Real world Kobo Aura One Experience

[u-gee]

Originally Posted by Futuregrace

I would love some feed back from KA1 users. I'm interested in ordering, but can't really see one before hand since I live in usa. From what I've read in reviews it looks great, it would be switch from Kindle Voyage. The larger size, comfort lighting and waterproofing is what interest me most, but had a few questions.
...
Does comfort lightening really not work right on most people's devices?

There's a poll on MR but my guess is you won't get any hard facts ... for me, it didn't work.

Originally Posted by Futuregrace

Does highlighting a text work or are reports of it being really frustrating true?

I found the touch experience to be unsatisfactory. That would include highlighting attempts. As with the comfort lightning thing I dunno if this is a general issue or if A1 build quality is simply not predictable.

Originally Posted by Futuregrace

How satisfied are you with it? Why do you love it or hate it?

I've only spent a weekend with an A1 and gave up on the idea to keep it. My reasons are buried somewhere near the end of this thread which may be an interesting read for you.

Besides the large screen of the A1 the Kobo platform seems to be a bit easier to manage from Calibre than my Kindle devices. Still I'm happier having spent nearly the same amount of money on a Kindle Oasis. That device wowed me more than the A1.

On side note: my experience with Kobo Customer Care was even less satisfying...

[greens]

Originally Posted by jazthedj

it was after.

I'm a slow reader on average I was reading a couple hours a night. Defiantly would have to charge it once a week. I left wifi on and didn't try anything to improve the the battery life in anyway.

thanks a lot for reply, I'm curious to try directing the question to someone who read with "wifi off" and low light levels. what is it your record about max number of pages with a single charge? can you read a 1000 pages book?

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by greens

thanks a lot for reply, I'm curious to try directing the question to someone who read with "wifi off" and low light levels. what is it your record about max number of pages with a single charge? can you read a 1000 pages book?

Define a 1000 pages book. With or without headers and footers, what font and font-size used, what line spacing, what margins... Even paper books don't have the same page count for the same book (mass market? trade paperback? hard cover? large lettering? what publisher even...)

It also depends on how often you read per day. A battery will also drain without use. So, I could read 10 pages per battery charge or 1000 pages per battery charge. The first takes me 2 months, the second 1 day*

*these are imaginative numbers, naturally!

[greens]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

Define a 1000 pages book. With or without headers and footers, what font and font-size used, what line spacing, what margins... Even paper books don't have the same page count for the same book (mass market? trade paperback? hard cover? large lettering? what publisher even...)

It also depends on how often you read per day. A battery will also drain without use. So, I could read 10 pages per battery charge or 1000 pages per battery charge. The first takes me 2 months, the second 1 day*

*these are imaginative numbers, naturally!

for example the lord of the rings is about 1170 pages (50th anniversary edition). the hobbit 300 about.
I just ask for indicative number of pages, it vary from the book edition but is not important for me because I ask for an approximation. I belive someone can asnwer my question to inspire an idea.
you are right about battery drain affected by the speed of the person who read but for my question I suppose who will answer will specify if he/she is very fast or ultra slow.

[graycyn]

Battery: Well, I read a lot. As in over 100 books yearly a lot. And it's not always very sunny where I live, so the front light is in use during the day in the 20-30% range. Font size larger than average, so more page turning than the normal person. I'd say 3-5 days on average. Wifi stays off for the most part.

Comfort light: Works great. LOVE IT! Have a slight gradation from orange to greenish orange at the bottom, but it's not a blob or blotchy.

Highlighting: I'm not a huge user of highlighting, but I do some proofreading on the device and the highlighting is OK enough for my purposes. Definitely room for plenty of improvement though. It can be tricky to select what text you want. Also fussy with words near the screen edges. Slower than I'd like.

If you only do minor highlighting, it's probably not going to worry you. If highlighting is a big part of your reading experience, then you might not care for this device.

Satisfaction: Very pleased with my purchase. I'd buy again in a heartbeat. Had no idea just what a difference the comfort light would make to my eyes! And the screen size is glorious! After several updates, the touch responsiveness has improved considerably. The Overdrive library access is also a great thing.

