Kobo Aura H2O - First Impressions

[Loom]

Got my H2O yesterday and immediately noticed several black dots sprinkled all over the display.

I assume these are defect E-ink microcapsules, as some users stated before. They are tiny, but they are there and won't leave wether the screen inverts or not. About 5-10 black dots all in all. And once you've noticed, you cannot unsee them ..

I'm not sure if I should exchange my reader but I'd like to know if there are devices with absolute perfect displays available.

[mr_nihilism]

Originally Posted by Loom

Got my H2O yesterday and immediately noticed several black dots sprinkled all over the display.

I assume these are defect E-ink microcapsules, as some users stated before. They are tiny, but they are there and won't leave wether the screen inverts or not. About 5-10 black dots all in all. And once you've noticed, you cannot unsee them ..

I'm not sure if I should exchange my reader but I'd like to know if there are devices with absolute perfect displays available.

I was fortunate enough to get an excellent screen on the first try. I would never be a early adopter unless I could just go to a bookstore to exchange it if necessary. I feel for all that have to deal with having it shipped.

[mathil]

Originally Posted by Loom

Got my H2O yesterday and immediately noticed several black dots sprinkled all over the display.

I assume these are defect E-ink microcapsules, as some users stated before. They are tiny, but they are there and won't leave wether the screen inverts or not. About 5-10 black dots all in all. And once you've noticed, you cannot unsee them ..

I'm not sure if I should exchange my reader but I'd like to know if there are devices with absolute perfect displays available.

Just got mine today and the display is, as far as I can see, perfect. So is the light (no blotches, bright spots etc.). I'm very happy with it.

[robko]

Originally Posted by johnnystuff

In the user manual it says 2 secs push to turn it on, just a quick press for standby and a prolonged one to switch it off.

Well to me it's more like standby and power off cycle themselves with no chance to go one way or the other according to press lenght. Basically: I'm reading, I press pow button for *a while* (way more than 2 secs) and it goes into standby, then I switch it back on, I keep reading, I push pow button again for few secs, it switches off. Next time, it'll go into standby, time afer that it'll switch off..... short press simply does nothing. Is it normal?

If you're reading a press (without holding) should put the device to sleep. From this state a press (without holding) should wake the device back up.
With device on a slightly longer press with a brief hold (not sure it really has to be 2 seconds, I think less would work better) should turn it off. You may need to hold it briefly to get it to turn on when it is powered down.

[Tx65]

Does the Aura H2O have a scrollable list of search results?

Let's say you want to find the last page where the name of the main character is mentioned. 600 search results. Do you have to tap the screen now until your fingers are bleeding, or is there an easy way to get to the last result?

I own a Paperwhite but am not totally happy with the list of search results. It shows 3 results per page, so to get to the bottom of the list of 600 search results, you would have to tap the screen 200 times.

[robko]

Originally Posted by Tx65

Does the Aura H2O have a scrollable list of search results?

Let's say you want to find the last page where the name of the main character is mentioned. 600 search results. Do you have to tap the screen now until your fingers are bleeding, or is there an easy way to get to the last result?

I own a Paperwhite but am not totally happy with the list of search results. It shows 3 results per page, so to get to the bottom of the list of 600 search results, you would have to tap the screen 200 times.

There is no easy answer to that. On the plus side it shows 6 per page and you can jump directly to any page (touch the "of" in page x of x at the top right of search). You could in this case (since you are after the last), just swipe "backwards" and go from the 1st page of results to the last page. HOWEVER, search results are limited to 100 total and always start from the start of the book (no way to search from part way through), so in the case of a character name that's going to show up a lot you may not be able to get what you want.

[Tx65]

Thanks. What a pity that it's limited to 100 results because otherwise it would be exactly what I'm looking for.

The Paperwhite seems to be unlimited, I just checked for the word "the" in a book: 4963 results. But since I wouldn't want to swipe 1655 times to get to the end of the list, that also doesn't really help.

[johnnystuff]

Originally Posted by robko

If you're reading a press (without holding) should put the device to sleep. From this state a press (without holding) should wake the device back up.
With device on a slightly longer press with a brief hold (not sure it really has to be 2 seconds, I think less would work better) should turn it off. You may need to hold it briefly to get it to turn on when it is powered down.

