Aura ONE Kobo Aura One owners thread

[Katsunami]

By the way, I have reported that I feel that I read faster on the KA1 than on the KPW1.

It seems to be 'officially' confirmed by both readers. I've been reading the same book on both of them. I read on the KPW1 in public transport, and on the KA1 at home (if I have time to read), until I get a cover for the KA1. Thus, I'm leapfrogging chapters, from one reader to the other.

When I now set them to the same chapter, these are the results:

At this point, the KPW1 says Time to Read, 6 hours, 12 minutes. (6.25 hours).
The Kobo Aura ONE says Time to Read, 5.2 hours.

I know the Kindle is spot on, as long as it isn't hit with the "From now on, I'll show you HALF the time you ACTUALLY need"-bug. Assuming that the KA1 is correct as well, that would mean that I'm reading 17% faster on the KA1.

Spoiler:

Setting the Kindle's 6.25 at 100%, would mean 5.2 hours on the KA1 is 100/6.25*5.2 = 83.2%, so that would be about 17% faster.

[JoOrwick]

My Kobo Aura One arrived this afternoon. Needless to say, I'm very satisfied.
I'm happy to report that my unit came with no screen imperfections and the frontlight uniformity is great. There are some small build quality issues, though.

The right bezel has a little gap between the display and the plastic edge. It's not very noticeable, but it's definitely there. When turning the device on the little square LED at the top right corner causes small light leakage where the gap is. It's not noticeable in daylight, but in complete darkness, a very small dot of light can be seen inside of the gap. The LED light is on only when turning the device on or off, so this in my opinion is not a big deal.

Also, when the frontlight is on, I can see a tiny bit of light coming through the sides of the USB port. It's not visible at all in regular usage, but tilting the device just right while looking inside the USB port reveals minor light leakage spots. I just hope these little imperfections don't affect the waterproof rating in any way.

As I mentioned earlier, the display is pretty much perfect and the frontlight uniformity is great even when using the natural light feature. It's just as sharp if not sharper than my Paperwhite 3 and it appears to have slightly better contrast, as well. It feels wrong going back to reading on a 6" device after spending 5 hours with the Aura One.
I can finally use a large font and still be able to fit ~30 lines of text on the screen.

As for the software, it definitely needs some work. Epubs feel a little slow and my device froze up on one occasion forcing me to restart the device. This shouldn't be happening on a $230 ereader.

The build quality is decent other than the minor light leakage I mentioned earlier. There's no creaking and bending and the device feels very sturdy overall. It's very thin, maybe even too thin for my liking. I'd much rather have a slightly thicker device with a larger battery.
Battery life seems good, not great, just good. Reading exactly 2.5 hours (light at 7%, natural light at 0%, wifi and sync off) caused the battery indicator to go from 100% down to 91%. Keep in mind that the battery has only gone through one charge cycle.

A picture of my Aura One: http://imgur.com/HUqLpFP

[Alan_S]

Originally Posted by JoOrwick

I just hope these little imperfections don't affect the waterproof rating in any way.

From Kobo's information, they did go different way for waterproofing.

They didn't make device that can't take water in, but they waterproofed every and each component with nano coating that allows water to get in and don't damage device. Of course, that's what they claim.

So you have, for example, USB port exposed to water. In H2O you have little cover to protect USB and and reset hole.

[DarthV]

Bought one last weekend and it's going back. Under good lighting, it's great. But when I have to use the onboard light anything above 15-18%, I notice some weird grey smears. And since the KA1 costs just short of $300 after tax, I expect pretty much perfection. Guess I'll try another unit and see what happens.

[pickyaxe]

Has anyone had the Aura One shipped from Chapters/Indigo in the past 2 weeks?

They're still claiming "out of stock" on my order almost 3 weeks later. I'm beginning to think that it's something more than just not having stock.

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by emilov

All I ever do is read books (epub/mobi). I don't highlight, don't care about time to read or any other features (browser on an ereader, seriously?!). I use one font, mostly one size for everything. I use page forward and back and sometimes dictionary. Any other features are (mostly) useless, possibly buggy, and therefore dead weight in my book (pun intended). Any ereader which can supply the simple functionality I outlined, reliably, is good.

So from the above perspective, the KA1 is just about perfect for me. The hardware is superb (so far ). I switched from Kindle PW2 because of the larger screen on the KA1. The software is less stable/polished than the Kindle one but you can tweak and patch a ton of things on the Kobo. Thanks to this forum, I learned how to do it and now I've got my KA1 set up juuuust right.

With about the same requirements of a reader as above, I'm also very happy with the One. Are there things that could have been done better? Undoubtedly. But most of those are a version 1 (think the natural light). And if nobody does it, nobody can make mistakes but also nobody can enjoy it and give feedback.

