Aura ONE Kobo Aura One owners thread

[dordale]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

Note: you can adjust the light at 12% or 7% by dragging the slider. It's a bit hit and miss tough. And yes, the KA1 is bright. Very bright. I'll put it next to my KPW1 tomorrow; I mostly have that at 10-12 out of 24, which is 40-50%. I feel the KA1 is about as bright at 10%. I wonder who uses the 50% or even 100% settings...

Adding a bit of the warm Natural Light makes the light softer, more creamy, and less bright.

I have tried adjusting the light by dragging the slider--you are right it is a bit hit or miss. Very hard for me to adjust to a comfortable level--I now have it at 6% which seemed about right for reading last night. I'm hesitant to adjust it to a different level for daytime reading as I'm not sure how long it will take me to get it back to a comfortable level at night. I wish that when I tapped on the icons on the side of the slider I could get more granular control between 5% and 10%--as I mentioned earlier--it goes up in 1% intervals to 5% and then jumps in 5% intervals. I'm hoping that one of the patches provided by the wonderful folks of this forum maybe able to give me more the more granular control I want--but I probably won't have time to mess with that until sometime this weekend.

[Bookworm_Girl]

Originally Posted by dordale

I wish that when I tapped on the icons on the side of the slider I could get more granular control between 5% and 10%--as I mentioned earlier--it goes up in 1% intervals to 5% and then jumps in 5% intervals.

I totally agree. The light is pretty bright. I'd like it to be easier to set at lower levels more easily. The slider is difficult to position too.

[moonshot]

My Kobo Aura One had the grey shadow around the screen margins. I was told by Kobo that it was faulty and I would be contacted by a higher level of customer service. That was three weeks ago but as yet I've heard nothing. I took the Aura One back to the store for a refund.

I did have it for a few days and can give it a mini review.

I have a Kobo Glo HD and the Kobo One is basically the Glo HD with some extras. But the extras are not really worth the extra cost.

I like the red light and that's it. A ten page chapter on the One would be thirteen pages on the Glo HD. Three extra taps on the screen, no big deal. The Kobo One is bigger and not as comfortable to hold, but only a little less comfortable, not a deal breaker. A 6.5 screen would be a good compromise. Resolution and DPI are the same on both.

The Kobo One has had a bad start with stock availability, shadow and low battery fault and a high price. The Glo HD is still there flagship device in my opinion.

I will wait and see how Kobo progress from here.

Their customer service is just slightly better than nothing and needs to be improved before I would buy another Kobo.

[anacreon]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

I wonder who uses the 50% or even 100% settings...
Adding a bit of the warm Natural Light makes the light softer, more creamy, and less bright.

Am I really a rara avis? When reading to prepare for sleep, I reduce my bedside lamp to a minimum and set the One light to some 20% (natural light above 50%), but in daylight or bright ambient light I set the light to 60% to 100% and the natural light to 0% to some 10%. It's only in direct sunlight that I turn it all off. I have bad eyes and need as much contrast as I can get - and unfortunately the One has less contrast than the Glo HD - I assume it is due to the capacitive layer but who knows.

PS: PDFs where I can't adjust the font thickness need more light too.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by moonshot

A 6.5 screen would be a good compromise.

Sounds like you should look at the Aura H2O.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by dordale

I'm hoping that one of the patches provided by the wonderful folks of this forum maybe able to give me more the more granular control I want--but I probably won't have time to mess with that until sometime this weekend.

I seem to remember there is a patch that can set the slider to 1% increments throughout, but I could be wrong. It could be for a different reader. I'll have to look for it.

What I'd like, would be a slider "maximum brightness" on a device such as the KA1, with the brightness slider setting brightness between 0 and max. Now, the KA1 is too bright when set at over 15% (even during the day), so I essentiall lose 85% of the range of that slider.

I like the Kindle's 0-24 slider with 50% at around 12 better. I have it set at 10 most of the time.

[moorekom]

Originally Posted by moonshot

My Kobo Aura One had the grey shadow around the screen margins. I was told by Kobo that it was faulty and I would be contacted by a higher level of customer service. That was three weeks ago but as yet I've heard nothing. I took the Aura One back to the store for a refund.

I did have it for a few days and can give it a mini review.

I have a Kobo Glo HD and the Kobo One is basically the Glo HD with some extras. But the extras are not really worth the extra cost.

