Aura H2O First impressions of the device, long read....

[ProDigit]

Finally Black Friday brought me my Kobo to the front door, which I had ordered a week before.

Having owned a Sony PRS-505, a Kindle Paperwhite 1, an Ectaco Jetbook mini, and a Jetbook Color before, I can only compare my H2O to these, and my review might be 'colored'.
I'll try to keep my review to the things that stood out to me, and not the same repetitive info I've read elsewhere.


I went with the H2O, because I was not satisfied with the screen size of my paperwhite and Sony.
I always found that on a 6" screen, any paperback representation really looked too small.
Both in book format (Mobi/Epub), and especially PDF.
From the wide white borders, to the small columns of text, taking out valuable screen estate, forcing down the font size even further to fit the same amount of information per page as the real paperback.
And the problem wasn't the resolution!
Even with their 200 DPI resolution, 6" screens they were able to display text quite fine downto 8pt fontsize (which would be quite readable upto a few inches in front of the screen (or with magnifying glass).
The issue was my eyes, not comfortably able to see the letters at those small font sizes.

That was the cause of me going for the slightly larger (0.8" larger) H2O, instead of another Kindle.


Upon arrival of the package, and opening the box, it felt as if they had sent me an empty cardboard box. The weight of the device is about the same as the cardboard box that it came with; very lightweight; but still a bit uncomfortable to hold for long reads.
I'm not sure, but it feels a bit heavier than the Kindle Paperwhite 1.
I had wanted another 10-15% of weight reduction the least!

I can imagine why the Voyage gets so good reviews, as they're on the mark from weight perspective.


The 0.8" increase in size (diameter) of the H2O over the other devices out there, isn't large enough to be noticeable by itself, feels pretty much the same as the Kindle when by itself; but is noticeable when comparing side by side.

The extra screen SIZE (not resolution), helps me much more than just extra resolution; as it also fits my large hands better.

After looking at the screen, I believe I would have been comfortable if the screen was extended by another 0.5" to 1", and some of the bottom border removed.

My large hands where another cause of concern, as I didn't like to touch the screen every time I wanted a page turn. My thumbs would have to turn quite far from their comfort position to click on the right spot, however I found there's a setting that can make page turns easier on the hands (I tap, don't swipe, for pageturn).
I might have been more comfortable with hardware buttons on the device border/frames.


The battery with front LED off, stayed surprisingly long at 100%. After 2 hours of reading with wifi off, I still had 100%, and only after 3 hours did it go down to 96%


With LED off, the screen background was a bit more yellow than I had anticipated, reading from under incandescent light.
It's clearly not as white as printing paper, and from memory only marginally whiter than my almost 8 years old Sony PRS-505.
The darks aren't black, but rather dark grey; though clearly darker than the PRS-505, or even the Kindle Paperwhite 1.

The screen refresh happens a lot faster, partly due to it only fully flushing every 6 pageturns, instead of at every page turn.
The pageturns go fast, but the screen flush (completely going black and back), still are quite noticeable, though not too disturbing.
The Kindle Voyage has more of a 'rolling' refresh, where the black rolls like a wave over the screen, rather than a dark screen flash, and I would have preferred that instead...
But I can definitely live with the current screen flush, although I wished I could set it between 8 to 12 pageturns instead of 6.

The frame and border around the screen I liked less.
Though the border and screen have a "glare free" coating, there is a small part on the screen border (between screen and device border, part of the frame), which is reflective, and often distracting when reading.
Though it looks nice, I often find myself angling the device, to get the reflection from the lights off of it.

I also found the border attracting fingergrease very easily!


The flap on the bottom looks flimsy, and not 'confidence aspiring'-mounted to the device. I'm not fond of it.




I'm somewhat missing a nice pinch and zoom feature,
easier access to the web browser (from the homescreen),
and variety in the device's accessoires.


Lastly, both on the Kobo website, as well as on the device itself they mention ads to "Rakuten", a famous Asian sales website in electronics.
Funny enough, they don't sell any Kobo readers themselves, but you can find all kinds of accessories on there for any ebook Reader.

[oren64]

But I can definitely live with the current screen flush, although I wished I could set it between 8 to 12 pageturns instead of 6.

See Index to the Metazoa firmware patches, you can patch your firmware and increase the number of page turn.

[eenk]

Originally Posted by ProDigit

The battery with front LED off, stayed surprisingly long at 100%. After 2 hours of reading with wifi off, I still had 100%, and only after 3 hours did it go down to 96%

My experience is that the LED frontlight is very battery-friendly, at least with the brightness levels I use; around 15% only.

