My Kobo Aura H2O review unit arrived

[arspr]

I also experience the same behaviour between my Sony PRS 650 and my AuraHD, both Pearl displays. Without the front light, HD white is clearly darker than Sony one. (I posted this "issue" when I just opened the Aura HD package). My supposition like yours is that the extra layers are the culprit.

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by Barty

This is interesting. I have a kindle keyboard (pearl) and paper white 2 (carta, front light). With PW on lowest light setting (light cannot be turned off completely) the kindle keyboard has a lighter background and darker text by small but noticeable margin. PW has finer font because of higher resolution. I think the light layer and capacitive touch layer decrease contrast. Also, the paper white has browner tinted background while keyboard has note neutral if not slightly bluish gray,

If you have a paper white Nate, I'd like to hear comparison.

I actually have both paperwhites, and had charged them with this in mind.

When the frontlights are off, the 2013 KPW has a slightly darker screen than the Aura H2O. I want to say that it is slightly more brown, but it's hard to pin down the specific shade when it's that close to white.

With the frontlights on, the screen on the Aura H2O is both whiter and brighter.

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by arspr

I'm not going to teach you how to test the device but I would like to pinpoint the critical items I would like to see:

• THE TEST. Period. Carta (H2O) vs Pearl (HD). Go through the very same books and settings with and without front light. PLEASE, thousands of tests, pictures, whatever...
• Carta + IR (H2O) vs Carta + capacitive (Kindle PW2). Kobo should be slightly better because IR is air but Kindle has extra layers on top of the screen. If possible another batch of lots of tests/photographs side by side.
• Quality and building of the USB and SD sealing. Please consider that the USB port needs to be "frequently" opened in order to charge the device.
• Responsiveness. Not really, really critical as Aura HD and H2O seem to have the same CPU. But let's see how page turns go (maybe Carta can win Pearl again despite the CPU) and how HEAVY pdfs or web-pages are handled. Again, a side by side video would be great.
• IR touch precision / responsiveness. I mean, my Aura HD is really really better than my old PRS-650 in nearly all aspects (but stock software design, dictionary quality and the plethora of small annoying little bugs that Kobo always suffer IMO) but nevertheless I've got the feeling the IR precision is maybe even slightly worse. Of course a comparison against the capacitive Kindle PW2 would be also welcomed, although here, Kindle should perform much better because of its technology...
• If you update them to the very same firmware version, tell us which differences you see between HD and H2O features.

They're both on 3.8 now.

Responsiveness and speed of page turn - I can't see a fundamental difference in accuracy or speed. They are equally accurate and turn the page at close enough intervals that it's effectively simultaneous.

The KPW2 is still slightly faster, though.

[rwhe]

Originally Posted by rwhe

Do the facts that it weighs slightly less, is slightly thinner, and has a rubberized back, add up to a significantly less cumbersome, more comfortable reading experience?

Thanks.

Sorry, I meant than the Aura HD. I sense that many potential buyers of the H2O already have Aura HDs and would like a direct comparison.

[arspr]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

When the frontlights are off, the 2013 KPW has a slightly darker screen than the Aura H2O. I want to say that it is slightly more brown, but it's hard to pin down the specific shade when it's that close to white.

With the frontlights on, the screen on the Aura H2O is both whiter and brighter.

That makes perfect sense. A side effect of the "better" capacitive touch technology...

[soulfuldog]

Originally Posted by Barty

This is interesting. I have a kindle keyboard (pearl) and paper white 2 (carta, front light). With PW on lowest light setting (light cannot be turned off completely) the kindle keyboard has a lighter background and darker text by small but noticeable margin. PW has finer font because of higher resolution. I think the light layer and capacitive touch layer decrease contrast. Also, the paper white has browner tinted background while keyboard has note neutral if not slightly bluish gray.

I agree the KK has a more bluish grey and the PW2 is a more yellow/brown, but I found that in daylight conditions, the PW2 screen looked considerably better. Strangely, in duller conditions, the KK looked better? I took a photo comparing them both with my Sony 350 and you can clearly see the improvements between them.

Originally Posted by arspr

That makes perfect sense. A side effect of the "better" capacitive touch technology...

I'd expect the Aura H20 to look a little better than the PW2 because of that side effect as you say. Amazon have done a pretty good job with the Paperwhite though, and it shows where Kobo can make an improvement with the smaller Aura. It seems pretty clear the H20 will have the best screen of all though, but that's no surprise as the Aura HD looked pretty comparable to the PW2 despite having a Pearl screen versus the Carta.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

You already started, didn't you?

