Sage Kobo Sage opinions

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by mezzanine

When people say they don't care about battery performance when they get new devices, they almost invariably overlook that it isn't the first year of using the device they need to think about, but the second and third when the battery is only functioning around 50% of it's original capacity.

Chances are I'll have bought a new device after 3-4 years anyway. And even if not, charging every day or every other day would not be that big a deal for me. Especially as I can read while charging. I don't travel and rarely leave my home.

You said you hated the Oasis 1 with its tiny battery, but I loved it. So no, I don't need a large battery to enjoy my ereader.

[mezzanine]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

KA1 with larger battery and 8" Carta 1200 screen. That would work.

I'd trade the Carta 1200 screen for a Mobius screen, but it would be great to have an updated KA1 with better lighting and touch screen sensitivity.

I wonder if the Carta 1200 screen could be combined with the Mobius tech....

It doesn't make sense to me why they didn't carry forward the Mobius tech as a permanent feature of all future screens because I thought it wasn't integrated into the e-ink layer, but I don't understand the technology well enough to speculate.

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

. Especially as I can read while charging. I don't travel and rarely leave my home.

This is me, too. The 10mAh and 20mAh portable battery packs we have should be JUST enough to keep my ereader charged on those rare occasions when I do go away for a weekend.

[mezzanine]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Chances are I'll have bought a new device after 3-4 years anyway. And even if not, charging every day or every other day would not be that big a deal for me. Especially as I can read while charging. I don't travel and rarely leave my home.

You said you hated the Oasis 1 with its tiny battery, but I loved it. So no, I don't need a large battery to enjoy my ereader.

Maybe I was just so used to having readers that lasted a long time without needing charging that the dramatic difference with the Oasis 1 was more of a shock and I would have accepted it more easily if that's how it had always been with previous devices.

I will say that you should take a look on the kindle reddit sometime and count the number of people complaining about the battery life of their Oasis'. It seems like the single biggest complaint to me.

When you consider that these are $300 single-purpose devices and that the screen tech seems to have completely stalled out, it makes the battery the main reason to have to replace what may otherwise be a two or three year old device that remains fully competitive with the current gen.

It's why I'm going to be watching very closely to see what people with the Sage find with the battery performance over the next couple weeks. I'm not sure whether it's the more powerful CPU of the Oasis that's responsible for the seemingly poorer battery performance relative to Kobos. My assumption is that the lighting has to be the main power draw, but then I'd expect the Oasis to be more similar to the Kobos if that were the case.

My Aura HD battery is shot and requires re-charging every few days, but I rarely use it and therefore it gets drained completely and sits discharged for weeks at a time, which is the worst thing for lithium ion batteries, thereby making it even worse when I do use it again. That's one more reason for my preference for batteries that don't drain so quickly.

[koboy]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

It's possible Kobo may not have gone the Oasis style if not or Amazon. As for what I want, I don't have much choice in the design if I want a new Kobo. But I don't think it would be an issue or I'd get used to it.

i agree you don't have a choice/say regarding what design Kobo choose to go with. unlike some i won't buy a new e-reader just for the sake of it. especially when i already have 32GB of storage available.

i'm not interested in having bluetooth, waterproofing or USB-C. i'd only be buying for the Comfort Pro warm light. it's early days but regarding the Libra 2 it seems to be a worthy update (except for the SD card storage) to the Libra H2O. i'll withhold passing my judgement on the Sage for now.

my preference and my inside jacket pocket in which my e-reader gets transported from A TO B (quite a lot) doesn't accommodate for either of the aforementioned devices

hopefully an updated Clara HD with 32GB of storage and the same orangey warm light as the Libra 2 will tempt me. although if they use a micro SD card for storage and it's glued in i'll probably pass on it.

best wishes koboy

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by mezzanine

The real problem is if you leave it with the battery completely drained for any length of time. If you leave it 60% charged and top it up once a month or so even though you're not using it, it should prevent battery degradation. Not many people are willing to go to that hassle, though.

I leave such a device powered-off, charged to 50%.

Strangely enough, my almost 10 year old KPW from 2012, seems to have a battery that is less susceptible to degradation. I actually keep that e-reader as a backup because the battery is replaceable. I should look into that some day.

I've also found a YouTube video where the KA1 is shown opened up; it seems it's possible to only take the back off. It exposes the battery. In that case, it should be possible to replace. If so, I might just do that, and then one of the reasons for me to get a Sage would be gone.

I dislike having to discard working devices because of degrading batteries; therefore I'm hesitant to buy something such as a sage, or a phone, and even most laptops. I try to use each device as long as possible, until it either won't work at all, or I want to do things it can't. (And even then I prefer to just give away a working device to someone who can still use it, over just throwing it away.)

[Lynx-lynx]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

I've just been reading on my 5 year old KA1, after it has been inactive for quite some time. (Reading is just one of my many hobbies, and sometimes one or the other doesn't get a lot of attention for some time.)

It seems the battery dropped 10% in around 50 minutes of reading. (Light is at 15-20%). This means it'll only hold a charge for 500 minutes, which is 8.5 hours. That's not very long... and as far as I know, I can't replace the battery in the KA1. Neither can this be done in any other newer Koob.

