Libra Kobo Libra H2O - first reviews

[petercreasey]

Different people in different threads. Answer(s) welcome in either thread on where in the U.S. one might the Gecko Forma Slimfit Cover.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by MGlitch

I have my coverless Forma in the pocket of a hoodie I’ve worn all day. I did the same thing yesterday and the day before etc. back to the day I first got it. Barring a few days when I tried the official sleepcover and ultimately decided it added too much bulk.

The screen is fine.

Same goes for the KA1, the original Aura H2O, and a smattering of Nooks.

Since we’re sharing stories about covers and ereaders.

The Forma has a plastic backed screen. But that won't prevent the screen from getting scratched.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by petercreasey

Anybody know where in the U.S. to find the Gecko Forma Slimfit cover?

You don't need the Gecko Slimfit cover. Look on Amazon. There are a lot of covers that are very similar for a lot less money. There is nothing specil about the Gecko covers vs these other ones on Amazon.

[MGlitch]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The Forma has a plastic backed screen. But that won't prevent the screen from getting scratched.

And yet I’ve had this one since it launched and no issues. Nor any issue with the other ereaders.

It’s almost as if if you don’t literally throw your ereader around or for some reason put it in a pocket with sharp objects it’ll be fine.

Also since most cases these days are sleep covers which are held in place by a weak magnet they’re prone to opening anyway. This forum has certainly heard enough reports of this.

[petercreasey]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

You don't need the Gecko Slimfit cover. Look on Amazon. There are a lot of covers that are very similar for a lot less money. There is nothing specil about the Gecko covers vs these other ones on Amazon.

Thanks for the good advice.

The thing I liked about the Gecko Slimfit cover is, hmm, its slimness. The absence of the prop-up capability by the cover allows it to be less cumbersome.

Your thoughts?

[issybird]

Originally Posted by petercreasey

Different people in different threads. Answer(s) welcome in either thread on where in the U.S. one might the Gecko Forma Slimfit Cover.

I'll make it official. Don't cross post. Read the Guidelines.

However, I'll also note that members aren't to comment on others' perceived violations. Please use the report button instead. Also in the Guidelines.

[Nicocecca]

I just got my white libra, luckily the screen seems perfect
The one exposed was a little bit bluish on the lowest temperature, this one is white as the frame.
It seems even in every light setting, just on the bottons side it seems to fade a little but i can't tell if it's just the illusion because of the bend on that side, if i stare at that area i can't see any unevenness.
I have to set all up, it's my first ereader... I'll tell you my experience white reading.
Just a thing, do i have to charge it on the pc or can i use a 1A charger?

[Quoth]

I have the Kobo Aura H2O (the original H2O with flap and micro SD card slot).

PLUSES
1) Page turn buttons
2) Slightly larger and better resolution screen means more PDFs are just about useable
3) Faster page turn on PDF (too slow on most scanned PDFs on Aura H2O)
4) Natural colour possible on front light.
5) No fiddly cover over USB socket, which inevitably breaks off unless you are amazing!

MINUSES
1) Holes in textured back pick up dirt
2) No lock on orientation! It still flips 180 degrees if set to portrait or landscape making scanned PDFs nearly unusable as it's then too slow to change back! Idiotic when the GUI options are Auto, Portrait, Landscape. Should have more options or a Lock option.
3) No disable of page change by touch screen. Idiotic when there are buttons.
4) Capacitive, not IR, so without light it's slightly greyer than Aura H2O (actually the same as Kindle PW3, or very similar).
5) Power button on the back. Stupid move simply to make front sleeker?
6) Some PDFs are actually landscape, but need read in Portrait Mode, held in Landscape orientation. Thus the 180 flip software interferes with reading. There needs to be a complete LOCK on orientation.

Fair bit cheaper in local Argos in Euros than Amazon GBP (£, no Amazon Ireland!)

There is 6.7G Byte free after setup; it updates to 4.18.13737 during setup.

Copying about 1850 epubs and some PDFs from Calibre wasn't any problem and took only a few minutes to copy and a few minutes to process after eject. Older 3.x Calibre on Linux, not upgraded anything since 4.x was released.

I'll be happy to have the improved resolution & size, though shame it's not as bright in ambient light, no doubt due to capacitive (cheaper now than IR). The page turn buttons are welcome.

How is a HW reset done? The Aura H2O has a button.