The main reason I bought it was for screen size. I'm older, though near-sighted, my close vision is going and it's tougher to read small text. But I like having plenty of text on a page, it's a more immersive and pleasant experience.

Sent from my Pixel C using Tapatalk

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by greens

for example the lord of the rings is about 1170 pages (50th anniversary edition). the hobbit 300 about.
I just ask for indicative number of pages, it vary from the book edition but is not important for me because I ask for an approximation. I belive someone can asnwer my question to inspire an idea.
you are right about battery drain affected by the speed of the person who read but for my question I suppose who will answer will specify if he/she is very fast or ultra slow.

I personally couldn't say how many pages I read per charge (I also switch between books...). I only know I don't have to charge on a daily basis, even not on our cruise when there were days where I read multiple hours per day (the sea days, just lounging alongside the pool reading and watching). And that's good enough for me.

[mgrimace]

Personally, I've tried two KA1's now and the things that I think are going to contribute to my returning it and going back to kindle are:

1) Battery - even without reading, there's a 2% drain daily in sleep, with wifi and autosync off. I'm just watching this thing drain and it's giving me anxiety, where with my old Paperwhite1 I wouldn't even think of battery life and just get to reading.

2) Light even-ness - I'm not sure if it's just me, but it's very clear that the LEDs are along the bottom edge. I can see a ~1mm band of light radiating along the entire bottom edge as well as some faint, but noticeable cones. I keep it at 5% backlight, and if the room is even remotely dim, I can tell, especially as I get to the bottom of the page. The NaturalLight is actually quite even on mine color-wise, it's the lighting itself that's my issue.

My problem is that I 'notice' these things while I read, they're distracting, and ideally the best device you shouldn't 'notice' anything and just get lost in the book itself. I've tried it for almost a month now, and had one replacement for screen issues, but I'm having a hard time getting over the lighting and battery and getting to reading.

My only hesitation is that I love the screen SIZE, but I don't think I can reconcile that with my difficulties with the reading experience.

Edit:
On a positive note, if you don't notice lighting, and you can handle the battery (it's not a surprise at least), the screen itself is a FANTASTIC size, it holds well in one-hand, and I LOVE the NaturalLight, it has a nice, warm reading character. It's very hard to leave it for those reasons alone since Kindle does not offer a competitor with these 2 key features.

[wroane]

I read about 2-3 hours per day, no wifi unless it is plugged in at night , and the light at 5% most of the time. I have finished 3 roughly 300 page books with about 30% charge remaining recently. If I read with no light, it seems to last a little longer on a charge. Wifi seems to be the biggest drain, then the light. Unless you need to leave the wifi on for some reason, at a average pace, it should last a 1000 page book easily.

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by mgrimace

Personally, I've tried two KA1's now and the things that I think are going to contribute to my returning it and going back to kindle are:

1) Battery - even without reading, there's a 2% drain daily in sleep, with wifi and autosync off. I'm just watching this thing drain and it's giving me anxiety, where with my old Paperwhite1 I wouldn't even think of battery life and just get to reading.

This is not what I experience, but I'll check tonight.

As of today, at 9:15 it showed 56%.

Not sure what you mean by "daily in sleep" though. Do you mean you left the device untouched for 24 hours, or just for an 8-hour sleep period?

[kndlewis]

I also have a Voyager. I like the Voyager for the page turn buttons (sensors) and the overall quality feel of the unit. The lighting on my Voyager has color variation from top to bottom but it's not too bad. The thing that frustrates me most about the Voyager (and all kindles) is the lack of font control.
With the kobos, I can set the page exactly as I want for the most comfortable reading experience. With the KA1's comfort light, set manually with the Brightness at around 7% and the Natural light around 30%, I find the page to be nicely paper-like, off white and definitely not blue.
As mentioned by several others, the screen is great! The size is perfect for reading but it's the size that also makes it not perfect for dropping in your pocket to carry around.
The KA1 is my favorite reader and I have several to choose from at the moment.

[mgrimace]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

This is not what I experience, but I'll check tonight.