Kat I'm wondering if you turned your device on for an hour or so a day, regardless of whether you read on it nor not, and wait till it's at say 20% battery, and then charge it, and repeat this cycle say twice, whether your battery life improve. (And then maybe continue this ad hoc)


That is, whether using the device would give the battery a boost. Others here will no doubt have a more scientific answer as to the effectiveness of this procedure, but I guess you'll only know for sure if you try it.



I use the kobo cover on my forma, and rarely turn my device off, it's always left in sleep mode, irrespective of how long in between the times I use it to read from. (Which is reasonably frequently I suppose). But in any event leaving the device in sleep mode doesn't seem to have had too negligible an effect after 3 years. (Is it 3 years since the forma was released )

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

I dislike having to discard working devices because of degrading batteries; therefore I'm hesitant to buy something such as a sage, or a phone, and even most laptops. I try to use each device as long as possible, until it either won't work at all, or I want to do things it can't. (And even then I prefer to just give away a working device to someone who can still use it, over just throwing it away.)

While I buy new stuff often, I never throw away my old devices. I either give them away or sell them. You can find a buyer for most of the stuff in my country, often for a nominal price ofc. But I haven't had to throw away any of my electronics yet, unless they were totally broken.

That's one of the reasons I can let myself be overwhelmed by gadget lust as often as I like.

Of course people are different. Some enjoy being frugal, others are big spenders. My mother was among the first, but I take after my father, who could never hold onto money. Whenever he had any, he bought stuff.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

While I buy new stuff often, I never throw away my old devices. I either give them away or sell them. You can find a buyer for most of the stuff in my country, often for a nominal price ofc. But I haven't had to throw away any of my electronics yet, unless they were totally broken.

That's one of the reasons I can let myself be overwhelmed by gadget lust as often as I like.

Of course people are different. Some enjoy being frugal, others are big spenders. My mother was among the first, but I take after my father, who could never hold onto money. Whenever he had any, he bought stuff.

Yeah, but who would want to have an e-reader with an almost dead battery?

I'll see if this changes if I deplete and recharge it a few times. If not, I'll see if I can get the back off without damaging it; if so, I may be able to find a replacement battery. Then I just hope that battery does not need a PCB being soldered to it to work, or I'll still be out of luck. The best I could do is cut the wires and re-connect them using wire clamps. (Like was recently suggested in the "New Kobo Mini" thread to rcentos.)

If all that fails, I can still buy a Sage. I tried the same with the Nexus 4 in 2017, after 5 years, but I failed there. I broke the phone. (But that was expected; it was already said on the internet that the battery was glued into the phone, and that many of the phones boards or backplates would be damaged if you tried to remove them. And you can't / shouldn't heat a battery with a heat gun, so no help there....)

Still, before shelling out another €350 for an e-reader that, essentially, gives me nothing extra over the KA1, I'd try it. (I'm not interested in any other functions but reading books, the front-light, having an 7.8 - 8.5 inch screen, and as many options as possible to tailor the display of the book.)

I also don't like the official cover that much. I don't like origami covers because I don't use that functionality. I also don't like the current Gecko covers for the Libra, Forma, etc.... and I doubt the new covers for the Libra 2 or Sage will be of a different design.

For me, if the KA1 had a replaceable battery and a better, more accurate touch screen, it would have (almost) been the perfect e-reader.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

Yeah, but who would want to have an e-reader with an almost dead battery?

Hmm, none of mine had a dead or almost dead battery when I sold them. Neither did any of my old smartphones which I gave away. Perhaps the trick is to replace your old device when the battery still has some juice left.

(the aforementioned readers and phones were 3-4 years old on average, sometimes older).

[Deobulakenyo]

Can't these ereaders be replaced by generic batteries with two terminals and having the same charging voltage and probably larger capacity?

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

While I buy new stuff often, I never throw away my old devices. I either give them away or sell them

I do this too. Selling my Clara paid for the cover on my H202, selling that one recouped 30% of the cost of my Libra H20. Which I'm keeping, even if I do get a Sage

[John F]

Originally Posted by Uncle Robin

This is me, too. The 10mAh and 20mAh portable battery packs we have should be JUST enough to keep my ereader charged on those rare occasions when I do go away for a weekend.

Are you missing some 0s, or some capitalization or letter mixup, or do you have a lot of batteries?

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by John F

Are you missing some 0s, or some capitalization or letter mixup, or do you have a lot of batteries?

Missing some zeros - kinda like the two Koreas, my brain and fingers are barely on speaking terms these days.

[Josieb1]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

While I buy new stuff often, I never throw away my old devices. I either give them away or sell them. You can find a buyer for most of the stuff in my country, often for a nominal price ofc. But I haven't had to throw away any of my electronics yet, unless they were totally broken.

Me too. I’m in the process off trying to upgrade my Oasis 2 to a 3 as I want the warm light feature, I use that a lot on my Kobo’s. I’ve sold my PW4, I’m trading in my old Kindle Touch for the discount and a small gift card. I was going to sell my Oasis 2 straight away so I hopefully had enough to cover the cost (I’m hoping for a net cost of zero, or just a little bit), but after my Sage experience I’ve decided to get the Oasis 3 before selling my Oasis 2 in case I can’t get a decent screen