I like the red light and that's it. A ten page chapter on the One would be thirteen pages on the Glo HD. Three extra taps on the screen, no big deal. The Kobo One is bigger and not as comfortable to hold, but only a little less comfortable, not a deal breaker. A 6.5 screen would be a good compromise. Resolution and DPI are the same on both.

The Kobo One has had a bad start with stock availability, shadow and low battery fault and a high price. The Glo HD is still there flagship device in my opinion.

I will wait and see how Kobo progress from here.

Their customer service is just slightly better than nothing and needs to be improved before I would buy another Kobo.

If you don't care about the screen size, then there are not many reasons why you should buy KA1. Especially at the current price. The target audience seem to be people who want the hardcover feel/ read manga/ technical papers. Since I fall under under the last two, this is the perfect size. But for casual reading, you should be fine with Glo HD or PW3. They are much more affordable too.

I believe the problems with KA1 is primarily because they didn't properly plan the release and because of the demand, the quality control has taken a back seat. Hence we have stock unavailability, screen gradient, night light gradient, battery issues etc.,

Battery life is not going to be great anyway because the capacity in itself is not that great. Stock unavailability is just poor planning. I'm much more bothered by their screen/ lighting issues. Agree with you on their customer service. The best way to contact them is through social media.

6.5" might not impress you as much as you think it would. When I purchased Kindle Voyage, the reduced size of bezel actually made 6" (comparatively) more appealing even though I have had no issues before. Two things though:
1. You might as well get the KA1 for the price you'll pay for voyage.
2. Voyage has screen gradient issues to this day and it doesn't look like they've done anything to fix it. In fact, I was told by Kindle CS that it is normal for voyage. They'll process a replacement of course, but they don't agree that it is defective.

You could also try Kobo H2O as davidfor mentioned.

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

I seem to remember there is a patch that can set the slider to 1% increments throughout, but I could be wrong. It could be for a different reader. I'll have to look for it.

There did used to be a patch for 1% increments. It existed through many firmwares up until 3.19.5761, I think.

I'm guessing Kobo moved/changed the relevant code in fw 4.x.x. GeoffR would be the best person to know what happened.

ETA: I just found this relevant post from GeoffR from Oct 2016

[dordale]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

There did used to be a patch for 1% increments. It existed through many firmwares up until 3.19.5761, I think.

I'm guessing Kobo moved/changed the relevant code in fw 4.x.x. GeoffR would be the best person to know what happened.

ETA: I just found this relevant post from GeoffR from Oct 2016

Thanks for finding that Jackie--disappointing, but I'll learn to deal with the light adjustment issues rather than waste my time look for a patch. Note--I really do appreciate all the helpful tips/tricks/patches from the MobileRead regulars!

[Terisa de morgan]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

If you can't get the reader to be detected anymore, you can use NirSoft's USBDeview to remove the USB assignments for Kobo and Unkown Device, reboot, and then connect the reader again.

Thank you very much, it has been very useful.

[firstadopter]

Any buyers of the Aura One from Indigo Chapters have a good screen?

Reading all the display lemons on here is making me worry, but I'm dying to buy one of these things. Kobo US website is still out of stock.

So any of you have good screens? And if you do, when did you buy your Auro One from Indigo Chapters?

I'm hoping the ones in stock right now are better built. Thanks.

[bsabiston]

My Aura one has stopped being able to connect to my Mac. Anyone else have this happen? It says "Connected and Charging" on the Kobo, but the Mac doesn't know it's there. I've tried different cables, restarting both devices, and even a factory reset. I called tech support and they are supposed to get back to me in the next day or so.

[Katsunami]

I've read loads of complaints about the KPW1 back when, and loads of complaints about the KA1 right now, with regard to the screen.

My KPW1 and KA1 are more than good enough; they're basically what I expected. I've either been very lucky, or my screens may have problems I'm not even seeing.

[robko]

Originally Posted by bsabiston

My Aura one has stopped being able to connect to my Mac. Anyone else have this happen? It says "Connected and Charging" on the Kobo, but the Mac doesn't know it's there. I've tried different cables, restarting both devices, and even a factory reset. I called tech support and they are supposed to get back to me in the next day or so.

Have you tried it on a different computer? Hardware wise it could be either the Kobo OR the Mac. Cable is usually the 1st culprit but since you've tried that the next step is a different USB port (if available on the computer) followed by a different computer to rule out a problem (hardware or software wise) with the Mac.

[bsabiston]

Well, you know what I tried it with a THIRD cable and it works. I don't understand how it could be so picky about cables! The cable I've always used since I got the Kobo no longer works at all. So weird.