Firmware issues common to All later Kobos with this version:
There is the same problem for ALL Kobos with no Home Button. No quick access to home if you are in the book via search or collections or My Books.
Also removing ability to turn off WiFi after Wikipedia or Google in the book was a backward step.

It does of course charge on PC or any USB power source, just like earlier models, phone or Kindle.

EDIT:
I got the Black/Noir as white shows up scratches more, makes screen SEEM darker and can sometimes yellow due to migration of flame retardants (takes maybe 10 to 20 years). My Kobo Touch (c revision) is white. Kobo H2O black. PW3 is black, Kindle Keyboard is slate grey, Nook Simple Touch is black, Sony PRS350 is brushed alloy and white plastic sides.

[Quoth]

P.S. I tried the devmodeon in search and then went to Settings -> Device, but the orientation there shows / sets but doesn't lock.
So devmodeoff in search to cancel.

[skimminstones]

Got the Libra last week as my first non kindle e-reader and so far very happy with it. Wasn't hundred percent sure id like the design with the thicker bezel on one side but as im coming from a Kindle 4 with the page turning buttons on the side i wanted another one with physical buttons and im not paying the silly price for the Kindle Oasis.

I have no issues with the screen or light, the only issue i have and its probably my fault for not researching it enough is that it doesnt sync with the kobo books app on my phone for books ive sideloaded. Ive since found out they dont support that which is a bit annoying.

I bought this cover for it too which is pretty good quality and much cheaper then the official kobo ones.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[MGlitch]

Originally Posted by FrustratedReader

MINUSES
1) Holes in textured back pick up dirt

They also make the Libra easier to grip, and honestly unless you’re living in a pigsty you’re not going to pick up that much dirt with the back. Though it’s certainly going to be noticeable if you picked the white one but that’s on the buyer not realizing white shows dirt more than black.

2) No lock on orientation! It still flips 180 degrees if set to portrait or landscape making scanned PDFs nearly unusable as it's then too slow to change back! Idiotic when the GUI options are Auto, Portrait, Landscape. Should have more options or a Lock option.

You mention this a second time in number 6 so I’m going to go into depth there.

3) No disable of page change by touch screen. Idiotic when there are buttons.

You can choose to have it as swipe only to go back or forward in a book. Which effectively disables touch as a swipe requires a not insignificant gesture relative to the screen size.

4) Capacitive, not IR, so without light it's slightly greyer than Aura H2O (actually the same as Kindle PW3, or very similar).

Sure but the Libra has a built in front light. You personally may not feel eink should have to use a light but they’ve provided the fix to this issue.

5) Power button on the back. Stupid move simply to make front sleeker?

Since the Libra is the Forma on a smaller scale I’m not sure where you’re coming from with this. The power button for the Forma is on the side of the button wedge and people complained that it allows for accidental presses. Though I’ve not experienced this with my Forma. I can’t recall any recent Kobo with the power button on the front. It’s moved around a few times in the last few models from top to back to side but as far as I recall in the last 5 or 6 models the front wasn’t used.

6) Some PDFs are actually landscape, but need read in Portrait Mode, held in Landscape orientation. Thus the 180 flip software interferes with reading. There needs to be a complete LOCK on orientation.

This sounds like an issue with the PDF formatting rather than the reader. However locking it in either landscape or portrait whichever is needed will allow you to hold it in the other orientation without a flip. This change is a 90 degree change. 180 would put the previous top of the device at the bottom and in your example of a total lock would have the PDF be upside down. If a PDF needs to be read upside down that again sounds like an issue with the source material rather than the device reading it.

[Nicocecca]

One thing i notice with half comfort light level is that the bottons side seems a little bit colder than the other, is that only me?
It's not much actually, i think I'm noticing because I'm focusing on it, I'll tell you in time if it bothers me, i hope not

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by MGlitch

1)They also make the Libra easier to grip, and honestly unless you’re living in a pigsty you’re not going to pick up that much dirt with the back.

2) You can choose to have it as swipe only to go back or forward in a book. Which effectively disables touch as a swipe requires a not insignificant gesture relative to the screen size.



3)This sounds like an issue with the PDF formatting rather than the reader. However locking it in either landscape or portrait whichever is needed will allow you to hold it in the other orientation without a flip. This change is a 90 degree change. 180 would put the previous top of the device at the bottom and in your example of a total lock would have the PDF be upside down. If a PDF needs to be read upside down that again sounds like an issue with the source material rather than the device reading it.

