Kobo Aura One - Buy Now or Wait?

[Polarpenguin]

The answer to the question should you wait is a difficult one. There does seem to be a lot of variation between batches. Later batches may suffer less problems.

I personally haven't experienced any of the problems others have had. Battery was fine prior to the update, did have rapid drain overnight immediately after the update, but after charging no problems. Have yet to need to recharge either.

My screen & light are also good with no discolouration. Natural light is v red at 100%, but as I would never have it that high it's not an issue.
Didn't get the sleep cover, so can't comment on that particular issue. Sans cover while awaiting a 3rd party cover whinging its way (slowly) from china, so currently putting to sleep manually.

[johnnyb]

Wait until Kobo have fixed all the issues currently there and check if they didn’t introduce new ones. Do not rely on the promise of “possible fixes in the future”, even for major bugs, you may be in for a long wait. Kobo software is generally “hyper-sensitive” and often unstable (e.g. “handle with care!”).
Once you notice that the complaints are really going down, purchase from a retailer with a good return policy.

[manxam]

I'd suggest holding off myself. I have an outstanding case for the KA1 since Sept 18 with a "it's defective, you may return it" followed immediately by "I've been informed that this is a known issue and will be patched"

On average they've taken 2 days to respond to each request for update which is merely them stating that the request has been received and will be investigated followed by a 5-7 delay before someone actually responds and asks me to hard reset the device, etc. They then promises me an update will fix it but have not been forthcoming on when this mysterious patch will drop.

This is for the "battery drain" issue as I need to charge the device at least once daily.

[Amiieey]

Saw the device in person at Best Buy.. It's so nicebut when I used it it somehow felt sluggy.. Also expensive :/ Something was off about it. Maybe fixed in the next update? I have an Aura H2O and don't see myself upgrading yet until things are fixed.

[alizarin]

if you are in love with the screen size or *must* have the extra real estate then IMO the KA1 is worth buying, warts and all.

My KA1 has its share of flaws, but since I got it I haven't used my Oasis much at all. In fact, I had to hunt for my Oasis yesterday because I forgot where I had left it...

[anacreon]

Originally Posted by alizarin

if you are in love with the screen size or *must* have the extra real estate then IMO the KA1 is worth buying, warts and all.

My KA1 has its share of flaws, but since I got it I haven't used my Oasis much at all. In fact, I had to hunt for my Oasis yesterday because I forgot where I had left it...

Same here. My main grumble is the poorly responsive and blurring capacitive layer (why? other manufacturers manage better): in a perfect world, it would have the quality and responsiveness of my glo HD, but I love the bigger real estate. And I like the freedom to change the light color - reading at night is much more comfortable.

Compared to the H2O, the real estate difference seems not that important on paper, but it means I can now read PDFs (not all) that I couldn't before, and that don't exist as epubs. It much improves reading kepubs (my favored format) with tables and graphs too, and poetry looks better.

Even with "plain" kepubs the page size is better, and I find myself taking it everywhere, when I had thought before I'd take my glo HD for everyday transit.

I should say that I like header and footer, and a fair margin on my books.

[TheHazardsDuke]

@anacreon - Is the screen particularly poor? I'm curious as it seems to be quite a marmite issue. Some people love it and some hate it. I saw one in the flesh yesterday as a friend's picked one up and from what he showed me it looked fine to me except he also said it was a bit blurry and not as responsive as it should be.

[anacreon]

Originally Posted by TheHazardsDuke

@anacreon - Is the screen particularly poor? I'm curious as it seems to be quite a marmite issue. Some people love it and some hate it. I saw one in the flesh yesterday as a friend's picked one up and from what he showed me it looked fine to me except he also said it was a bit blurry and not as responsive as it should be.

It is not particularly poor. The quality had improved so much from Kobo Glo to Aura 6.8" to Kobo Glo HD that our standards have gone up. The blurring is slight on the Aura One, nothing compared to the awful Aura 6" (with which my 11 years old niece is very happy though - but her eyes are much younger than mine). I don't know if what I call reactivity problems (great difficulties in calling notes, having to touch left of center to not call the item to the right for instance) are due to the hardware or the software (OR inclusive of course).

[anacreon]

posted twice

[TheHazardsDuke]

@anacreon - thanks for the reply. I reckon response issues might be software as I had similar sort of problem with a smartphone screen about a two years ago, turned out to be a bug in the software. As for the sharpness I guess as they say it's all in the eye of the beholder.

[dnastase]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Yeah, there are some 'interesting' quirks with the sleepcover.

Just get a different sleep cover.
I have a cheap(er) third party from Amazon and I don't have any issue at all.
Yes, it's disappointing that an expensive original sleep cover doesn't function perfectly but I would separate that from the e-reader unit [experience]...

[dnastase]

Originally Posted by LuckyL

In response to the original question:

after my personal experience I would definitely recommend to wait. The problems I have experienced:

- battery drain
- green blotches on the screen
- irregular backlighting
- touch not working/offset
- irregular gaps around the bezel
- not recognised under Windows 10

I replaced the item several times before finally returning it for a refund. The differences between the units I received were staggering, however, all units had the battery and touch problems.

The quality control is shocking and at this price point, it's unacceptable. I often read that it's only the disappointed ones being vocal while there is a silent, happy majority. But my personal experience matches the descriptions that some have branded horror stories.

I am now looking for non-Kobo alternatives but I can't seem to find an alternative (>7", 300dpi) so I will stick with my old reader until such time that something new comes up in the market.

As far as Kobo is concerned: never again.

Just to add my experience w/ the Aura one (for what it's worth).
I seem to be lucky, most of the issues above I don't have. The only ones that I do:
- the gap to the left, lol, I really had to look hard today to see what the talk is about. And yes, there is a tiny small gap but it's so small I really didn't notice it on my own
- I do have some USB connectivity issues, although I don't use Windows 10. I think that issue is because of the Windows, not Kobo !

Otherwise the screen looks perfect (I don't know why people say it's blurry!), it's big with nice contrast. Touch responsiveness is ok and backlighting is good.
The battery life is not as good on H20 but it has a smaller battery for bigger resolution. That was a design decision and it is what it is.

All in all I do like the Aura One.
They seem to have had a bad batch but if you can return it easily I would try to get one. It's worth it IMHO.

[graycyn]

My anniversary has come and gone and the Kobo Aura ONE is *still* out of stock, sigh.... I checked first thing yesterday.

So the answer to buy now or wait appears to be wait, regardless of my wishes.

Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk

[jacobw]

How were you able to return it? Customer service kept sending me circular emails until finally I had to get PayPal to step in and refund the money.

Originally Posted by LuckyL

In response to the original question:

after my personal experience I would definitely recommend to wait. The problems I have experienced:

- battery drain
- green blotches on the screen
- irregular backlighting
- touch not working/offset
- irregular gaps around the bezel
- not recognised under Windows 10

I replaced the item several times before finally returning it for a refund. The differences between the units I received were staggering, however, all units had the battery and touch problems.

The quality control is shocking and at this price point, it's unacceptable. I often read that it's only the disappointed ones being vocal while there is a silent, happy majority. But my personal experience matches the descriptions that some have branded horror stories.

I am now looking for non-Kobo alternatives but I can't seem to find an alternative (>7", 300dpi) so I will stick with my old reader until such time that something new comes up in the market.

As far as Kobo is concerned: never again.

[graycyn]

For those who didn't initially buy, just went to the Kobo Aura ONE page and it says new stock is coming in early 2017. A longer wait than I'd hoped for, but perhaps it means they are working out issues?

Sent from my Nexus 9 using Tapatalk