Sage Sage vs Forma: Comparison

[martinot]

Originally Posted by talaivan

The most significant difference for me is dark mode. On the Forma, to get it you have to use developer options or NickelMenu (and in the latest software, you also have to restart the Forma). It's built into the Sage and you can change from normal to dark and back when reading a book. The main difference between the two is that on the Forma, the dark background is not very dark, while it's much darker on the Sage. That makes the Sage a worthwhile upgrade, since I read a lot at night and have trouble reading with the normal mode, which is too bright. In normal mode, I don't find much difference between the two.

Personlly I prefer normal black text on white with orange front light in the dark at bed time, but that is a very good point and information to know for those that prefer dark mode. In that case the Sage seems like a really great choice.

[martinot]

Originally Posted by LivresInOz

This whole 'swipe to wake' thing in the Forma is irking to hear about.

Is there a chance this might become optional in the software?
Is there a hack to get around it?


It might seem trivial but my whole love for the first Libra (H20) is it got me reading more cos it was so easy to just pick up and start reading. Adding the need for a swipe degrades that a little.

Yes, it is irritating. I have removed the need to swipe in the config file of my Forma.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

I'm sure you could buy a Kobo from another country, if you really wanted to.

If you buy from outside the UK, you get whacked with import duty. That could make the price higher and it could take longer to get the package. Sometimes you get sent a letter about the import duty and that means you have to wait for the letter and then pay before the package will go from where it is to you.

Overall, the UK makes ordering outside of the UK a real bother and now with Brexit, ordering from the EU also incurs import duty.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

If you buy from outside the UK, you get whacked with import duty. That could make the price higher and it could take longer to get the package. Sometimes you get sent a letter about the import duty and that means you have to wait for the letter and then pay before the package will go from where it is to you.

Yes, I know. I've paid an import duty several times for my early ereaders, which were shipped from the US. So do many people living in countries other than Europe and the US. So what? Do all those people complain here about how much luckier everyone else is? No, they don't. They do what they can to get what they want.

[enuddleyarbl]

I just wanted to add one more piece of data on the battery life. While testing dark mode, I recorded battery use just like I did earlier. The results were almost identical (including the shape of that battery usage curve). It took a total of 8 hours and 14 minutes to drain the battery (two minutes longer than the previous time):

Hour 1: 100% to 93% = 7% battery use
Hour 2: 93% to 79% = 14% battery use
Hour 3: 79% to 63% = 16% battery use
Hour 4: 63% to 48% = 15% battery use
Hour 5: 47% to 26% = 21% battery use
Hour 6: 26% to 17% = 9% battery use
Hour 7: 17% to 11% = 6% battery use
Hour 8: 10% to 1% = 9% battery use (and then 14 more minutes for that last percent of the battery to go and the Sage power itself down).

Initially, I was surprised that dark mode would use as much energy as light mode. But, then I realized this is an E-Ink screen, not an OLED. So, the energy use would be coming from the screen lighting (or other things -- all of which remained constant) and not the production of white/dark areas of the screen (text/background).

[Josieb1]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Yes, I know. I've paid an import duty several times for my early ereaders, which were shipped from the US. So do many people living in countries other than Europe and the US. So what? Do all those people complain here about how much luckier everyone else is? No, they don't. They do what they can to get what they want.

I have no idea what rate of import duty you pay but in the uk we pay 20% plus additional customs fees, and that’s on the price of the item plus shipping. It may be dearer to buy within the UK than elsewhere in the world but it’s not when you add customs fees and import duty on top.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Josieb1

I have no idea what rate of import duty you pay but in the uk we pay 20% plus additional customs fees, and that’s on the price of the item plus shipping. It may be dearer to buy within the UK than elsewhere in the world but it’s not when you add customs fees and import duty on top.

I paid exactly the same. 20% + custom fees + shipping.

I get that it was a very frustrating experience for you, and I'm glad you got a nice Libra 2 eventually. But it's everyday reality for people who don't live in a few select countries.

Personally I'm happy to live in the EU, and that's one of the reasons why. I remember what it was like before. Ordering anything from abroad was a nightmare.

[enuddleyarbl]

Originally Posted by jiminrussell

I assume you are referring to
UnlockEnabeled=false in the PowerOptions section of the .kobo/Kobo/KoboeReader.conf file

...

Just in case anyone tries this, there are a couple of typos in there. It's "Kobo eReader.conf" (with a space) on my Forma and "UnlockEnabled=false" (there's an extra "e" in the given keyword). But, now that I've enabled it, I'm very happy.

[LivresInOz]

Thanks Dave - I will.

[Trellaine]

I know this thread is old. Which of the forma and sage is better for my eyes?

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Trellaine

I know this thread is old. Which of the forma and sage is better for my eyes?

Neither? Both? Both are 8" screens with 300 dpi. The Sage screen has visibly better contrast than the Forma screen but only noticeable if you do a side by side comparison or use a densitometer.

[Quoth]

I doubt any difference in practice. I don't have a Forma, but I have a Sage, Original H2O, Original Libra, PW3, Elipsa. All fine to read. My son's PW4 maybe slightly inferior to Original Libra, and PW3, but really it would make no difference. The Boyue Likebook Mars is also similar.

The Kobo Touch was poorer than Sony PRS-350, iRiver Cover Story, Kindle Keyboard 3, Kindle DXG, Nook Simple Touch, and Sony T1. I've had or have all of those.

I read for pleasure on the Sage.
I do proof reading & annotation on the Libra (work).
I use Elipsa for large PDFs and proofing for POD.