As of today, at 9:15 it showed 56%.

Not sure what you mean by "daily in sleep" though. Do you mean you left the device untouched for 24 hours, or just for an 8-hour sleep period?

Hi, good question! To clarify: I lose 2% battery/24 hr period while the device is in sleep mode untouched. Meaning if I leave it on the nightstand, with no reading, it will continue to lose battery at a rate of 2% every 24hrs. This is on the newest firmware (4.4.9298), wifi off, and automatic sync off.

If you're at 56% at 9:15 (assuming AM), I would be at 55% by 9:15 pm, and 54% by 9:15 am the next morning without doing anything. I'm glad to hear you don't have this issue!

I've been chatting with Kobo's Facebook support about it, we tried a factory reset, firmware update, and full charge, and it's still happening Actually while writing this, I just received a message that they're replacing the device so this may actually be a defective model.

I should also mention I told them about the lighting bleed at the bottom and provided some pictures, so it could be battery, lighting, or both, but they're offering a replacement (which will hopefully resolve these issues)

Support: For what it's worth their Facebook support via the messenger/chat system has been very helpful and easy to deal with.

[vostro]

Originally Posted by mgrimace

Hi, good question! To clarify: I lose 2% battery/24 hr period while the device is in sleep mode untouched. Meaning if I leave it on the nightstand, with no reading, it will continue to lose battery at a rate of 2% every 24hrs. This is on the newest firmware (4.4.9298), wifi off, and automatic sync off.

my aura one is getting same, wifi off, auto sync off, 9298 firmware, losing 1%- 2% every 24 hrs without using it but just in sleep status. i'm not confident to apply for a replacement to get a better one as my screen is ok, i read some posts that some replacement gets nightmare screen due to poor quality control.

[MaggieScratch]

Originally Posted by Futuregrace

Typically how long does battery last?

A week or so of normal reading for me (about three or four hours per day). If I'm reading a lot over the weekend or days off, it does drop quickly and I have to remember to put it on the charger overnight. It recharges very quickly, though.

Does comfort lightening really not work right on most people's devices?

It works okay for me. I'm not one of the super picky ones.

Does highlighting a text work or are reports of it being really frustrating true?

It was extremely frustrating at first but either they've updated something or I've gotten better at it because the process has improved tremendously. Still not perfect but it works a lot better. I am a big highlighter so that's important to me.

How satisfied are you with it? Why do you love it or hate it?

I love it. I love the big screen and the elegance of it. I spent the money and bought the Kobo-branded cover and it just looks so sleek. I love the integrated Pocket and integrated Overdrive (though my library never seems to have the book I want available when I want it). I also like Kobo VIP. So I'm very happy with my purchase.

[ipronald]

Originally Posted by Futuregrace

Typically how long does battery last?

About a week with approx. 2 hours reading a day. Battery is far less than my 'old' H2O. I think H2O lasts 3-4 times longer with a full load.

Does comfort lightening really not work right on most people's devices?

Comfort lightening works OK for me. I've noticed that some levels are more prone to slight color differences.

Does highlighting a text work or are reports of it being really frustrating true?

It does work but selecting text over multiple lines can be a pain.

How satisfied are you with it? Why do you love it or hate it?

I'm pretty satified with the One. I also have a H2O (which my wife now uses). I really like the screen size and resolution and its weight. Another nice feature is the missing of bevels.

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by mgrimace

Hi, good question! To clarify: I lose 2% battery/24 hr period while the device is in sleep mode untouched. Meaning if I leave it on the nightstand, with no reading, it will continue to lose battery at a rate of 2% every 24hrs. This is on the newest firmware (4.4.9298), wifi off, and automatic sync off.

If you're at 56% at 9:15 (assuming AM), I would be at 55% by 9:15 pm, and 54% by 9:15 am the next morning without doing anything. I'm glad to hear you don't have this issue!

Forgot to check yesterday morning, but yesterday night (23:30*) it was 54%. So that's around 2% in a day and a half (haven't been using it yesterday, but rather been listening to an audiobook)

*I'll never learn what AM and PM is as we don't use that here