Aura HD Kobo Aura HD Impressions Thread

[filmo]

Originally Posted by guitarizt

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.

Slightly slower page turns are only problematic because you are going from faster to slightly slower page turns making difference really noticeable. Long before you have turned 1400 pages you will anticipate need to turn page early enough to not interrupt your reading.

If this is really a buying Aura stopper that's ok as you can obviously live with all of the short comings of you current readers. All of them have problems that might be fixed with next update or new model.

[Canuck_in_Japan]

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.

Anecdotal. My Aura is far faster than my PRS-650. I'd make a video of it but I really can't be bothered.

[Canuck_in_Japan]

Never mind, I could be bothered. Sorry the aspect ratio is all messed up. With exception of maybe the first page turn, the Aura is faster or as fast as the 650 basically every time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQF3q3JO5Bg
Actually it seems to have slowed down a bit. I remember trying before and it would turn the page before the Sony even flashed but perhaps my fingers were not synchronous.

[guitarizt]

Thanks for the video. I really like how you can set the aura to refresh every 6 pages instead of every 1 on the 650.

I'll take the page turn thing off the table. The biggest thing is that the waiting for the aura is annoying as heck and I just got a paperwhite + cover with one day shipping for $110 while my aura hasn't shipped yet at $184. The price difference just doesn't seem worth it anymore. I'm paying less to have something sooner instead of later.

[Canuck_in_Japan]

To be fair, is there any other company that has a better shipping infrastructure than Amazon? I mean, they are essentially a shipping company. Before getting into ebooks and even now all they do is ship stuff from one part of the country to another (or around the world to me in Japan). Kobo obviously hasn't got its act together but it will never be even close to Amazon in that regard. I got my Kobo shipped in less than 24 hours but that does not make them a flawless delivery company. Nor does a few screw ups make them hopeless.

[guitarizt]

I can't think of any company I've ever ordered from that has had a worse shipping time or customer service than kobo. Most americans are waiting at least a week to get their item shipped, and it's more than a few screw ups on kobo's part.

I could have sent amazon a first class letter and gotten a pw shipped faster than my kobo with my aura.

[samhy]

Originally Posted by guitarizt

I can't think of any company I've ever ordered from that has had a worse shipping time or customer service than kobo. Most americans are waiting at least a week to get their item shipped, and it's more than a few screw ups on kobo's part.

I could have sent amazon a first class letter and gotten a pw shipped faster than my kobo with my aura.

Do you remember how long it took to Amazon to start selling Paperwhite eReaders to Canada?

In the Aura case, there were a lot of pre-orders. I would be disappointed if I got an email with a delivery date and the Aura shows up one week later. But if after my order I don't have any ETA, that's different for me.

Maybe Kobo should have stuck to a Canadian release only at first. Maybe the US partner should have dealt with US orders in a better way. Maybe was a higher success than expected. Maybe... many things actually. And none of them make Kobo a bad company in my book

[ewphoenix123]

Originally Posted by kukafei

3. Any impressions on whether the screen is really sturdier than other e-readers? My Sony 650 screen somehow broke without even being dropped or mistreated in any known way.

The newer screens like the GLO are more resistant to scratches, compared to the 650.
I assume every reader that has the light rough feeling comes with a additional protective coating. I'm pretty sure at least the Sony T2, Cybook Frontlit, Paperwhite, Glo and Aura use similiar protective layers.

But all those readers use to my knowledge the same glas substrate based technology for the eink part of the display, which means they can break.
A well designed unit can help to lower the risk, but I think all major producer provide a similiar quality in that regard.

Those random break incidents were somewhat common at the beginning of e-readers, but they are pretty rare nowadays, but they still happen on occasion.

[ewphoenix123]

Originally Posted by guitarizt

Thanks for the video. I really like how you can set the aura to refresh every 6 pages instead of every 1 on the 650.

Actually you can set all Kobo readers, to refresh every 1-90 pages if you edit a config file.
I use mine with 90 pages refresh. ^^

[93terp]

Originally Posted by ewphoenix123

Actually you can set all Kobo readers, to refresh every 1-90 pages if you edit a config file.
I use mine with 90 pages refresh. ^^

What's the advantage of longer time between screen refreshes?

[treadlightly]

Originally Posted by samhy

Do you remember how long it took to Amazon to start selling Paperwhite eReaders to Canada?

So true! It took what, 4-5 months for Amazon to ship a paperwhite to Canada? That is why I will never buy another Amazon ereader.

[drew2720]

Mikeyboards...my library had Overdrive but changed (due to cost conflict) to something else but I can't recall what...they now have it all under what they are calling 'the magic wall' when you get into their e-book section. They are using Blio for the kindle books, which isn't the greatest, and you click on epub for everything else, which downloads to adobe. Haven't tried the reset yet as I am going to finish the book I started first. Let you know if it works. Thanks again for your help!

[evanft]

Originally Posted by guitarizt

I can't think of any company I've ever ordered from that has had a worse shipping time or customer service than kobo. Most americans are waiting at least a week to get their item shipped, and it's more than a few screw ups on kobo's part.

I could have sent amazon a first class letter and gotten a pw shipped faster than my kobo with my aura.

Judging by your post history, it looks like you ordered an Aura and then immediately came here to complain about it. Yes, your order appears to be taking a while to ship, but so is almost everyone else's in the USA. There was a high demand for the product, and it has to ship from either Canada or Hong Kong. Could Kobo be doing better? Absolutely. But I don't really see the sense in running out and buying a competing (and, in my opinion, inferior in every way outside of ecosystem and customer service) device just because shipping is taking a while.

What's odd, though, is that 93terp, who has every right to complain about Kobo's horrid customer service, made this post about the Aura vs. the KPW after you asked about it in another thread:

Originally Posted by 93terp

In my opinion, based on having the Kindle Paperwhite since the day it was released in the U.S., there is no comparison between the Aura & KPW screens & backlight. Aura wins those 2 categories hands down. I would also give Kobo/Aura the edge over KPW on page turns. Remember, the Aura does have a slightly faster processor than the KPW.

So, not only is the screen better, but the page turn speed, which you apparently hold as being very important to your enjoyment of an e-reader, is better on the Aura. This is coming from someone who has owned the KPW since day 1 and clearly has every good reason to bad mouth Kobo.

Then there's the fact that you said you wanted a device to read epubs and PDFs. So you bought a KPW, which doesn't have native epub support and isn't as good at reading PDFs as the Aura.

[emmytie]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

You can get a brief time display at top centre by tapping the screen, when in a standard epub book. I don't know whether it's the same for kepubs.

Thanks. That's great to know. I can't wait until the Aura gets here.

[Skydog]

Originally Posted by guitarizt

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

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.

I am no fan of KOBO but you are not making an accurate comparison. The $139 Kindle PW is the no-ads version and it lacks an SD slot. There is only a $30 difference between it and an Aura.