Originally Posted by Akbar

I would only use a stylus enabled device for good annotation, such as Surface3 which I use almost everyday. I found it frustrating to highlight texts on my H2O. I also tried koreader but it tended to crush on my device. It seems Aura One is not any better in this respect.

I only hightlight when I want to mark down a mistake (so I can correct it later). And if I have a book with many of those, I'll read it on my tablet and correct the mistake immediately. And if I want to make notes, I'll use either my phone (OneNote) or either of my two Note tablets (one windows, the other android). So, that notetaking and hightlighting isn't that important to me for my ereader.

[NightGoat]

So, I'm attempting to exchange my Aura Uno for having a blotchy screen.

They wanted 3 pictures front/back/USB-port: Sent
Then they wanted proof of purchase: purchase confirmation email, sent
Then they wanted my name/address/colour of device(?): sent

Why this piecemeal, email process? I mean, do they not have me on record in their system?

Kobo has got to be the weirdest online company I have ever dealt with.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by NightGoat

Kobo has got to be the weirdest online company I have ever dealt with.

Try DELL. You order a computer there, get an "Order received" confirmation, and then they take at least 5 working days to actually confirm the order itself.

[CatherineStewart]

Originally Posted by NightGoat

So, I'm attempting to exchange my Aura Uno for having a blotchy screen.

They wanted 3 pictures front/back/USB-port: Sent
Then they wanted proof of purchase: purchase confirmation email, sent
Then they wanted my name/address/colour of device(?): sent

Why this piecemeal, email process? I mean, do they not have me on record in their system?

Kobo has got to be the weirdest online company I have ever dealt with.

I ordered directly from Kobo and contacted them via their Facebook page. They are sending mea new one right away with a return package for my old one. They did not request any info from me (other than pictures of the defect).

[NightGoat]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

Try DELL. You order a computer there, get an "Order received" confirmation, and then they take at least 5 working days to actually confirm the order itself.

Hey, I do a lot of warranty requests from D(H)ell.
I perform the troubleshooting and call on behalf of the end user.

I submit that person's name as the one needing onsite assistance.
The Dell Rep even asks me who the end user is and where they're located.

However, I'm the one who receives the call from the onsite tech to inform me that they're outside the building for some scheduled appointment that I'm not privy to.

I'm like "Uh, why are you calling me? I'm not even in the building and I'm not the one needing assistance." They find this very baffling, and well... so do I.

Every flippin' time!

[NightGoat]

Originally Posted by CatherineStewart

I ordered directly from Kobo and contacted them via their Facebook page. They are sending mea new one right away with a return package for my old one. They did not request any info from me (other than pictures of the defect).

I ordered directly from Kobo too, only I went through their CS chat.
Hhhhmmm, Facebook? That's even weirder

[CatherineStewart]

Originally Posted by NightGoat

I ordered directly from Kobo too, only I went through their CS chat.
Hhhhmmm, Facebook? That's even weirder

I started off with their CS Chat and it was leading no where (I had issues with the light being to rainbow-ish and they just kept sending me a copy/paste about how the light works). So in the middle of the chat I messaged them on their FB page on a whim. They answered me back right away and asked for pics. They agreed it was a defect and no point in trouble shooting. Then told me to disconnect the chat I was on with CS and they would handle it from there. They were great and told me they would ship out a new device (I would have it in 5-7 business days) with a return envelope for my old one.

[CatherineStewart]

Originally Posted by JoOrwick

Reading exactly 2.5 hours (light at 7%, natural light at 0%, wifi and sync off) caused the battery indicator to go from 100% down to 91%. Keep in mind that the battery has only gone through one charge cycle.

I think that's pretty good for the first charge cycle.

[icallaci]

Originally Posted by pickyaxe

Has anyone had the Aura One shipped from Chapters/Indigo in the past 2 weeks?

They're still claiming "out of stock" on my order almost 3 weeks later. I'm beginning to think that it's something more than just not having stock.

Both Chapters and Kobo are showing "Available September 23" for the Aura One and its sleepcover. I still have not received the sleepcover from my original order on August 30, but the Chapters website is now showing "Available September 23" instead of "On-reorder" so I am hopeful. It looks like Kobo may have underestimated the demand for the Aura One.

ETA: I did receive the Aura One from my August 30 order, just not the sleepcover.

[Katsunami]

The KA1 cover is in stock in several online stores in the Netherlands.

In essence, I like the cover, even though it's expensive... if they only had left the stand crap stuff out of it and had made the cover as rigid (and padded) as possible, I would have ordered it instantly.

Now I'm doubting... maybe I'll order it at a store that has a good return policy. I'll then have it tomorrow, and if I don't like it, it goes right back. Maybe. I'll see if I can find a review first.