Please give it three or so complete battry run-downs in order for the battery indicator to become more precise. Often, the 100% readings are not to precise; looks like a clamp-up to make sure customers see the expected 100% reading when in fact the charger switched off at a slightly different level because it couldn't get any more charge into the device.

Alas, I would be interested to hear how your experience will be comparing the Kindle and Kobo devices in terms of battery lifetime for a full charge?

[tayseidel]

Interesting read ProDigit. Thank you for the input.

I considered the H20 along with the Voyage before I decided on the Glo HD. Like you, I was tempted by the size of the H20, however, the screen is 265 dpi. The Glo HD screen is smaller and has a higher dpi at 300. I knew text on the smaller screen at the higher dpi would look sharper.

I have a discerning eye, so the higher dpi was important to me. EDIT: I can tell the difference between 720p and 1080p source video on a device such as my TV, so I'm attentive to little things like that. Which is why dpi was an important factor in my purchase- I wanted the text on my Glo HD to be as sharp as possible. That, and the Kobo isn't locked down like the Kindles are.

[eenk]

Originally Posted by tayseidel

I can tell the difference between 720p and 1080p source video, ...

(rant on) While I personally cannot tell the difference between 300dpi and 265dpi at normal reading distance I can often easily tell the difference between 720p/HD and 1080p/FullHD footage when some feet apart from my TV: because this is not a change in density (720 lines in a frame are not necessarily 720dpi, except on a 1" height screen) but often quite different bit rates, making even the best upscalers cry. Or are you refering to an HD display versus a full-HD display of the same size viewed from the same distance? Then, at a certain distance they will also look alike; the exact distance may vary from person to person, depending on their ability to still differentiate things at a certain angle. But this is about ebooks?(rant off)

[John F]

Originally Posted by oren64

See Index to the Metazoa firmware patches, you can patch your firmware and increase the number of page turn.

And you don't have to patch; you could edit the config file.

[tayseidel]

Originally Posted by eenk

(rant on) While I personally cannot tell the difference between 300dpi and 265dpi at normal reading distance I can often easily tell the difference between 720p/HD and 1080p/FullHD footage when some feet apart from my TV: because this is not a change in density (720 lines in a frame are not necessarily 720dpi, except on a 1" height screen) but often quite different bit rates, making even the best upscalers cry. Or are you refering to an HD display versus a full-HD display of the same size viewed from the same distance? Then, at a certain distance they will also look alike; the exact distance may vary from person to person, depending on their ability to still differentiate things at a certain angle. But this is about ebooks?(rant off)

I was not directly comparing 720/1080p video sources to e-ink technology. I was merely pointing out that my ability to discern the difference between the two video sources is analogous to my ability to discern the difference in pixel density on panel screens. Of course I know the pixel density does not change between video sources of varying resolutions on a device like my TV- pixel density is always fixed on a device. The pixel density on TV's is typically much lower than that of desktop computer monitors (at least, good quality desktop monitors, like my Planar).

I'll go a step further and ask: what do you mean by a "full HD" display? If 1920x1080 is "full-hd" then what is 1900x1200? 2560×1700? 3440×1440?

When I am reading a book on an e-ink device, I can see the difference in pixel density between devices. A higher dpi on a smaller screen is going to look sharper than a lower dpi on a bigger screen. My point is, since I am about a feet away from an ereader when reading an ebook, it is easy to tell the difference between devices of varying dpi. That is why I went for the Glo HD- that is not a hit against the H20- just a matter of personal preference. I see absolutely nothing wrong with another person not minding that a bigger screen has a lower dpi.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by oren64

See Index to the Metazoa firmware patches, you can patch your firmware and increase the number of page turn.

Or, to me, simpler, change the config file:

- Set the refresh rate to something other than 6
- Connect to the PC
- Open the file ".kobo/Kobo/Kobo eReader.conf" with a Linux line-end aware editor.
- Find the line with "numPartialUpdatePageTurns"
- Change the number on the end of the line to anything up to 99.
- Save the file and eject the device.

The only problem with this is that you cannot change the setting on the Reading settings page. If you look, it shows "Oh the humanity!" and the standard options.

[ProDigit]

The Glo HD, Kindle paperwhite, and Voyage all have the same size screen, and 300dpi.
The H2O is the only one with almost exactly the same screen, save for just a few less rows and columns of pixels, and slightly larger.
From any distance of 10in or more, i doubt you can actually see the difference, unless you concentrate hard on it.

