Libra Kobo Libra H2O - first reviews

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by HolyAura

I'm thinking of getting a Libra. Are there any issues with the hardware besides the lighting?

I can't see any lighting issue. The power button is strange being on the back and the rear moulding can pickup dust, crumbs and fluff. I'd not test the waterproofing. None of those are deal breakers for me. There are no perfect products.
The case is a better design than the original Aura H2O on which the top bezel can detach or be poorly assembled or catch on something as it's slightly proud of the case.
The case and bezel are one piece on the Libra, it opens instead from the rear and seems a more robust assembly.

It's pretty much identical software to all the Kobos in the last few years that can update, the main difference from the Aura H2O are:
* Capacitive Touch instead of IR means very slightly less bright.
* The two buttons for page turn (work well, the Nook Simple Touch buttons are ghastly).
* No cover over USB makes connecting/charge less fiddly
* No SD card Slot, but the extra Flash means most folk don't need it. 6.7G free
* faster CPU (highlight/annotation better, PDF page turn Much faster)
* Sensor to rotate/flip. There is a setting you can add to the other Kobos to add manual portrait/landscape as it's essentially the same SW.
* higher resolution screen so sharper text
* Slightly larger screen
The last two items mean larger PDFs than practical on the H2O original are possible. You do need a 10" to 13" screen to read ANY PDF sensibly.

I'm happier with it than my Kindle PW3 or Kobo Aura H2O original. It was a shade under €180 inc Tax, so about €40 cheaper than the mostly inferior Kobo Aura H2O original was then in the same local shop (Argos).

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by HolyAura

I'm thinking of getting a Libra. Are there any issues with the hardware besides the lighting?

Not that I'm aware.

[Gone]

Originally Posted by SusanReads

I love Kobo devices, but to this date I have never seen a Kobo e-reader with perfectlty even lighting. Have you? So even though I would love to have a Kobo Libra (I returned mine), I don't think the lighting issue is ever going to be completely resolved. Lots of people aren't bothered by it, so I guess it's more a thing of what will you be able to accept.

The Clara was the fist Kobo device that I heard and saw on YouTube that it had problems. Before, I had a Kobo Aura, Aura H20, Aura One, and never saw a problem with lighting. My Aura One had a bit of an issue with touch precision, as I had to tap or swipe often more than once to change page. But other than that, I've been lucky. ;-)

[HolyAura]

Originally Posted by Claude_C

The Clara was the fist Kobo device that I heard and saw on YouTube that it had problems. Before, I had a Kobo Aura, Aura H20, Aura One, and never saw a problem with lighting. My Aura One had a bit of an issue with touch precision, as I had to tap or swipe often more than once to change page. But other than that, I've been lucky. ;-)

My Clara HD has no problems with lighting at all. Guess they fixed it.

[Gone]

Originally Posted by HolyAura

My Clara HD has no problems with lighting at all. Guess they fixed it.

Mine either. But I waited a bit before buying it.

[69carat]

Hi,

I have 2 questions :

First : I charged my Libra 2 weeks ago and didn't use it at all. the battery was at 6% today. is it normal ? I noticed that the WIFI was turned ON ?

Second : I load the books in Kepub format but I noticed an issue with the chapters. They don't start on top of the page. for some reason it bother me
Also the remaining time is not to the next chapter but randomly : either time remaining to 4 chapter later or sometime the reader thinks their is only one chapter --> the end of the book. it looks like the reader doesn't recognize the chapter beginning and end.

Did it happened to you ?
Thanks

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by 69carat

First : I charged my Libra 2 weeks ago and didn't use it at all. the battery was at 6% today. is it normal ? I noticed that the WIFI was turned ON ?

Unless you have turned it off, the device will wake once a day and do a sync. Normally, I don't think it would have used that amount of power. But, there was apparently an issue on the server last week or the week before. This would have meant a lot of syncs not hanging and taking longer than usual before they timed out and using more power than expected. That might have been the cause.

