Forma Still in favor?

[petercreasey]

I still have my wonderful KA1. And now I have inherited a mint-condition Forma. Is the Forma still considered to be (relatively) up to par with other Kobos?

Thanks.

[issybird]

Lucky you. I always wanted a Forma and thought I'd get one when the next gen 8" reader was released and the price dropped. But the price never really dropped much at all. So I'll just continue to wait until my Aura One goes paws up and make my best decision then based on price and what's out there.

I'll add that while my Aura One is a little wonky, it's still fine and given that all my Kobos, going back over ten years, are still in good working order and in use, I may have a long wait. At least I hope so. I'm not fond of the blockish shape of the newest iterations.

[Sirtel]

The Forma is good enough, I guess (never had one). It doesn't have the newest Carta screen nor the faster processor of the Sage, but in all else it's not particularly outdated yet (even the Libra 2 still uses the old processor - I often wonder at this decision. The Sage is noticeably zippier).

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by issybird

Lucky you. I always wanted a Forma and thought I'd get one when the next gen 8" reader was released and the price dropped. But the price never really dropped much at all. So I'll just continue to wait until my Aura One goes paws up and make my best decision then based on price and what's out there.

I'll add that while my Aura One is a little wonky, it's still fine and given that all my Kobos, going back over ten years, are still in good working order and in use, I may have a long wait. At least I hope so. I'm not fond of the blockish shape of the newest iterations.

If I may ask, how much do you like your PW5? Do you prefer it to your older Kobos or vice versa? Just curious, as I know you've been a hardcore Kobo fan for many years.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

If I may ask, how much do you like your PW5? Do you prefer it to your older Kobos or vice versa? Just curious, as I know you've been a hardcore Kobo fan for many years.

I like my PW5 well enough and I'm very glad to have it. It means I no longer have to bother to download and convert Kindle books. I had already gone over to direct download with my Kobos and as it turned out, my timing was really sterling in regard to Amazon's moves to lock things down. No credit to me; I was very lucky to benefit last summer from the promotion obsoleting the KK, which I had because of the generosity of a member here.

Kindle v. Kobo gets complicated. As a device, it's obviously better than my Mini or Glo but I don't like it as well as my H2O or Aura. Versus my Glo HD? That's tough. I think the Glo HD has the nicest screen of all my devices, but of course the screen on the PW5 is a little bigger and it's zippier than all my Kobos.

Kobo does some things better than Kindle and vice versa. I think what's most lacking with the PW5 are granular controls for the display, the margins in particular. It's the same size screen as the H2O, but a noticeably smaller maximum functional area. And with the ability to fine-tune fonts and line spaces, you get a lot more text on the 5.8" H2O screen and obviously the Aura One. Next would be managing collections with Calibre on the Kobos. And overall the UI on Kindles is not nearly as intuitive or functional as on the Kobos. None of this is news.

OTOH, I love Send to Kindle. I used to download PD books to a Kobo with the browser, but that was clunky. With Send to Kindle, it's fast and in my library, not just on the device. A Kindle also means WhisperSync works with Audible books; I like Victorian novels in audio and usually (not always) the paired Kindle book is free.

I think that's mostly it! I'm still Team Kobo, but I was never all that rabid; I didn't think the issues were all that black-and-white for either. It's likely that if I had a Libra or Sage it would hit the PW5 out of the park, but I also think that in terms of value for money, the PW5 is compelling in comparison. And even if I had a newer Kobo, I'd still use the PW5 for my Kindle books.

(Aren't you sorry you asked!)

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by issybird

(Aren't you sorry you asked!)

No. It was very interesting, thanks. I agree the most lacking thing about Kindles is the ability to fine-tune the display and the reading settings; that was the main reason I moved away from Kindles and gravitated to Kobos (once Kobo adopted page-turn buttons for their devices). You can tweak some things to make the Kindle display better (smaller margins, custom font sizes), but it's more bothersome than customizing the Kobo display and you'd need to sideload everything then (those tweaks won't work with direct downloads).

[JSWolf]

Before the Libra 2, the Aura H2O had one of the nicest screens.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Before the Libra 2, the Aura H2O had one of the nicest screens.

I agree, except that the Glo HD is even crisper. Still, at 265 ppi, the H2O is very impressive. There were several later 300 ppi devices that weren't as sharp.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by issybird

I agree, except that the Glo HD is even crisper. Still, at 265 ppi, the H2O is very impressive. There were several later 300 ppi devices that weren't as sharp.

I like the screen of the PW3 and PW5. But the PW4's screen was a disaster. Less sharp and a bit muddy looking.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by issybird

I think what's most lacking with the PW5 are granular controls for the display, the margins in particular. It's the same size screen as the H2O, but a noticeably smaller maximum functional area.

Personally, I haven't found a lot that I like about the Kindle. But the truth is, it works good enough that I wouldn't complain if it were my only reader. Kinda like the Nook, though I prefer the Nook to the Kindle.

Those margins though. What is Amazon thinking with those? I can't believe nobody has come along to suggest a narrower option.

OTOH, I love Send to Kindle. I used to download PD books to a Kobo with the browser, but that was clunky. With Send to Kindle, it's fast and in my library, not just on the device.

Why use Send to Kindle for PD books at all? Doesn't the Amazon store have enough free, good quality PD books? Aren't the AmazonClassics editions good? (I've not tried them myself, so I'm really not sure.)

[ZodWallop]

I've never wanted an eink device the size of the Forma or Elipsa. But one advantage of the Forma is the Mobius screen makes it lighter.

For someone that ones both an Elipsa and a Forma, does the Mobius screen make a noticeable difference in weight distribution? How about screen quality?

[issybird]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Personally, I haven't found a lot that I like about the Kindle. But the truth is, it works good enough that I wouldn't complain if it were my only reader. Kinda like the Nook, though I prefer the Nook to the Kindle.

I'd be fine with a Kindle, too. That was always my attitude to all of the readers; they were all good enough. I never understood why people would try to push their own favorites onto someone else in face of different preferences or priorities.

Why use Send to Kindle for PD books at all? Doesn't the Amazon store have enough free, good quality PD books? Aren't the AmazonClassics editions good? (I've not tried them myself, so I'm really not sure.)

Free Amazon PD books are my first resource, but there are a lot of lesser-known books out there that aren't available on Kindle. And while the Amazon Classics books are nice, they mostly aren't free. Generally I won't pay for public domain unless I really want the editorial front and back matter, the public domain translation is of a work that has a copyrighted modern translation or I have no alternative.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I've never wanted an eink device the size of the Forma or Elipsa. But one advantage of the Forma is the Mobius screen makes it lighter.

For someone that ones both an Elipsa and a Forma, does the Mobius screen make a noticeable difference in weight distribution? How about screen quality?

The Forma is 8'' like the Sage, the Elipsa is over 10''. So a comparison between the Forma and the Sage would be more apt.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by issybird

...while the Amazon Classics books are nice, they mostly aren't free...

Oh! I didn't know that. I thought they were all free. I never looked that closely.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

The Forma is 8'' like the Sage, the Elipsa is over 10''. So a comparison between the Forma and the Sage would be more apt.

Sorry. I don't pay attention to the readers bigger than Libra, except tangentially.

For someone that owns both a [Sage] and a Forma, does the Mobius screen make a noticeable difference in weight distribution? How about screen quality?