I understand that the 200DPI from the Kindle PPW 2, and the 300DPI from the newest one, are quite noticeable.

I also understand, especially at smaller font sizes, that the difference is even more noticeable.
Theoretically, 8pt on the older screens, should give you the same charactersize as 12pt on the newer devices.
Likewise, while 8pt is still readable on a 200dpi screen, though letters are jagged up a bit, 8pt on a 300DPI device is so small you'd need a magnifying glass to see it, unless they somewhat applied a zoom factor on those larger dpi screens to make them visually the same size as on the 200dpi screens (which I think is the case)

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by ProDigit

I also understand, especially at smaller font sizes, that the difference is even more noticeable.
Theoretically, 8pt on the older screens, should give you the same charactersize as 12pt on the newer devices.
Likewise, while 8pt is still readable on a 200dpi screen, though letters are jagged up a bit, 8pt on a 300DPI device is so small you'd need a magnifying glass to see it, unless they somewhat applied a zoom factor on those larger dpi screens to make them visually the same size as on the 200dpi screens (which I think is the case)

Just to raise a nit, with the same font, 8 point type will be the same size on either the 200dpi or the 300dpi screen (the em square would be ~8/72" on a side). I mentioned the same font since there are variances in how much of the em square is used so different fonts can be a different size at the same point setting. I'd suspect that you meant pixel since 8 points would be ~22 pixels on the 200 DPI screen and ~33 pixels on the 300 DPI screen.any length of time.

[eenk]

Originally Posted by tayseidel

I'll go a step further and ask: what do you mean by a "full HD" display? If 1920x1080 is "full-hd" then what is 1900x1200? 2560×1700? 3440×1440?

"Full HD" (with/without space) is a well-known term in video tech and usually refers to frame dimensions of 1920x1080 pixels, 16:9 format, thus 1:1 pixel ratio. 1080p refers to vertical frame size, the p means progressive and signals that a single frame contains a full image.

Full HD is also a marketing term, so footage with frame sizes beyond Full HD needed new names for differentiation. Such as GoPro with their 2.7K which actually is 1580p or so. 4K, and larger K's are now popping up everywhere in order to refer to frame sizes beyond Full HD.

[ProDigit]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Just to raise a nit, with the same font, 8 point type will be the same size on either the 200dpi or the 300dpi screen (the em square would be ~8/72" on a side). I mentioned the same font since there are variances in how much of the em square is used so different fonts can be a different size at the same point setting. I'd suspect that you meant pixel since 8 points would be ~22 pixels on the 200 DPI screen and ~33 pixels on the 300 DPI screen.any length of time.

Yeah, I thought so.
Following that logic, it means that if 6pt would be the smallest readable font size on a 200dpi, then 4pt would be the smallest on a 300DPI screen; any smaller and the letters or symbols would be mutilated due to too low pixels.

8pt is barely readable on a 200DPI screen.
I haven't tried below 8pt, but is possible that 6pt can be read on 200DPI screens.
I don't think a lot of people will want to read a book written in 8pt or lower; unless they make use of a magnifying glass.

[Desdinova]

Originally Posted by ProDigit

Upon arrival of the package, and opening the box, it felt as if they had sent me an empty cardboard box. The weight of the device is about the same as the cardboard box that it came with; very lightweight; but still a bit uncomfortable to hold for long reads.
I'm not sure, but it feels a bit heavier than the Kindle Paperwhite 1.
I had wanted another 10-15% of weight reduction the least!

I can imagine why the Voyage gets so good reviews, as they're on the mark from weight perspective.
.

The difference in screen area (and therefore proportionally volume for an equal thickness device) from 6" to 6.8" is just a hair under 30% so perhaps you need to factor that in when comparing weight between a 6" kindle and a 6.8" kobo....

In fact, looking at dimensions the Voyage is 60% smaller than the H2O as far as volume is concerned. As the voyage is 180g to the H20's 233g, thats a 30% increase in weight for a 60% increase in size. Not bad

[tayseidel]

I'm now considering the Aura H20 for camping trips and trips to the Oregon coast, where sand is a big issue for electronics. I don't mind having both the Glo HD and the H20, and I do not think an update to the H20 will be forthcoming for a while.

[tayseidel]

Got the H20. My wife is going to be mad at me for purchasing two new ereaders in the past week, the Glo HD and the H20, after having just one reader for the past four years.