Second : I load the books in Kepub format but I noticed an issue with the chapters. They don't start on top of the page. for some reason it bother me
Also the remaining time is not to the next chapter but randomly : either time remaining to 4 chapter later or sometime the reader thinks their is only one chapter --> the end of the book. it looks like the reader doesn't recognize the chapter beginning and end.

For a chapter not to start at the top of a page, it is probably because the internal files contain multiple chapters. Each chapter just continues from where the last finished. There might be some code in the styles for the chapter start that is supposed to push it to a new page, but, the kepub renderer doesn't support them. Or at least it doesn't support all the ways it can be done (and I don't remember which works).

The time remaining is to either the next ToC entry, or to the next internal file. I can't remember which it is. Kobo's recommendations for books sent to their store and hence converted to kepubs is to have a one-to-one relationship between the ToC and the internal files. Anything else will give some strangeness in how the ToC and progress works. This will also mean that each chapter in the ToC will start on a new page.

[tourneur]

Originally Posted by HolyAura

I'm thinking of getting a Libra. Are there any issues with the hardware besides the lighting?

I dont have a Libra anymore, but I had the strong impression that the Libra's battery drained a bit quicker compared to what I was used to with my Clara. I didn't A/B test it, nor did I try to find out when this was the case, if something particular could be causing it. But compared to my Clara, the Libra just had noticeable battery drain after a day's use while the Clara's battery drain is very minimal in general.

[Fozkas]

Yes, the battery goes faster than the clara, even in sleep mode.

If the light is above 8 or 10 % it cuts deeper and if the comfort light is used it gets even worse.

In the clara i only noticed difference with light percentage amor l above 15% and only went there to the test. And i saw no difference with comfort light.

For now my libra is like this
First complete "cycle" - 32 h of reading over 19 days (6% remaining)
Second cycle (ongoing) - 33 h of reading over 14 days (45% remaining)

I'm the second cycle i have light to a max 8% and no comfort light.

It looks like some drain is going on underneath, hopefully to be solved in an update.

[davidfor]

The battery life for the Libra H2O will be shorter than for the Clara HD for the simple reason it as a smaller battery. They are 1200mAh and 1500mAh respectively. That means the Libra H2O would have 20% runtime less assuming everything else was equal.

But, 32 hours of reading for these sort of devices is excellent. When Kobo claimed an actual runtime rather than "weeks", they used 30 minutes per day. And that is how Amazon still calculate the runtime for Kindles. 32 hours works out as over 60 days. That is what Kobo claimed for the Touch and Glo.

[Quoth]

I often read about 3 to 7 hours (with short breaks) a day. However I've not had a problem with battery life on any ereader I've bought new. They need charged much less often than any phone I've had since 2010. The battery life of both of my tablets barely beats my laptop! A 7" Android and 10" x86-64 Windows

The Kindles go flat fastest in the drawer as they maybe only sleep. The Nook Simple Touch, Kobo Touch N905C, Kobo Aura H2O, Binatone Readme (LCD), Sony PRS350. Kobo Libra H2O all seem to really turn off.

[Parker Lewis]

Originally Posted by SusanReads

I love Kobo devices, but to this date I have never seen a Kobo e-reader with perfectlty even lighting. Have you? So even though I would love to have a Kobo Libra (I returned mine), I don't think the lighting issue is ever going to be completely resolved. Lots of people aren't bothered by it, so I guess it's more a thing of what will you be able to accept.

I bought a Libra last week and my overall impressions seem to be exactly the same at yours. For reference, my previous device is a Kindle Paperwhite 3.

I really like the software on the Libra, navigation seems a lot cleaner/easier/faster than what I am used to on the PW3. I have been a Pocket user for years, and I am getting a lot of use out of the Pocket integration on the Libra, something I never even knew I wanted on the Kindle. I like the form factor of the Libra, the 7" screen, and having physical buttons again. Being able to control both the brightness and color temperature of the screen is great for reading in bed.

