Sage Kobo Sage opinions

[graycyn]

Originally Posted by ErikG

I think the uniformity of lighting of the Sage is a major improvement of that of the Forma. I guess thanks to the glass covering.

I tried to make a picture of the light with both sliders about half-way.

Looks identical to the lighting on my month old Forma.

Sent from my Pixel 3a XL using Tapatalk

[Deobulakenyo]

Originally Posted by Almamida

It's not. Not a dealbreaker, but the Libra2 has a better screen overall.

Maybe the flushed screen affected the screen tint rendering the screen not as white as the Libra 2?

[Almamida]

Originally Posted by Deobulakenyo

Maybe the flushed screen affected the screen tint rendering the screen not as white as the Libra 2?

This is probably what it is. Not a big deal to be honest. You would need to have the devices side by side to really see it.
I’m glad the Libra gets such a great screen cause I’m sure people will prefer a smaller device and it becomes a great Oasis alternative (except for the speed)

The Sage is growing on me and could become my main reader. I’ve just put ebooks about programming on it and it is big enough to be enjoyable. Importing books is way faster than the Libra2. Not a big fan of the front plastic though, it really keeps fingerprints.

[Deobulakenyo]

Originally Posted by Almamida

It's not. Not a dealbreaker, but the Libra2 has a better screen overall.

Do you have both Libra 2 and Sage?

Edit: I read back and saw your post saying you got both.

Can you do side-by side screen comparisons of the two with max light on white lights only and max with both white and orange lights?

Thank you

[mkozlows]

My Sage arrived today. A few thoughts:

1. I bought this thing for one reason and one reason only: USB-C. If they had made something exactly like the Forma, except instead of MicroUSB, it had USB-C, I would have bought it. I have USB-C chargers scattered around the house; when I travel, I pack a USB-C charger. Having this one single weird device that used a wacky obsolete charger has been driving me nuts. So mission accomplished right there, but it turns out this isn't just a Forma with a better USB port.

2. I was pretty skeptical of alleged Carta 1200 improvements, but supposedly this is more contrasty than previous einks. And... it is. Held up next to the Forma, it's clear that this looks more contrasty. And usually contrast improvements with eink have come in the form of whiter whites, but this time around, it's the black that's gotten darker. Is it a big deal? No. If you weren't holding them side-by-side, you might not even notice. But it's real.

3. Performance with this thing should be massively improved, since it's a quad-core CPU instead of the ancient single-core thing in the Forma. I wasn't sure how much this would matter, but it turns out to be a significant. All kinds of operations happen noticeably faster; really, it just turns a corner to actually feel responsive. Operating the UI isn't like pushing on molasses, where you tap a thing and there's a delay before anything responds. Page turns are noticeably faster, too -- I held the Forma and the Sage side-by-side at the same position in a book, and every page turn on the Forma was just clearly and visibly slower than on the Sage. (Caveat on performance is that I'm using KOReader, not the built-in stuff, which I didn't bother looking at.)

4. The page turn buttons are better. Here, I actually wanted a bigger improvement. Given that these buttons are like your main point of interface with the device, I want them to be luxury buttons -- crisp, precise travel, maybe formed of ceramic like the Nexus 5 volume buttons (still my reference for the best buttons I've ever encountered on a device). These aren't. They're still plastic, they've still got some mush to them, but they do have less deadzone travel than the Forma rocker buttons, and are noticeably crisper. Not where I'd want it to be, but a big improvement.

5. The power button is _much_ better. The Forma had this terrible small button on the edge that was a nightmare to push; this one has (as most of their other readers have had for a while now) a big round recessed button on the back that has a clear click when pressed.

So that's all the positives. The negatives are smaller:

1. It's heavier and thicker than the Forma. These are already big readers, with their 7.8" screens, and adding more mass isn't ideal. But at the same time, it's not enormously heavy or anything -- like 20% more than my phone -- and the weight is mostly toward your hand, so there's less torque from the weight than if it were evenly distributed. It's fine. But it is a step back from the Forma, which was noticeably lighter (due partially to using a Mobius screen with plastic instead of glass) and even more weighted toward the hand.

2. It's magnetic. I assume this is for the case you can buy for it, but it's sorta weird, in that it means the ereader ends up sticking to my (steel) nightstand.

The biggest unknown to me right now is battery life. It seems to be draining quickly, but I remember the Forma drained quickly at first, too -- I think it has to run some initial indexing or something? So we'll see where this ends up. Unless it's a complete disaster, though, I don't think it significantly will matter: Like, even if it only lasts 1/4 as long (which seems like a real worst case scenario), I'd rather have an e-reader that I recharge twice a week with USB-C than one that I recharge every two weeks with MicroUSB, tbh.