1) If it was an inverted surface it would be non-slip and not pick up stuff. It's thoughtless and can't be justified.

2) I don't see why since there are two options that there are not 4; tap, swipe, swipe or tap and off (but disabled on models with no buttons). Lazy programming. I've used touch screens for 30 years and programmed for 40.

3)Of course it's because the scan of the book is stored on a portrait page PDF. It's not a problem on my 10" tablet, nor printing, or on the laptop. It makes using landscape text on portrait PDF pages nearly unusable. Again lazy thoughtless programming. This is common with PDFs of old books. Yes, obviously the PDF generation was stupid, but that's common. The Dev mode SHOWS all four orientations and lets you change to any specific one (either Portrait). There is, unlike Android or Win10, or Linux Mint no way to turn off the auto flip in Portrait or Landscape. Stupid, thoughtless, lazy programming.

I may see if changing the tilt angle sensitivity in Dev mode fixes it. Currently PDFS where the content is at 90 degrees to the page aspect (sadly common) are unusable on the Libra, despite the fact that many more PDFs are readable compared to the Aura H2O due to slightly bigger screen and slightly higher DPI.

Just because Kobo never put a switch on the front is no reason to move from side to back. Also a sideways slide doesn't press accidentally. Again I wonder how much thought and testing is done. I have the Nook Touch and the rear button on it is really annoying.

Plus points
However, it's €40 less than I paid for the Aura H2O, it's a better resolution screen and the slight extra size helps. It's a better purchase than the same price 6" model Kobo in Argos, or the recent Kindle PW4, unless you really want 6" screen. The area,quality and amount of text is closest yet to a paperback of all ereaders I've had. The Kindle DXG was a bad purchase as it was heavy, too big and low resolution. Also far too slow on PDFs.

I'd have liked the wide bezel and buttons to be top/bottom and not increasing width. It's too wide for any pocket on suit, jacket or coat.

I knew the IR touch was doomed due to deeper bezel, higher cost and rising power consumption with larger screens (the IR LEDs). It probably can't work above a certain screen size, so I knew that no current ereader would be as bright without a front light as the Aura H2O original. It's still fine and no worse than any other modern capacitive eink. I have bright enough room and bedside light that I don't need the front light.

I know there is no perfection. However no-one ever should excuse obvious flaws. The rear surface, power switch location, page turn software, and rotation software are obvious ergonomic flaws that should never have happened.

The GUI in reading mode when bringing up menu on this revision of SW is flawed on every model by having no Home icon and WiFi icon. Even on models with no page turn buttons the page turn options are too limited.

On balance if you are happy with the size, this a very good value ereader and and maybe the best choice. Easily could have been much better at no extra cost and the software issues are easily fixed.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Nicocecca

One thing i notice with half comfort light level is that the bottons side seems a little bit colder than the other, is that only me?
It's not much actually, i think I'm noticing because I'm focusing on it, I'll tell you in time if it bothers me, i hope not

The front light seems fine on mine. Very natural at 50% between * and ( (Sun/Moon, Day/Night)

Brightness
10% is nice away from the room light at night and more than 24% seems madly bright. The 100% seems to be explore secret passage mode.

0%, Zero bright is fine for me, even though it's not as white as the Aura H2O (IR touch). It seems identical to my Kindle PW3 and I'd only use the front light on it in a power cut. Much nicer and more even front light on the Libra.

So despite my criticisms, it's a good choice for the heavy reader. A phone or a tablet is much inferior except convenience (phone) or size (Manga/graphic novel, PDF etc on 10" or 12") or for colour.

[Quoth]

180 degree flipping when locked in Landscape OR Portrait:

It seems that the sensor senses not just rotation, but tilt. I think the setting for tilt is 14 by default. The settings seem to revert if you change them in devmodeon

Changing the menu tap area to the centre is best if you sometimes need to read documents at 90 degrees to the Portrait/Landscape mode the reader is set to. Obviously then you need to set it to Portrait OR landscape, not Auto and then rotate or tilt to have the buttons at the desired side vs the text. Then be careful not to tilt it back to far or rotate too much further (or back) from the 90 degrees you need to read.

Perhaps eventually Kobo will add a true orientation lock.