I've updated my OP with the crux of what I'm posting here:
My Forma died and I needed a replacement. Regardless of the poor battery life from last year, the Sage was the best replacement I could come up with. So, 14 months after returning the one I tested, above, I bought a new one. It arrived with a totally drained battery, so I was able to check the charging time:
- Hour 1: 0 to 78% (said 11 minutes more).
- 11 minutes later: 90% and doesn't give estimate any more
- Hour 1 and 50 minutes: 97% (to match the charging time, above)
- Hour 2: 99%
- 2 hours and 7 minutes: 100%
So, charging this unit took an extra 17 minutes over the one from last year. Also, the estimated charging time it gives is WAY off.
Once charged, I measured my reading times before the battery was totally discharged:
Hour 1: from 100% to 91% = 9%
Hour 2: from 89% to 81% = 8%
Hour 3: from 81% to 73% = 8%
Hour 4: from 73% to 63% = 10%
Hour 5: from 62% to 51% = 11%
Hour 6 (and 3 minutes): from 50% to 40% = 10%
Hour 7: from 38% to 31% = 7%
Hour 8: from 31% to 22% = 9%
Hour 9: from 21% to 8% = 13%
Final 8 minutes: from 8% to shutdown = 8%
The time in between those reading times, the Sage was asleep (losing perhaps 2% over 12 hours). So, this Sage gets about an extra hour of reading over last year's, but still about 3 hours short of what the newish Forma was giving me. BUT, the old Forma and Sage were with Wifi and automatic syncing on and in normal mode. This Sage has Wifi and automatic syncing off and is in Sideload Mode. So, I don't know if the improvement is due to firmware updates or my having turned stuff off.
My other comments from a year ago still apply.
For anyone who wants to wade through the boring details of what I did, here it is:
The charger I'm using is:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...e?ie=UTF8&th=1
The USB cable is:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...e?ie=UTF8&th=1
and, this is the process of how I set things up:
Full factory reset
The first thing I did was a Full, Manual Factory Reset:
1. Press and hold the power button until you see a black 'Powered off' screen.
2. Press and hold one of the page turn buttons.
3. While holding the page turn button, press and hold the power button.
Wait until the screen flashes and starts the reset process. It usually takes about 30-seconds for the eReader to start the reset process.
I then logged into my Kobo account and updated the firmware to the current level.
Afterward, I logged into my Overdrive account.
Sideload Mode
Since I almost never find books worthy of borrowing at the library, and I sideload everything else from Calibre, I turned on Sideload Mode:
- Edit the file "Kobo ereader.conf" in .kobo/Kobo with a text editor that does Unix file endings, not a word processor or Windows Notepad. Notepad++ works. Any plain text editor on Mac, BSD, Linux etc will work.
-Find
[ApplicationPreferences]
Add
SideloadedMode=true
- If it's already there and false, edit it to true.
- On Mac, BSD, UNIX, Linux you need to enable view of hidden files & folders because the top directory/folder starts with a dot.
NickelMenu
- Connect your Kobo eReader to your computer over USB.
- Download KoboRoot.tgz into the KOBOeReader's /.kobo folder. You may need to show hidden files to see the folder.
- Safely eject your eReader and wait for it to reboot.
- Ensure there is a new menu item in the top-left main menu entitled NickelMenu (it will appear in the bottom-right on firmware 4.23.15505+).
- Connect your Kobo eReader to your computer again and create a new file (of any type) named /.adds/nm/config, and follow the instructions in KOBOeReader/.adds/nm/doc to configure NickelMenu.
Sideload Library from Calibre
Sideloading my epubs from Calibre to kepubs on the Sage via a usb 3 cable took about 12 minutes (431 books in 4 batches of 100 plus the remaining 31 -- disconnect and reconnect in between). After all in, I used Kobo Utilities > Store/Restore Current Bookmark to Restore my reading progress to the device.
Settings
WiFi and Bluetooth = OFF
Energy Savings and Privacy:
- Show Book Covers Full Screen = ON
- Show Info Panel on Full Screen Covers = ON
- Indicator Light While Charging = ON (and doesn't work right)
- Sleepcover: Automatically Sleep and Wake Up = OFF
- Discover Tab: Show List of Recent Viewed ebooks = ON
Reading Settings:
- Header: Time Remaining in Chapter
- Footer: Time Remaining in Book
- Show Book Progress Bar = ON
- Refresh Screen Every: 10 pages
- Auto Rotate = ON
- Show Adobe EPUB Page Numbers = OFF
- Dark Mode = OFF
- Pinch to Adjust Font Size = OFF
- Swipe Left Edge to Adjust Brightness = OFF
Brightness:
- 40%, Auto = OFF, Natural Light slider about 25% (just before first "1" of "11:00" in sleep time)
Fonts:
- Georgia
- Font Size: a bit past the middle
- Line Spacing and margin = 0
- Justification = OFF