Aura ONE Kobo Aura One owners thread

[Telemachus]

Originally Posted by Deets

My KA1 arrived yesterday and I'm very pleased so far. I am curious enough as to how long it will take for the firmware to upgrade. Mine came loaded with 4.1.7729.

Hello Deets, welcome to mobileread.

To quote Insomniac55

The firmware you get depends on what region you are in. They release it region-by-region so that any bugs don't affect everyone at once.

See this post...https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...6&postcount=60

I'm in the UK and have firmware 4.3.8945

You've probably know this but...
When you sync, the device looks for firmware updates. I think syncing happens automatically when you setup the device and certainly when you have automatic sync turned on, but you might want to try manually forcing a sync again (on the home screen, it's that icon between the battery and search icons, at least my home screen anyway)

Also if you really wanted to you could install the latest firmware via USB but I'd be reluctant to do that on my new KA1

[Deets]

Yes, I thought I had read that somewhere on the forum. I guess I thought it update rather quickly since I'm in the US. I'll just be patient. I don't want to start making changes before I've had a chance to see if I really need them.

Thank you!

[thecfg]

I owned my Kobo A1 for 10 days.... then returned it just the other day. Lured from many many years of Kindles to the promise of more openness, more fonts (I sideloaded lots), lovely bigger screen, I found it not as sharp/crisp as the Voyage.
I also passed my Oasis to my partner, because all of this made me realise that even the Oasis isn't as sharp as the Voyage.
These things don't always matter to some folks, but, like QHD screen on smartphones it has its place, and after all, the typeface of analogue books is pretty sharp...

I'm actually really sorry to have returned it, as I was totally sold on the concept of a larger form factor.
PS I also found the battery worse than the Kindles. Not abysmal, but just worse. Bigger screen I guess.

[meeera]

Originally Posted by thecfg

I owned my Kobo A1 for 10 days.... then returned it just the other day. Lured from many many years of Kindles to the promise of more openness, more fonts (I sideloaded lots), lovely bigger screen, I found it not as sharp/crisp as the Voyage.
I also passed my Oasis to my partner, because all of this made me realise that even the Oasis isn't as sharp as the Voyage.
These things don't always matter to some folks, but, like QHD screen on smartphones it has its place, and after all, the typeface of analogue books is pretty sharp...

I'm actually really sorry to have returned it, as I was totally sold on the concept of a larger form factor.
PS I also found the battery worse than the Kindles. Not abysmal, but just worse. Bigger screen I guess.

The battery life was a trade-off: they managed to make a device significantly larger than the H2O, while slightly decreasing the weight.

If you loved all those things about the device and your only issues were text sharpness and battery life, you might want to test out an H2O. It's got an IR screen, so no capacitive layer to potentially interfere with sharpness.

[John F]

Originally Posted by meeera

...
If you loved all those things about the device and your only issues were text sharpness and battery life, you might want to test out an H2O. It's got an IR screen, so no capacitive layer to potentially interfere with sharpness.

Although the H2O does have a lower PPI.

[koboy]

Originally Posted by John F

Although the H2O does have a lower PPI.

when i did a side by side comparison i thought the H2O had the sharper clearer screen over the KA1, but obviously other people may disagree it's all subjective.

best wishes koboy

[mathil]

Originally Posted by John F

Although the H2O does have a lower PPI.

It does but the capacitive layer, in my experience, really does affect the sharpness -- my PW3 has 300ppi but it still looks noticeably less sharp than my H2O.

One thing that should be noted however is that unlike the recent Kindles, Kobo ereaders (save for the 1st ed. Aura) don't use the Regal waveform and will likely look worse, comparatively, after many page turns with no refresh. In my case I have the refresh set at 1 or 2 pages, for a number of reasons (I like using thin fonts at a small size, and read with my face pretty close to the screen), but most users won't probably notice it.

[dordale]

Originally Posted by mathil

One thing that should be noted however is that unlike the recent Kindles, Kobo ereaders (save for the 1st ed. Aura) don't use the Regal waveform and will likely look worse, comparatively, after many page turns with no refresh. In my case I have the refresh set at 1 or 2 pages, for a number of reasons (I like using thin fonts at a small size, and read with my face pretty close to the screen), but most users won't probably notice it.

