Aura ONE Kobo Aura One owners thread

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by DNSB

The original Kobo Aura H2O used physical seals including the rubbery plug that covers the bottom ports. The HZO coating was first used on the Aura One.

Oh, that's right! That H2O had that plug.... It's been so long that I bought my One that I completely forgot

I'm waiting for a new around 8" symmetric reader, with night light. As long that's not available, I'll stick with my One.

[jaceygan]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

Oh, that's right! That H2O had that plug.... It's been so long that I bought my One that I completely forgot

I'm waiting for a new around 8" symmetric reader, with night light. As long that's not available, I'll stick with my One.

Me too!

[mezzanine]

Originally Posted by chrisridd

Ditto. The uneven lighting on my Aura One is a persistent irritant and the battery really doesn't seem as great as it was - certainly less than the original "up to 1 month".

Is the lighting on the new models significantly better?

I do confess that I'm also toying with going iPad - or if I want the same size device, an iPad Mini - instead of another Kobo, mainly for the quality screen. Humming and hawing though, as eink is probably better on my eyes, and my experiences with the Kobo app on an Android tablet were awful.

My biggest motivator for upgrading from the Aura One to the Sage was for the improved lighting. I own two Aura Ones and both have relatively poor lighting consistency because of the poor implementation of the warm light adjustment.

After the Aura One, all e-readers would use amber LEDs for temperature adjustment instead of the RGB LEDs used on the One.

The Sage has a brighter strip along the button side bezel less than 1cm wide with brighter spots in the corners on my unit, which I believe is typical. Since it's an 8 inch reader and I use margins and the effect is subtle, my brain tunes it out.

If you don't absolutely have to use an e-reader, I can't imagine why you'd use one. It's why I described getting a Sage as something akin to getting married. For me, getting a Sage was a shotgun wedding because I will only use 8 inch ereaders.

[fafaforza]

Originally Posted by chrisridd

battery really doesn't seem as great as it was - certainly less than the original "up to 1 month".

. . .

I do confess that I'm also toying with going iPad

You do have to expect battery loss for such an old device. My little 5000mAh battery pack would likely recharge it a few times over so not a huge deal to carry that in my pocket. Most places have usb plugs anyway.

It sucks that everything is made for the iPad. The Wall Street Journal only has an app for iOS/Android, or PDF copies of daily editions. No eInk. So you always have to find ways to get stuff on the reader. That's always been annoying.

And scanning large format PDFs on the KA1 can be a chore, and sloooow, but reading on eink is much less fatiguing, better in sunlight, and the reader won't run as hot as lava at the beach the way an iPad does.

I do end up taking the iPad mini on the train to read the paper though. You can fight the road blocks only so much. The 8" mini is a good form factor: not too heavy and fits in the back pocket of jeans.

[chrisridd]

Originally Posted by fafaforza

You do have to expect battery loss for such an old device. My little 5000mAh battery pack would likely recharge it a few times over so not a huge deal to carry that in my pocket. Most places have usb plugs anyway.

Oh I agree, and it is doing "ok" at this point in its lifespan (wow, it came out in 2016!) - the main problem is remembering to carry a unique cable for it. Yeah, first world problems.

Originally Posted by fafaforza

And scanning large format PDFs on the KA1 can be a chore, and sloooow, but reading on eink is much less fatiguing, better in sunlight, and the reader won't run as hot as lava at the beach the way an iPad does.

Well I'd like to be able to access PDFs, and especially epubs with colour photos, but those are mostly bonus features. I can and have lived without them.

The issue of eye fatigue however is really important for me. Is it still the case that reading eink is less tiring than iPads with whatever fancy screen modes Apple uses? Erm, dark mode for one, and more subtle things like True Tone, Night Shift, etc etc.

The only time I've tried to read on a tablet was highly unsatisfactory, but I couldn't tell if it was Android's fault, the Android Kobo app's fault, or just the sheer awfulness of the particular tablet hardware. It was a short lived experiment, and I couldn't bear to use it enough to get any idea of eye fatigue.

Originally Posted by fafaforza

The 8" mini is a good form factor: not too heavy and fits in the back pocket of jeans.

Those are some big back pockets.

[fafaforza]

Originally Posted by chrisridd

The only time I've tried to read on a tablet was highly unsatisfactory, but I couldn't tell if it was Android's fault, the Android Kobo app's fault, or just the sheer awfulness of the particular tablet hardware. It was a short lived experiment, and I couldn't bear to use it enough to get any idea of eye fatigue.

Worth checking out an iPad at a store. I'm not really reading novels for hours long stretches, so can't comment, but the Samsung Tab 8 or something I had had a sharp screen.

Originally Posted by chrisridd

Those are some big back pockets.

Just your normal Levi's. the 8" iPad is the same size as the Aura One. That's mu main requirement for a reader, larger than 6" while still fitting in a pocket for convenience

[ps67]

My Kobo Aura One will be soon RIP. It is losing its USB port. I can charge it only if I press the cable in it heavily but I can't stay 1 or 2 hours with the ereader in my hands without doing anything else. I can press it for 2 minutes in order to sidelaod a book but not for hours.

[Ashjuk]

Originally Posted by ps67

My Kobo Aura One will be soon RIP. It is losing its USB port. I can charge it only if I press the cable in it heavily but I can't stay 1 or 2 hours with the ereader in my hands without doing anything else. I can press it for 2 minutes in order to sidelaod a book but not for hours.

Sorry to hear that.

Have you tried cleaning out the USB port? Sometimes foreign matter gets trapped in them preventing the plug seating properly.

[ps67]

Originally Posted by Ashjuk

Sorry to hear that.

Have you tried cleaning out the USB port? Sometimes foreign matter gets trapped in them preventing the plug seating properly.

Yes I tried but it doesn't work.

[Rid]

Originally Posted by ps67

My Kobo Aura One will be soon RIP. It is losing its USB port.

Mine is getting a bit funny too, try testing a few different cables. The cable I am using the plug seems to a bit longer - maybe 1mm. It was a cheap no name brand.

[ps67]

Originally Posted by Rid

Mine is getting a bit funny too, try testing a few different cables. The cable I am using the plug seems to a bit longer - maybe 1mm. It was a cheap no name brand.

I have 3 cables and none of them works. And I own one only PC (because the last attempt is to change PC).

[Rid]

I am having another issue now my battery has started to drain the battery. This week it has happened twice now. Went from 100% to 25% after 6 hours of not using it yesterday! I have reinstalled the firmware (4.34.20097) and will revert to a previous version to test again as there was mention of battery performance on the new firmware.

I hope it can be fixed and it is not the built in obsolescence - because you can't easily change the bloody battery or buy a new one from kobo.

P.S. I know you can buy dodgebay batteries but they have been junk for me in the past. I mean how do you know if they are the rated capacity or even lithium, the one I got for my phone was probably Ni-Cd judging by it's performance??

I am going now... this is turning into a mad rant and I have not finished yet.

[John F]

Originally Posted by Rid

I am having another issue now my battery has started to drain the battery. ...

[Mercador]

6 years is quite a good run, my wife still use my old one. I wish someday we'll be able to change batteries easily ourselves.

[Rid]

Originally Posted by John F

Sooo... I was trying to jump start my car with it!