But all of the positives have to balance against the fact that the lighting on it is not perfect. It's more noticeable when the brightness is in the 20-40% range, but I see uneven lighting at any brightness setting, it only goes away when the backlight is turned off completely. The screen has an overall gradient from darker on the edge with the buttons, to lighter on the opposite edge, and there's a pretty clearly defined strip of darkness down the edge closest to the buttons.

Nitpicky? Maybe. But on a $170 device the poor lighting uniformity feels like a dealbreaker to me, and an area where corners were cut to save on costs.

I don't know what to do now because it's hard to go back to the PW3's smaller screen/worse software after a week with the Libra, but my PW3 has perfectly even light and I am unable to read my Libra with the front-light enabled without being distracted by the fact that the light isn't even. The device is perfect when I am reading during the day with the backlight off, but I find myself dreading having to turn the brightness up as the day gets darker.

Based on what I have read in this thread, and discussions about other Kobo devices, I am not optimistic about my chances of getting a Libra with perfectly uniform lighting even if I were to return this one and/or wait a few months for a newer manufacturing batch. Maybe I'll just go old school and start using an external reading light with it.

[69carat]

Thanks for your feedback. I will turn off my wifi now. That is most likely the reason why my battery drained in 2 weeks with no use ( I went in vacation but couldn't take the Libra with me with no cover ! i couldn't risk it !)

Do you keep the reader in sleeping mode or powered it off ? what is the difference?

[MGlitch]

Originally Posted by 69carat

Do you keep the reader in sleeping mode or powered it off ? what is the difference?

I don't think anyone has done a study on this, but casual usage from a wide variety of forum users seems to indicate there's no measurable difference especially if you're using the device on a daily or semi daily basis. If anything the sessions of using the ereader a day you have the more sleeping it would make sense and likely extend the battery life ever so slightly.

[SusanReads]

Originally Posted by Parker Lewis

I bought a Libra last week and my overall impressions seem to be exactly the same at yours. For reference, my previous device is a Kindle Paperwhite 3.

I really like the software on the Libra, navigation seems a lot cleaner/easier/faster than what I am used to on the PW3. I have been a Pocket user for years, and I am getting a lot of use out of the Pocket integration on the Libra, something I never even knew I wanted on the Kindle. I like the form factor of the Libra, the 7" screen, and having physical buttons again. Being able to control both the brightness and color temperature of the screen is great for reading in bed.

But all of the positives have to balance against the fact that the lighting on it is not perfect. It's more noticeable when the brightness is in the 20-40% range, but I see uneven lighting at any brightness setting, it only goes away when the backlight is turned off completely. The screen has an overall gradient from darker on the edge with the buttons, to lighter on the opposite edge, and there's a pretty clearly defined strip of darkness down the edge closest to the buttons.

Nitpicky? Maybe. But on a $170 device the poor lighting uniformity feels like a dealbreaker to me, and an area where corners were cut to save on costs.

I don't know what to do now because it's hard to go back to the PW3's smaller screen/worse software after a week with the Libra, but my PW3 has perfectly even light and I am unable to read my Libra with the front-light enabled without being distracted by the fact that the light isn't even. The device is perfect when I am reading during the day with the backlight off, but I find myself dreading having to turn the brightness up as the day gets darker.

Based on what I have read in this thread, and discussions about other Kobo devices, I am not optimistic about my chances of getting a Libra with perfectly uniform lighting even if I were to return this one and/or wait a few months for a newer manufacturing batch. Maybe I'll just go old school and start using an external reading light with it.

Yes, I felt the exact same way about the Libra. I'm also not convinced the lighting issue will be solved in time. I think they will leave it like this since there are lots of people who aren't bothered by it.

I bought a Kindle Oasis 3 after I returned the Libra and I'm very happy with it. The lighting is practically even and the warm light is perfect. I'm not a fan of the black front (you see every fingerprint), but I got a skin so now I'm very happy with it.

Perhaps it's worth thinking about getting an Oasis?

(Sorry the picture is on its side, I can't get it straight when I'm on my phone.)