Aura HD Kobo Aura HD Impressions Thread

[evanft]

So I've had the aura since Monday and I think I'm having a problem with eye strain due to the light. I read in a room with an overhead light on and even with the light at only 16%, I get eye strain.

Anyone else experiencing eye strain with the aura or any other front lit reader? Do I maybe just have sensitive eyes? Or am I just not setting the brightness correctly?

I might as well give my impressions so far. I've read a couple hundred pages of game of thrones and I think I have a handle on the device.

The Good
- I love the interface. It really seems to take advantage of the higher screen resolution and larger size quite well.

- DAT SCREEN. Absolutely amazing. It makes text so crisp and clear. It also makes it easier to use smaller fonts and tighter line spacing, which means more text in screen. Love it.

- I like the way it feels to hold. The back actually contours to my hand very well. The bezel is also a nice size.

- The options available with regards to line spacing, margins, fonts, etc. Really nice to be able to tune things exactly how I want them.

- Aside from the aforementioned issues with eye strain, the lighting is very good. It's much better than the blotchy mess on the KPW.

The Bad
- Page turns could be faster.

- I wish I could fully customize sideloaded fonts the same as you could built in ones.

[guitarizt]

Sony's last update for the prs-t1 made page turns faster than with the previous update. I've heard Kobo's firmware updates have been troublesome in the past, but hopefully the page turn time is something they can improve on this year.

[evanft]

Originally Posted by guitarizt

Sony's last update for the prs-t1 made page turns faster than with the previous update. I've heard Kobo's firmware updates have been troublesome in the past, but hopefully the page turn time is something they can improve on this year.

It's definitely not bad, I just think it could be faster.

Overall, I'm very, very happy with the device.

[guitarizt]

Good is not good enough with how good other ereaders are, though. There was another post where someone said their sony prs-650 was faster with page turns.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by guitarizt

Good is not good enough with how good other ereaders are, though. There was another post where someone said their sony prs-650 was faster with page turns.

My Kindle Touch is a lot faster. At first I didn't notice because I was monkeying around with the device a lot as I read my first book on it, but really noticed it after going back to my Kindle Touch to finish a book I was reading on it and then going back to the Aura for regular reading.

[filmo]

With 2.5.1 firmware on Kobo touch, I touch the screen then after slight delay page turns. No double page turns or missed page turn after a touch. I am happy with page turns now and you should also be happy as it was really bad sometimes with past firmware. Anyone switched from Kobo Wifi to faster Kobo Touch and back to Wifi with slower processor knows you will adapt to page turn speed slow or fast by tapping screen a little earlier or later without thinking and this will only take a few days use to adapt.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by filmo

I am happy with page turns now and you should also be happy as it was really bad sometimes with past firmware.

I guess I don't care how it was with earlier firmware. If it was really horrible before I'd probably have been returning the device. It's not horrible now (and yes you get a rhythm down when it comes to turn speed), but could be better. Overall I like the Aura quite a bit.

[guitarizt]

I don't care how slow the Kobo Touch was with past firmwares. I want page turns as fast as the PW, Kindle Touch, and Sony PRS-650.

[evanft]

Originally Posted by guitarizt

Good is not good enough with how good other ereaders are, though. There was another post where someone said their sony prs-650 was faster with page turns.

If page turn speeds are the best thing you an say about another reader when compared to the Kobo, then I think the Aura is in a pretty good position.

Originally Posted by filmo

With 2.5.1 firmware on Kobo touch, I touch the screen then after slight delay page turns. No double page turns or missed page turn after a touch. I am happy with page turns now and you should also be happy as it was really bad sometimes with past firmware. Anyone switched from Kobo Wifi to faster Kobo Touch and back to Wifi with slower processor knows you will adapt to page turn speed slow or fast by tapping screen a little earlier or later without thinking and this will only take a few days use to adapt.

I think that's the wrong way of looking at it. Just because it used to be worse doesn't mean we should feel lucky that's it's better, but still worse than other readers. Kobo should further improve their software so it's simply a non-issue.

Originally Posted by guitarizt

I don't care how slow the Kobo Touch was with past firmwares. I want page turns as fast as the PW, Kindle Touch, and Sony PRS-650.

This is how I feel. Though, to be fair, I'd take the overall better experience of the Aura over the faster page turns any day of the week, especially for someone like me who almost exclusively reads sideloaded epubs.

[guitarizt]

Well there's the better ergonomic design of other ereaders. Everyone complains about the Aura being slippery. There's the poorly designed Kobo store. Amazon's store is infinitely better for buying books. There's Kobo's customer service from Hell. There's the price factor of the Aura being almost twice the price of the PW after the $20 discount Amazon was giving out recently. There's waiting time to get an Aura. There's the big space at the bottom of the page in the Aura that you can't fix without having to modify the widow/orphan on each ebook. There's the extra size of the Aura that some would say is a con because of the huge extra space gap at the bottom of the page.

I'm sure there's other stuff I'm forgetting about. The page turn thing is huge. If I read about 1400 pages a month then I have to wait about an extra 20 minutes a month for page turns with something that should be on par with everything else because it is the next gen ereader.

[Mikeyboards]

Originally Posted by drew2720

Thank you Mikeyboards for your reply....yes, I had no trouble downloading using ADE with my kobo mini. ADE is what my library uses for their e-book downloads. I have the latest ADE update, so I was wondering if something was up with my aura. I was thinking of doing a paperclip reset and see what happens. Not using an SD card... just direct ADE to kobo....