That's weird. It works like you say, and as it should, only if I try few times but if the device has been idle or sleeping for few hours I need a very long press to do anything (standby, switch off and on). I'm talking of more than 10 secs and it's kinda hard to keep it pressed, I need to use my nails and push the right side of the button, the one towards the right corner of the device.

Meh, it's not really broken but I was wondering if it's worth sending it back to get a new one :s

[anacreon]

Originally Posted by johnnystuff

That's weird. It works like you say, and as it should, only if I try few times but if the device has been idle or sleeping for few hours I need a very long press to do anything (standby, switch off and on). I'm talking of more than 10 secs and it's kinda hard to keep it pressed, I need to use my nails and push the right side of the button, the one towards the right corner of the device.

Meh, it's not really broken but I was wondering if it's worth sending it back to get a new one :s

Have you checked your automatic shut-off parameter? Mine is set on "never", but perhaps yours isn't.

[danwatto]

Originally Posted by GeoffR

It really comes down to personal preference, some like kepubs, others (myself included) prefer epubs.

I would sum it up as: the kepub reader supports some extra features, but the epub reader does a better job at actually displaying text on the page:

Some extra kepub features such as cloud sync, in-book chapter progress charts, BeyondTheBook (extra content including articles about the author, locations in the story, etc.) only work with kepubs bought from Kobo; others such as popup footnote previews, page header containing the book title, double-tap to zoom images work with sideloaded kepubs too.

The epub reader does a better job at displaying embedded fonts, hyphenation, justification, and works better in full-screen mode.

Edit: My preference has changed since I first got my Glo. In older firmware versions, perhaps up to version 2.8.1, the kepub reader was better than the epub reader. However since then the epub reader has improved (bugs have been fixed) while the kepub reader has become worse overall (new features added, but also new bugs added that affect basic text layout functions like justification.)

Is there a way to turn off the KEPUB conversion in the Extended driver?
Or do we just disable/remove the extended plugin altogether?

I tried looking at the options but the screen for the extended driver doesn't have any choice about conversion, looks like it will always convert to kepub?

[robko]

Originally Posted by anacreon

Have you checked your automatic shut-off parameter? Mine is set on "never", but perhaps yours isn't.

This would be my first thought to check, but....

Originally Posted by johnnystuff

That's weird. It works like you say, and as it should, only if I try few times but if the device has been idle or sleeping for few hours I need a very long press to do anything (standby, switch off and on). I'm talking of more than 10 secs and it's kinda hard to keep it pressed, I need to use my nails and push the right side of the button, the one towards the right corner of the device.

... from what you're describing here it sounds like it's hung somehow and you're forcing a shutdown with the really long press to get it to reboot. 1st I'd try removing whatever book you're currently reading (or added before that started) and see if that solves it. If that doesn't or it's always been like this, I'd try a factory reset (which will wipe everything) and put a limited number of books (preferably not including the one you were currently reading) back on it just to make sure it isn't a book that's causing an issue.
Beyond that it's likely a hardware fault and exchange would be a good plan.

[johnnystuff]

I tried all you suggested, included the factory reset but finally I think it's just a matter of a slightly loosey button. Sometime I can't even hear the click when pushing it and I noticed that putting some pressure on the bezel around the button itself (pushing the front and the back of the device) helps, at least for the click and the sensitivity of the button apparently too.

Not that it grants the 2 sec thingy for the standby anyway. Not even sure it's worth an rma.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by danwatto

Is there a way to turn off the KEPUB conversion in the Extended driver?
Or do we just disable/remove the extended plugin altogether?

I tried looking at the options but the screen for the extended driver doesn't have any choice about conversion, looks like it will always convert to kepub?

Personally, I just disable the extended driver and enable the main driver. But, on the rare occasions I just want to disable the conversion, I uncheck the "Enable Extended Kobo Features" option in the extended driver configuration.

[John C]

The kobo site has sent prepaid return as I wanted to change my order right after I ordered.

[loyukfai]

Has anyone installed Koreader on it and able to comment the PDF page turn speed?

There's a video comparing the Voyage with H2O, and the latter has somewhat worse PDF page turn speed.

Cheers.