[enuddleyarbl]

I've updated my OP with the crux of what I'm posting here:

My Forma died and I needed a replacement. Regardless of the poor battery life from last year, the Sage was the best replacement I could come up with. So, 14 months after returning the one I tested, above, I bought a new one. It arrived with a totally drained battery, so I was able to check the charging time:

- Hour 1: 0 to 78% (said 11 minutes more).
- 11 minutes later: 90% and doesn't give estimate any more
- Hour 1 and 50 minutes: 97% (to match the charging time, above)
- Hour 2: 99%
- 2 hours and 7 minutes: 100%

So, charging this unit took an extra 17 minutes over the one from last year. Also, the estimated charging time it gives is WAY off.

Once charged, I measured my reading times before the battery was totally discharged:

Hour 1: from 100% to 91% = 9%
Hour 2: from 89% to 81% = 8%
Hour 3: from 81% to 73% = 8%
Hour 4: from 73% to 63% = 10%
Hour 5: from 62% to 51% = 11%
Hour 6 (and 3 minutes): from 50% to 40% = 10%
Hour 7: from 38% to 31% = 7%
Hour 8: from 31% to 22% = 9%
Hour 9: from 21% to 8% = 13%
Final 8 minutes: from 8% to shutdown = 8%

The time in between those reading times, the Sage was asleep (losing perhaps 2% over 12 hours). So, this Sage gets about an extra hour of reading over last year's, but still about 3 hours short of what the newish Forma was giving me. BUT, the old Forma and Sage were with Wifi and automatic syncing on and in normal mode. This Sage has Wifi and automatic syncing off and is in Sideload Mode. So, I don't know if the improvement is due to firmware updates or my having turned stuff off.

My other comments from a year ago still apply.

For anyone who wants to wade through the boring details of what I did, here it is:

The charger I'm using is:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...e?ie=UTF8&th=1

The USB cable is:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...e?ie=UTF8&th=1

and, this is the process of how I set things up:

Full factory reset
The first thing I did was a Full, Manual Factory Reset:
1. Press and hold the power button until you see a black 'Powered off' screen.
2. Press and hold one of the page turn buttons.
3. While holding the page turn button, press and hold the power button.
Wait until the screen flashes and starts the reset process. It usually takes about 30-seconds for the eReader to start the reset process.

I then logged into my Kobo account and updated the firmware to the current level.
Afterward, I logged into my Overdrive account.

Sideload Mode
Since I almost never find books worthy of borrowing at the library, and I sideload everything else from Calibre, I turned on Sideload Mode:
- Edit the file "Kobo ereader.conf" in .kobo/Kobo with a text editor that does Unix file endings, not a word processor or Windows Notepad. Notepad++ works. Any plain text editor on Mac, BSD, Linux etc will work.

-Find
[ApplicationPreferences]

Add
SideloadedMode=true

- If it's already there and false, edit it to true.

- On Mac, BSD, UNIX, Linux you need to enable view of hidden files & folders because the top directory/folder starts with a dot.

NickelMenu
- Connect your Kobo eReader to your computer over USB.
- Download KoboRoot.tgz into the KOBOeReader's /.kobo folder. You may need to show hidden files to see the folder.
- Safely eject your eReader and wait for it to reboot.
- Ensure there is a new menu item in the top-left main menu entitled NickelMenu (it will appear in the bottom-right on firmware 4.23.15505+).
- Connect your Kobo eReader to your computer again and create a new file (of any type) named /.adds/nm/config, and follow the instructions in KOBOeReader/.adds/nm/doc to configure NickelMenu.

Sideload Library from Calibre
Sideloading my epubs from Calibre to kepubs on the Sage via a usb 3 cable took about 12 minutes (431 books in 4 batches of 100 plus the remaining 31 -- disconnect and reconnect in between). After all in, I used Kobo Utilities > Store/Restore Current Bookmark to Restore my reading progress to the device.

Settings
WiFi and Bluetooth = OFF
Energy Savings and Privacy:
- Show Book Covers Full Screen = ON
- Show Info Panel on Full Screen Covers = ON
- Indicator Light While Charging = ON (and doesn't work right)
- Sleepcover: Automatically Sleep and Wake Up = OFF
- Discover Tab: Show List of Recent Viewed ebooks = ON
Reading Settings:
- Header: Time Remaining in Chapter
- Footer: Time Remaining in Book
- Show Book Progress Bar = ON
- Refresh Screen Every: 10 pages
- Auto Rotate = ON
- Show Adobe EPUB Page Numbers = OFF
- Dark Mode = OFF
- Pinch to Adjust Font Size = OFF
- Swipe Left Edge to Adjust Brightness = OFF
Brightness:
- 40%, Auto = OFF, Natural Light slider about 25% (just before first "1" of "11:00" in sleep time)
Fonts:
- Georgia
- Font Size: a bit past the middle
- Line Spacing and margin = 0
- Justification = OFF

[Quoth]

I find charger influences Sage charge time more dramatically than other ereaders (even the Elipsa), that are largely unaffected by choice of charger.
About 45 minutes on the charger that came with my Lenovo Yoga Android Tablet. Over 100 minutes on any other charger I have.

[enuddleyarbl]

After I drained the battery with my reading test, I recharged the Sage and, once again, it took a bit over two hours to charge. And, the estimated charge time was, again, WAY off.

That charger is a 65w unit and is supposed to be able to negotiate power levels and speeds (as is the cable). But, it doesn't seem to be happening (or happening very well) with the Sage. I had been charging my Forma with an old, old, old USB-A charger that came with one of my long-ago Kindles. And it was charging at just about the same rate as the new Sage with the newfangled, high-powered, smart, USB-C charger.