Kobo Aura One First Impressions

[radius]

Originally Posted by MRC01

I get it, but that's weird. In normal room light I can read the screen just fine without any frontlight. I don't want it to waste battery giving illumination I don't need. I suppose that means I'll just not use this feature.

Amazon's attitude is the same. I have a PaperWhite 2 without any auto-dim, but Amazon recommends bright light in well lit rooms and low light in dark room. I think the reason it to keep the same apparent brightness. Personally, I don't like auto-dim on phones so I don't imagine it is much better on ereaders.

[MRC01]

Auto-dim on a phone with an LCD or AMOLED screen works just fine for me. LCD/AMOLED is a whole 'nuther thing - the exact opposite of eInk!

The e-Ink page background reflects ambient light, so the more ambient light, the more contrast you have and easier it is to read. So the more ambient light, the less self-illumination it needs.

LCD or AMOLED doesn't reflect ambient light, but instead relies entirely on self-illumination. The more ambient light, the brighter the screen must be in order to be visible.

[MRC01]

Even though the battery issues are resolved, I will be returning this KA1. I prefer using my Android tablet to read. In comparison, the KA1:

• No color – black & white only. Color isn't needed in novels but is very useful with technical docs having images & graphs. I also like to use color coded highlighting in my annotations.
• PDF experience is poor compared to tablet, and I sometimes have to read PDFs.
• Buggy touch screen & laggy response compared to tablet.
• Night reading mode – my tablet does reverse video white on black, which I prefer as it's easier on the eyes and less disturbing to my wife who is trying to sleep.
• The auto-illumination just doesn't work well. It slowly pulses while I'm reading, it wastes battery getting too bright in a light room.
• The manual illumination doesn't work well either. The left-side finger slide doesn't trigger reliably, and when it does, it changes in big steps making fine adjustment impossible.
• The hue adjustment is uneven, with a greenish shard sticking up from the lower left corner of the screen.
• The battery life isn't much better than my tablet.
• Single-function – KA1 is cumbersome to read news and can't watch video, check email, etc.
• The KA1 is an extra device to carry around, keep charged and loaded with books. Since I'm gonna have my tablet anyway, I might as well load it with books too.

If that's all the case, why did I get a KA1 in the first place?

• I read a lot and I thought the e-Ink screen would be easier on the eyes.
• I thought the battery life would be significantly better than my tablet.
• I thought sync with Calibre might be smoother, and it is, but not enough to overcome the other drawbacks.

[koboy]

Originally Posted by MRC01

Even though the battery issues are resolved, I will be returning this KA1. I prefer using my Android tablet to read. In comparison, the KA1:

• No color – black & white only. Color isn't needed in novels but is very useful with technical docs having images & graphs. I also like to use color coded highlighting in my annotations.
• PDF experience is poor compared to tablet, and I sometimes have to read PDFs.
• Buggy touch screen & laggy response compared to tablet.
• Night reading mode – my tablet does reverse video white on black, which I prefer as it's easier on the eyes and less disturbing to my wife who is trying to sleep.
• The auto-illumination just doesn't work well. It slowly pulses while I'm reading, it wastes battery getting too bright in a light room.
• The manual illumination doesn't work well either. The left-side finger slide doesn't trigger reliably, and when it does, it changes in big steps making fine adjustment impossible.
• The hue adjustment is uneven, with a greenish shard sticking up from the lower left corner of the screen.
• The battery life isn't much better than my tablet.
• Single-function – KA1 is cumbersome to read news and can't watch video, check email, etc.
• The KA1 is an extra device to carry around, keep charged and loaded with books. Since I'm gonna have my tablet anyway, I might as well load it with books too.

If that's all the case, why did I get a KA1 in the first place?

• I read a lot and I thought the e-Ink screen would be easier on the eyes.
• I thought the battery life would be significantly better than my tablet.
• I thought sync with Calibre might be smoother, and it is, but not enough to overcome the other drawbacks.

in short the one you have is a piece of junk.

best wishes koboy

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by koboy

in short the one you have is a piece of junk.

No, in short MRC01 didn't do the research beforehand to realise the device wasn't for him. There are problems with the device and the particular one he had. But, the very first point he points in the list are "no colour" and "bad PDF". Maybe he knew this but was willing to take a punt in case the advantages outweighed the drawbacks, but if that post, minus the bug comments, was part of a "what device" post, everyone would have responded with "get a tablet".

[koboy]

Originally Posted by davidfor

No, in short MRC01 didn't do the research beforehand to realise the device wasn't for him. There are problems with the device and the particular one he had. But, the very first point he points in the list are "no colour" and "bad PDF". Maybe he knew this but was willing to take a punt in case the advantages outweighed the drawbacks, but if that post, minus the bug comments, was part of a "what device" post, everyone would have responded with "get a tablet".

there are problems is an understatement, i did say the one you have is a piece of junk in my post, i wasn't implying that they all are.

best wishes koboy

[Alan_S]

If I were you, I'd get KA1 and install KSM8 + Koreader (latest version that recognizes KA1).

[MRC01]

Originally Posted by davidfor

No, in short MRC01 didn't do the research beforehand to realise the device wasn't for him. There are problems with the device and the particular one he had. But, the very first point he points in the list are "no colour" and "bad PDF". Maybe he knew this but was willing to take a punt in case the advantages outweighed the drawbacks, but if that post, minus the bug comments, was part of a "what device" post, everyone would have responded with "get a tablet".

I did the research. I've owned a Kindle and read and watched at least 20 different reviews on the KA1. I knew about all the e-Ink vs. tablet drawbacks, but if the KA1 worked well in other areas it would be a good trade-off. What surprised me were the drawbacks that none of the reviews mentioned. Put differently: if the KA1 had longer battery life, a responsive touchscreen, auto-illumination that worked smoothly, I would be keeping it. That would be enough to compensate for the disadvantages that I knew about in advance.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by MRC01

...if the KA1 had longer battery life, a responsive touchscreen, auto-illumination that worked smoothly...

Have you considered a Kindle Voyage? You lose the bigger screen, but still...

[MRC01]

I owned a Kindle but the 6" screen just didn't float my boat. No matter how nice the reader is in other ways, if it has a 6" screen it's not for me.