Looking for 8-inch reader: Forma or Sage?

[diesel_fan]

Hello!

On the market for my second Kobo. Currently using Libra 2. But wanted to have an 8-inch screen and deciding between Forma or Sage. I understand that Sage is newer / faster, but with mediocre battery life. Forma is lighter, better battery, but slower and easier to scrath the screen.
What would you recommend?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by diesel_fan

Hello!

On the market for my second Kobo. Currently using Libra 2. But wanted to have an 8-inch screen and deciding between Forma or Sage. I understand that Sage is newer / faster, but with mediocre battery life. Forma is lighter, better battery, but slower and easier to scrath the screen.
What would you recommend?

Given that the Forma is an older Kobo, if you find a used one to buy one, you could find the battery is not good.

[Sirtel]

The Sage. The Forma is too old by now.

The battery of my Sage still lasts for several days after 3.5 years of daily use, so while not that good compared to other eink devices, it's perfectly usable (this is with wifi and sync permanently off and the frontlight around 10-11. Wifi, automatic syncing and middle to high frontlight levels shorten the battery life of the Sage considerably).

[DNSB]

I would have to recommend the Sage. The battery life is not the greatest (about 50% of most of my other ereaders) but I can read for several days before charging. Considering most of my devices require charging on a more frequent date, I'm not unhappy with plugging it in to charge every second day or so.

The Forma was sold from October, 2018 to October, 2021 (not exact but that was the Sage's release time) so the battery is at least 4 years old. The only person I know who purchased a used Forma found the battery has dropped to about 66% of it's original capacity though they seem happy enough with that.

[Apollyon202]

I also wanted to buy a Forma before, but given up on that, the battery is probably really bad or even dead in most of the devices.

Humans have sent people to the moon, but almost 60 years later we are struggling with non-removable batteries and creating mountains of electronic waste because of that. It is hilarious and sad at the same time.

[nana77]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Given that the Forma is an older Kobo, if you find a used one to buy one, you could find the battery is not good.

I'm currently using a Forma, bought years ago, if I recall it correctly the battery is the same on both devices (Forma vs Sage).
Mine has been kept off several months, or even years; I'd tried to give it a charge once and then so the battery won't damage too much as I guess discarged litium ones goes really bad.
Thought for my use I like it, as its superlight (175/195 gr) weight, and even if the battery now longers just 8/12 hours it would be enought for me, as I don't bring it outside, and giving it a charge between readings is fine.
An issue would be that on used market, for those devices, the price follows its own rules, or any rule at all, as I see not rarely that used ones costs (on ebay) more than a new brand device.
I guess he/she won't find a Forma used, and a Sage could be better, within the same specs; and yes: the screen on the Forma is really sensible at scratches (and that's another part, altogheder batteries) that won't be repleaceable.

OT: I saw EU's regulations would be suggesting to add ecosystem's marks on phones and devices (how much them would be repairable), hopefully those trademarks could be added to eraders too.

[John F]

My mother needs to charge her Sage daily, sometimes twice a day. I would guess that she turns pages more then the average user.

[Renate]

Originally Posted by John F

My mother needs to charge her Sage daily, sometimes twice a day.

No, something's wrong. The battery is worn out or there is a problem.

[Anghirrim]

I'm using my good old Forma and am quite happy with it. Battery is still great (a few weeks between each charge), wifi off and backlight to the minimum.

Even when my kids started reading .cbz with light around 15% it used to last a good week with 1 to 3 hours of reading a day.

For the screen, if you're careful, the plastic screen is a great advantage vs glass as it's way less fragile. This is important on a large screen.

But... It's slow and as noted above... Old. I would not recommend buying it now unless you find a really good deal.

It does the job as a e-reader. I'm happy with it. But there now are better options on the market.

If.... You only read epubs and use a "normal font size", you can consider a 7". I'm on an Boox Page now and am happier. If... Plan to read pdf's, even 8" is to small to my taste.

Manga's are just ok. Larger comics... Too small.

[John F]

Originally Posted by Renate

No, something's wrong. The battery is worn out or there is a problem.

Yup. Low capacity battery. It was similar with her Forma.

[JSWolf]

What is the difference in physical size of the battery in the Sage vs the Libra 2? You can easily get a Libra 2 2000mAh battery and if it fits, put it in a Sage.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by John F

My mother needs to charge her Sage daily, sometimes twice a day. I would guess that she turns pages more then the average user.

I'm going to disagree with that suggestion. My Sage lasts at least a couple of days even with my average of 6.4 pages per minute and multiple hours of reading per day.

[John F]

Originally Posted by DNSB

I'm going to disagree with that suggestion. My Sage lasts at least a couple of days even with my average of 6.4 pages per minute and multiple hours of reading per day.

What suggestion are you disagreeing with? I thought I was stating my mom's behavior.

[salamanderjuice]

Originally Posted by DNSB

I'm going to disagree with that suggestion. My Sage lasts at least a couple of days even with my average of 6.4 pages per minute and multiple hours of reading per day.

Maybe his mom reads for 8 hour days and does 10 ppm.

[jlinear]

Originally Posted by DNSB

I'm going to disagree with that suggestion. My Sage lasts at least a couple of days even with my average of 6.4 pages per minute and multiple hours of reading per day.

"At least a couple of days?" I hope that is not meant to be an endorsement of the Sage's battery life. My aged Asus One still gets 1-2 weeks with some to spare. The Sage's battery life is pathetic when compared to the performance of past Kobo e-readers. I returned a Sage because the battery pooped out in 1 1/2 days when brand new and WiFi, Bluetooth and Syncing all disabled.