That's not my experience with my Aura One. I actually have the page refresh set at 60 now it works fine. I could always force a manual refresh if I noticed severe ghosting by calling up the menu and then dismissing it, but haven't felt the need to do this.

This was much different than my Aura HD. On that reader, I would set the refresh at 10-15 pages and often had to set it lower--especially in sunlight, as I noticed ghosting far worse under those conditions.

[u-gee]

Introduction & a "Thank you MobileRead" note
It may only be for a few more days that I'm eligible to post in the Aura 1 owners thread so I'll do this right now.
Coming from a Kindle Paperwhite I was hoping for some experience enhancement and being a friend of openness I went for a Kobo Aura 1. It arrived yesterday and instead of getting the amount of sleep I need(ed) I went for an extensive test drive - means read.
I was well prepared to transfer books to the device using Calibre thanks to MobileRead and its members - everything was set up before the device got here . This forum was a really helpful place for me (long before I did register) - so thanks a lot for that.
Impressions
Preparing to transfer the books to the Aura went quite smoothly. All it took was copying the Kindle collections I used to a new custom column for the Aura shelves-to-be. I usually have .mobi formatted books so initially I hoped this would be enough.
When I got past the registration hassle (the bypassing just wouldn't work but I was impatient enough to skip trouble shooting and synced with a newly created Kobo account) - including some firmware update Kobo wanted me to have - and had transfered almost all items to the new reader that's what I thought:

• That welcome / home screen is kinda not what I want (a little minus).
• Hmm, the "Read" list, when set to "Collection" is nice. Looks better than on the Paperwhite.
• Oops. There's now WOW effect yet. (feels like a big minus)
• Opening the first book: those font doesn't look like I will like it. It's also not what I thought it should be.

So I tried to find a font / reading / margin setting I'd like and while I noticed that the additional screen estate compared to my PW really was nice and didn't seem to add any weight things started to go bad. The touch display took on hating my fingers (not that I have particularly clumsy ones) and the control elements were not as responsive as I did expect them to be. At times it was just not possible to get a reaction from the device or it was not the desired one - like while being sure to pointing at the "navigation" arrow but landing in "font settings". This turned out to become a big minus.
While fighting with the erratic responses I got from the touch screen it occured to me that probably .epubs might help to get the font experience I want so I put testing on hold, converted a few .mobi items to .epub in Calibre (while making sure my prefered font was embedded ) and went on reading.
It was dark by now and that turned out to be another minus: natural light settings (up to this point I hadn't changed anything in this regard and it was on automatic) were nice only from far away. Within reading distance the display was smeared greenish (especially from the left bottom corner) and looked somehow sick (Found out today it may be a "feature"). After playing around with the light settings I finally set this natural thingy to off. At least now the display was evenly lit and reading could go on. "My" fonts were there so all good. Or not? Not really: adjusting something was still fidgety and while it didn't actually spoil the reading I didn't feel as happy as I should. I went to sleep.
After some morning reading (now without backlight or wherever the light comes from on those devices) and a few screen comparisons with my old PW I made a final list:

• There is no WOW effect here - for me.
• The screen size is nice.
• Natural light would have been nice (I like f.lux) but it isn't on my Aura.
• Interacting with the touch screen is erratic. I expect better.
• That thing was not cheap. Not at all.

Decision
I don't want to check out possible firmware candidates which may work better or go through a device exchange process (to get rid of a possible manufacturing deficit ... greenish smear instead of Natural candle light...). I've applied for a return tracking number at Kobo. This was not the run for the money.
Maybe - when I have the money back - I'll check out a newer Kindle.
PS: For a take-it-with-you device I missed the lock feature from my PW, too. But it was not the deal breaker...

[mgrimace]

Hi everyone, I'm coming from a trusty Kindle paperwhite 1 to the aura one (my first ever Kobo and I love it for the size, clarity, and functionality).

I have a question re. The screen - it's generally even and no blotches at all with the natural light. It does however have a thin even bright line along the entire bottom edge where the LEDs are (no major cones with the band but they are detectable if I look for them). From reading through this thread it seems like there is quite a variety in the screens but I can't tell if a band/line is ''normal'. I checked out the one at a local Chapters and it has the same thing.