(Couldn't resist. )

Not yet, but soon.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

They're both on 3.8 now.

Responsiveness and speed of page turn - I can't see a fundamental difference in accuracy or speed. They are equally accurate and turn the page at close enough intervals that it's effectively simultaneous.

The KPW2 is still slightly faster, though.

That could be because the PW2 has less to update per screen change.

[colinsky]

Does it survive soap in the bath?

[Anak]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

I don't plan to post a review for at least a week, but if you have any questions ask and I will try to answer them.

Could you test if some long standing bugs are fixed now (or have at least improved?)

I have a question which is directly related to the main function of this device (reading) and it is about

Embedded fonts (part of the firmware/preinstalled fonts by Kobo)

1. are font sub families finally displayed correctly? Italics as italics, bold as bold, etc.

See this thread: No italics for generic sans-serif font family (fallback font)(+ post #501 in the same thread)

Please, test this for all embedded fonts for both kepub and regular epub.
To be fair, I'm aware that Kobo made some progress in firmware 3.8.0 but that is no guarantee... (firmware 3.5.0 was a complete failure regarding fonts)
Some of the Gothic font sub families are still not displayed correcty in fw 3.8.0.

[Anak]

Originally Posted by arspr

I also experience the same behaviour between my Sony PRS 650 and my AuraHD, both Pearl displays. Without the front light, HD white is clearly darker than Sony one. (I posted this "issue" when I just opened the Aura HD package). My supposition like yours is that the extra layers are the culprit.

Yes, that is a layers issue. There are several layers i.e.: for touch, for front light, a protective coating, etc. and several different ways to apply them.
These layers and implementation directly have an effect on the final contrast of the screen and explains why different ereader models (and/or brands) and use the same screen technology (Carta or Pearl) have different contrast scores. Serious reviews publish the measured contrast of the screen.

IR should do better than a capacitive touch screen but would a 'water resistant' coating perform worse than a normal coating? Doesn't have to, but it could.

[booklover6]

Doesn't the H2O run the same exact software? Just put 3.8.0 on your Glo and you can get the answers to all of these questions yourself.

Originally Posted by Anak

Could you test if some long standing bugs are fixed now (or have at least improved?)

I have a question which is directly related to the main function of this device (reading) and it is about

Embedded fonts (part of the firmware/preinstalled fonts by Kobo)

1. are font sub families finally displayed correctly? Italics as italics, bold as bold, etc.

See this thread: No italics for generic sans-serif font family (fallback font)(+ post #501 in the same thread)

Please, test this for all embedded fonts for both kepub and regular epub.
To be fair, I'm aware that Kobo made some progress in firmware 3.8.0 but that is no guarantee... (firmware 3.5.0 was a complete failure regarding fonts)
Some of the Gothic font sub families are still not displayed correcty in fw 3.8.0.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Anak

Could you test if some long standing bugs are fixed now (or have at least improved?)

I have a question which is directly related to the main function of this device (reading) and it is about

Embedded fonts (part of the firmware/preinstalled fonts by Kobo)

1. are font sub families finally displayed correctly? Italics as italics, bold as bold, etc.

See this thread: No italics for generic sans-serif font family (fallback font)(+ post #501 in the same thread)

Please, test this for all embedded fonts for both kepub and regular epub.
To be fair, I'm aware that Kobo made some progress in firmware 3.8.0 but that is no guarantee... (firmware 3.5.0 was a complete failure regarding fonts)
Some of the Gothic font sub families are still not displayed correcty in fw 3.8.0.

Given that his Aura H2O is on 3.8.0, I'd suspect that there will be no differences between his Aura HD and Aura H2O when it comes to bugs in 3.8.0.

Regards,
David

[Anak]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Given that his Aura H2O is on 3.8.0, I'd suspect that there will be no differences between his Aura HD and Aura H2O when it comes to bugs in 3.8.0.

Regards,
David

I didn't know the H2O came with a 3.8.0 release. When I wrote the message I expected the H2O would use a newer firmware release. A H2O exclusive release which would be rolled out to other devices later.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Anak

I didn't know the H2O came with a 3.8.0 release. When I wrote the message I expected the H2O would use a newer firmware release. A H2O exclusive release which would be rolled out to other devices later.

The only report I can think of says the H2O gets 3.7.0 during setup. 3.8.0 was released the day after this was mentioned and Kobo said it was going to the Touch, Glo, Aura and Aura HD. I would expect it is also going to the Aura H2O and Kobo didn't mention it because no-one had one. Or that Kobo plan to release another firmware closer to the release date.