Drew, I'm still wondering who your library's vendor is? Mine uses Overdrive, and of course the tool for transferring the ebooks to the device is also ADE, as in your case. (And my covers seem to show up fine.) But if your vendor is, for instance, 3M Cloud Library (instead of Overdrive), perhaps ebooks and covers are handled in a slightly different way. And even though they show up normally on your Kobo Mini, I have heard there is a difference in how the Aura handles some things (compared to other Kobo models); I think I recall the issue as having to do with covers. I'm only pursuing this a bit farther because this may be the only difference between our situations... IF your library system uses a different vendor than Overdrive. (In which case the bug could be tested/replicated, and someone might come up with a workaround.)

Still, having said all of this, maybe your reset will work

[Mikeyboards]

Originally Posted by guitarizt

...

Hey, I just noticed that my (Mikeyboards) latest comment followed that of Guitarizt. Any BassPlayers or Drummerz want to join in? (Maybe we need to move to the Aura Rocks thread...)

[evanft]

Originally Posted by guitarizt

Well there's the better ergonomic design of other ereaders. Everyone complains about the Aura being slippery.

This is really just opinion, though. I actually find the Aura much more comfortable to hold than the KPW or K5.

Originally Posted by guitarizt

There's the poorly designed Kobo store. Amazon's store is infinitely better for buying books. There's Kobo's customer service from Hell.

While these are certainly both valid points, and I've also felt that with these devices you're buying into an ecosystem more than anything else, I think the fact that books from either store can simply have their DRM stripped off in Calibre and converted to a format usable by the other device mitigates the store issue somewhat. But, this is kind of inconvenient, obviously.

Originally Posted by guitarizt

There's the price factor of the Aura being almost twice the price of the PW after the $20 discount Amazon was giving out recently.

To be fair, the Aura is ad-free, has a bigger screen, a higher resolution screen, double the internal memory, and an SD card slot. The discount was also only temporary, so we're really talking about a $30 difference.

Originally Posted by guitarizt

There's waiting time to get an Aura.

I don't really see this as much of an issue. It's being shipped from Canada and Hong Kong. Given, it's not been as fast as Amazon, but I wouldn't really say it's bad enough to dissuade a reasonable person from buying it. I ordered mine on 4/20, and received it on 4/29. I'm only one person, so my experience is completely anecdotal and may not be representative. If they ever reach B&M stores in the US, though, the point kind of becomes moot.

I also seem to remember the KPW being difficult to get when it first came out. I seem to recall there being messages about it not being in stock for weeks when I was first looking at e-readers late last year. I could be mistaken, however.

Originally Posted by guitarizt

There's the big space at the bottom of the page in the Aura that you can't fix without having to modify the header/orphan on each ebook.

I've never experienced this. Can you please expand on this issue? I know about the issue with Kobo devices and CSS, but I was able to get around it with a bulk conversion in Calibre.

Originally Posted by guitarizt

There's the extra size of the Aura that some would say is a con because of the huge extra space gap at the bottom of the page.

I definitely agree that the large space at the bottom is wasted and should be customizable, but I'm still able to fit more text than any 6" device I've ever used. I also don't see how it makes the screen size a con.

Originally Posted by guitarizt

I'm sure there's other stuff I'm forgetting about. The page turn thing is huge. If I read about 1400 pages a month then I have to wait about an extra 20 minutes a month for page turns with something that should be on par with everything else because it is the next gen ereader.

If page turn speed is paramount, then I would suggest using an Aura for a bit and seeing if it's too slow for your tastes. It's not an issue for me, but I could see how it would be for someone.

[guitarizt]

Nice mikeyboards, seems like there's a lot of musicians here.

Evanft it's not my opinion since I don't have it yet, but the opinion of most of the reviews. I also don't care about a lot of the stuff, but I'm sick of waiting for my Aura to ship. I just ordered a paperwhite and I'm cancelling my aura order.

Here's a picture showing the space at the bottom of the aura page:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...&postcount=621

Here's a comment in response to having to fix the widow/orphan on each book:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...&postcount=641

I still think it's fine as there might be a way to change the widow/orphan for everything at once, and the aura was shown to still show more text than the kobo glo even with the space at the bottom. The only issue I still have a problem with in order of importance is Kobo's customer service (lack of shipping), slow page turns, and the huge price jump from $100 for the discounted paperwhite for select users to the $184 after tax for the Aura.

[HansTWN]

Originally Posted by guitarizt

Nice mikeyboards, seems like there's a lot of musicians here.

Evanft it's not my opinion since I don't have it yet, but the opinion of most of the reviews. I also don't care about a lot of the stuff, but I'm sick of waiting for my Aura to ship. I just ordered a paperwhite and I'm cancelling my aura order.

Here's a picture showing the space at the bottom of the aura page:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...&postcount=621

Here's a comment in response to having to fix the widow/orphan on each book:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...&postcount=641

I still think it's fine as there might be a way to change the widow/orphan for everything at once, and the aura was shown to still show more text than the kobo glo even with the space at the bottom. The only issue I still have a problem with in order of importance is Kobo's customer service (lack of shipping), slow page turns, and the huge price jump from $100 for the discounted paperwhite for select users to the $184 after tax for the Aura.

The slow page turns have been debunked as a myth by several people later in the thread who have Sony 650, KWP, etc. The Aura apparently has the fastest page turns.