When people say they have a perfect screen - does it still have this band (mine is perfect otherwise, and it seems like people are referring to blotches not this lighting). Is it 'normal' to expect this? I appreciate the advice, I'm trying to gauge my expectations because it's fantastic and I can certainly live with it but if it can be even better then I'll go the exchange route. Thanks -m

[Question Mark]

Originally Posted by mgrimace

I have a question re. The screen - it's generally even and no blotches at all with the natural light. It does however have a thin even bright line along the entire bottom edge where the LEDs are (no major cones with the band but they are detectable if I look for them). From reading through this thread it seems like there is quite a variety in the screens but I can't tell if a band/line is ''normal'. I checked out the one at a local Chapters and it has the same thing.

When people say they have a perfect screen - does it still have this band (mine is perfect otherwise, and it seems like people are referring to blotches not this lighting). Is it 'normal' to expect this? I appreciate the advice, I'm trying to gauge my expectations because it's fantastic and I can certainly live with it but if it can be even better then I'll go the exchange route. Thanks -m

Without a picture, it's hard to be certain of what you are describing. However, along the bottom of my KA! where the LED lights are, there is a slightly brighter line across the entire width of the screen. It seems to be about a mm in width, maybe less, and is entirely uniform across the width of the screen. It is barely discernible, to the extent that I am not sure that it would show up in a photo, especially as I seldom have the light on at more than 5%. Indeed, I hadn't even noticed it until reading your comment.

(Just checked my original Kobo Aura. It has the same extremely narrow band across the bottom so I suspect that it is entirely normal and not a defect. Never noticed that either.)

[mgrimace]

Originally Posted by Question Mark

Without a picture, it's hard to be certain of what you are describing. However, along the bottom of my KA! where the LED lights are, there is a slightly brighter line across the entire width of the screen. It seems to be about a mm in width, maybe less, and is entirely uniform across the width of the screen. It is barely discernible, to the extent that I am not sure that it would show up in a photo, especially as I seldom have the light on at more than 5%. Indeed, I hadn't even noticed it until reading your comment.

(Just checked my original Kobo Aura. It has the same extremely narrow band across the bottom so I suspect that it is entirely normal and not a defect. Never noticed that either.)

That's exactly it - about a <1mm line even along the bottom - I have the auto light on and it's more noticeable with brighter light in a darker room but seems fine. Thanks for the confirmation!

[jfreudenthal]

Sat on my pocket book inkpad 2 and needed a replacement. Found the kobo aura one and decided to give it a shot. So far I like:
1. Nice form factor, lighter and smaller than the pocket book
2. Like the magnetic cover that puts it in sleep mode when closed

BUT...

1. Battery life?? I get like 2 days casual reading. Even when turning wifi and sync off.
2. After the latest update, I can't get the web browser on the home screen, the reading stats are all messed up
3. Can't view images in side loaded epubs in full screen.
4. Default margins for side loaded epubs are not great.

Am I missing something or doing something wrong?
thanks,
/J

[meeera]

Originally Posted by jfreudenthal

S
1. Battery life?? I get like 2 days casual reading. Even when turning wifi and sync off.
2. After the latest update, I can't get the web browser on the home screen, the reading stats are all messed up
3. Can't view images in side loaded epubs in full screen.
4. Default margins for side loaded epubs are not great.

Am I missing something or doing something wrong?
thanks,
/J

2. reading stats is a well known bug, search other threads.
3&4 You can sideload these as kepubs instead of epubs, using the KoboTouchExtended driver.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by jfreudenthal

Sat on my pocket book inkpad 2 and needed a replacement.

Ouch.

1. Battery life?? I get like 2 days casual reading. Even when turning wifi and sync off.

It should be better than that. Kobo quotes a month at 30 minutes per day. That work out to about 15 hours. But, what do you mean by "casual reading"? How much time? And what are you doing with it between time? Turning it off, closing the cover, letting it time out to sleep, or...

2. After the latest update, I can't get the web browser on the home screen, the reading stats are all messed up

Known problem for the stats which hopefully will be fixed with the next release. The new home screen is a "popular" topic and there is no way to get the browser on it.

3. Can't view images in side loaded epubs in full screen.

That is correct. The kepub reader allows this and you can use calibre to convert the books.

4. Default margins for side loaded epubs are not great.

Have you adjusted this in the reading settings?