[Almamida]

Originally Posted by Deobulakenyo

Do you have both Libra 2 and Sage?

Edit: I read back and saw your post saying you got both.

Can you do side-by side screen comparisons of the two with max light on white lights only and max with both white and orange lights?

Thank you

I took pictures with my other ereaders, as follow:

    Sage - Paperwhite 4
Libra H2O - Libra 2 - Voyage

No front light:


Front light 100%:


Front Light 100%, warmth 50%:


Front light 100%, warmth 100%:

[Deobulakenyo]

Originally Posted by Almamida

I took pictures with my other ereaders, as follow:

    Sage - Paperwhite 4
Libra H2O - Libra 2 - Voyage

No front light:


Front light 100%:


Front Light 100%, warmth 50%:


Front light 100%, warmth 100%:

Thank you very much.

It looks like the sage has the same screen quality with the Libra H2O in terms of tint ang light

[anacreon]

I'm just starting to load my 5600 books on the sage, which is a long process. Up to now(an hour), it feels somewhat quicker and better than it was.

I have the libra H2O, the sage and the elipsa.
A quick comparing of the screens by daylight shows that with the light off, the libra is the whitest, but with light on, Elipsa is way the best, very white and even, almost bluish compared with the libra which I find annoying because yellowish even with comfort light off. Sage is better, a pale cream color, but as said elsewhere, not so bright, which doesn't bother me.
Sage does have a slightly whiter band along the leds side. I gave away my forma, but I wasn't bothered by it - I don't remember whether it was much different. What bothered me with forma was how difficult it was to turn it on/off, and as far as I remember the screen was not as good as the sage.
I don't understand why Kobo went with brilliant black, showing fingerprints immediately.

[NiLuJe]

Can confirm the whiter/brighter band near the LEDs on mine. It's much more of a "standard" flare spot around the LEDs than the weird laser saber on the Forma.

Doesn't draw the eye as much, will probably be even easier to live with.

(It hasn't even finished sync'ing yet, so, err, first impressions and all ;p.)

[MGlitch]

I’ve asked Decalgirl if they plan to release skins for the Sage, and if not could they add it to their plans. They’ve released skins for most if not every Kobo so I’d expect something in the not too distant future. They have solid black as an option which from experience doesn’t pick up fingerprints. Of course they also offer a variety of different patterns and styles should you wish to be more creative.

They won’t get back to me before Monday morning in the US (I believe they’re based in Delaware). But I’ve yet to be told “no” from them. At worst they say they’ll add it to their list.

I didn’t mention the Libra 2, but I’d imagine they’ll add that as well

[Pajamaman]

Originally Posted by Almamida

I took pictures with my other ereaders, as follow:

    Sage - Paperwhite 4
Libra H2O - Libra 2 - Voyage

Front light 100%, warmth 100%:

Woh! The warm light on the Libra 2 is way redder than the Sage. Big black mark against the Sage in my book. Don't why the warm light is redder on the Libra 2 than the Sage.

P.S. Thanks for the pictures.

[christianbk]

One big thing that I'm concerned about is page turn button placement. They seem SO CLOSE to the edge. Are folks finding this OK to use? Having an issue with it? Like it?

[MGlitch]

Originally Posted by Pajamaman

Woh! The warm light on the Libra 2 is way redder than the Sage. Big black mark against the Sage in my book. Don't why the warm light is redder on the Libra 2 than the Sage.

P.S. Thanks for the pictures.

More screen to light with essentially the same number of lights. Think of it like two beakers of water of different sizes. You put the a drop of dye in each, the larger will appear to have less color than the smaller.

It’s a guess on the number of LEDs of course, but I’d be surprised if there were an extra one(s) on the Sage since they still diminish the blue light which is what they’re meant to do.

I also don’t get the obsession with setting the front light to 100%, in “normal” ambient light it serves no purpose, and in low to no ambient light 100% is almost good enough to function as a makeshift flashlight. I’ve yet to own a Kobo where the lighting goes beyond 20% (typically 10 is the highest and 5 is where it is most of the time).

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by MGlitch

I also don’t get the obsession with setting the front light to 100%, in “normal” ambient light it serves no purpose, and in low to no ambient light 100% is almost good enough to function as a makeshift flashlight. I’ve yet to own a Kobo where the lighting goes beyond 20% (typically 10 is the highest and 5 is where it is most of the time).

I've often thought the same. But then there are people with eye issues, developing cataracts and so on. My eyesight is poor too, but not in the sense that I need bright light. Others might, though.

[Deobulakenyo]

My libra h2o is notmally at 60-70% brightness. I envy your good eyes. ��