction, such as Fitt's law, when designing interfaces. So when I use the Kobo, I get annoyed. If you don't get annoyed with all the small things, that's good for you. More devices to like and choose from.

Originally Posted by JSWolf

@sniglom, the power button placement is irrelevant as is the feel of the plastic because you should be used a sleep cover which then eliminates these issues and the sleep cover makes the Libra much nicer to hold.

No, my preferences and opinions are not irrelevant for me. They are highly relevant, since it's me using the product.

I usually don't like covers and prefer to use a protective sleeve when the device isn't in use. That said, I actually bought the sleep cover for the Libra, just to try it. I think it makes it worse to hold. I mean, it's nice that it can be used as a stand and that it wakes/sleeps the device, but I prefer to hold the device without it. I didn't write about it, since it's optional to purchase and not a part of the device itself.

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Also, the larger screen (even 7") is nicer then a 6" screen. I'm using a Kobo Aura H2O and it's a 6.8" screen and there is no way I would go back to reading with a 6" screen full time.

If you use the devices with the same orientation, there's no argument here. 7" is better than 6".

As I wrote in my first post, I prefer to read in landscape mode on the kindle. I find it nicer to hold that way and at 6", line length is more important to me than page length.

The Libra's shape makes me want to hold it in portrait mode. Doing so gives a bit shorter lines, but of course much longer pages.

So what I realized is this; I want 8" for portrait mode to make sense. For a 7" device to make sense for me, it should be really nice to hold in portrait mode.

Originally Posted by JSWolf

As for ePub, if it has DRM, remove the DRM. Load the ePub in the editor and search/replace out line-height and problem solved.

I don't think there is any DRM in my epub files? Anyway, the issue isn't that it can't be fixed, which I pointed out that I know how to do. It's not that it in itself is a dealbreaker. It's just another annoyance with the software. Something that should be working out of the box, but isn't.

I mean, even if I was a publisher that really cared about line spacing, that's no excuse for the interface to not tell you about what is going on. Why can I move a slider that doesn't do anything? Why won't the software tell me what is going on? It's not like this is the first beta release from Kobo. It's not like this is some obscure setting that 99% of users won't touch.

Again, if you don't get annoyed by what I find to be sloppy software, good for you. It's not like I want to be annoyed by these devices. It's not helping me.

I wanted the "upgrade" from a five year old Kindle to feel like a step forward software wise, but it feels like a regression.