Few questions

[Ron100]

Hi all,

Long time lurker, first time poster.
I've kind of shot myself in the foot, bit of background.

During lockdown had a monster clearout and traded in a couple of old devices at Cex, while there I convinced myself to take the Voyage they had rather than the cash...and it's ruined me!

When the frontlight on my beloved PW1 died (the rest of it works fine annoyingly) I drank the kool-aid and decided to try a different brand and ended up with a Kobo Clara.
It's good, don't get me wrong but I don't enjoy it as much as my PW.
It crashes, daily.
I know the screen is technically superior to the PW1 but it seemed to me to get grubby a lot more, the customization options are superior but I just don't enjoy it as much.

Enter the voyage. The screen is incredible. The battery probably loses 7-10% a day, not great but it's an old device and I have no idea of the life it's had prior to my ownership so no complaints. The haptic buttons are ok, but again the response is so-so probably down to previous owners. One thing I am missing and find really annoying is I have to go through two menus to adjust the light where the PW could be accessed with one menu and the Clara from inside the book itself just by sliding up the screen. Do any earlier firmware updates for the voyage have light options more accessible than 5.13.5?

Now. I'm a buy once, cry once kind of guy, I don't mind paying out at the upper end of the price range but I'd rather not keep doing it.

So right now I have a Kobo mini (keeper), PW1 (no working light so undecided what to do with) Cybook Opus(collecting dust), Clara HD(used grudgingly) and the Voyage.

Here's what I want -
Warm light (The Clara has ruined me for white lights)
Buttons of some description
300dpi

What I'd like -
Audio options
Library integration
Flush screen, preferably glass

I sideload about 50% of the time, keep a maximum of maybe 200 books on a device and am not bothered about registration or a specific file format etc. All devices live in airplane mode unless purchasing.
I do tend to have the font size quite high (7/14 on the voyage with bookerly) ant the light at 4/24 which covers day and night reading well enough for me as the eyes aren't as sharp as they were.

Now I've been eyeing up the GL3 and Glowlight plus which seems to hit the mark but no audio. While most problems appear to have been ironed out I can't try before buying (UK based) due to B&N's suicidal sales strategy.
I do not want an Oasis, don't like the ergonomics.
That leaves me with Pocketbook devices I think, any I've missed?

[ottischwenk]

Consider Android EInk tablets from Boyue-Likebook or also Onyx-Boox - and for buttons a Bluetooth remote control.

[rcentros]

Other than no flush screen, the PocketBook Touch HD3 meets the rest of your wants and likes.

You may also be able to find a good, used Tolino Vision 4, which had the flush glass screen and warm light (but no audio).

[Ron100]

Anyone have opinions on the Onyx Boox monte cristo's?
They seem to cover all the bases but reviews of the company in general do not seem good as well as the confusion with model labelling.

Also can anyone tell me if any earlier voyage firmware has the light options easier to access?

[ottischwenk]

Originally Posted by Ron100

Anyone have opinions on the Onyx Boox monte cristo's?

I would prefer the original Boox devices there.

[JSWolf]

The Kobo Clara HD does not crash daily. Are there problems with your eBooks? Have you tried updating the firmware to the latest version? Cold there be something wrong with it? Did you buy it used or new? Have you done a factory reset?

The thing is, if the Clara HD did crash daily, there would be many many posts about it on MR. Yours is the first post saying the Clara HD crashes daily.

[Ron100]

I'm afraid mine does, regardless of the book I'm reading at some point the screen will freeze and the device will reboot no matter if it's 10mins into the book or 2 hours.

The device was bought from new, my ebooks are all legit purchases(90% epubs) and its currently running 4.26.16704.

I have no reason to lie and don't appreciate the implication. Because you haven't seen it or heard about it doesn't mean it's not happening.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Ron100

I'm afraid mine does, regardless of the book I'm reading at some point the screen will freeze and the device will reboot no matter if it's 10mins into the book or 2 hours.

The device was bought from new, my ebooks are all legit purchases(90% epubs) and its currently running 4.26.16704.

I have no reason to lie and don't appreciate the implication. Because you haven't seen it or heard about it doesn't mean it's not happening.

I would suggest that Jon is correct in his statement that if Clara HDs crashed daily, we would be seeing a lot more reports. However, that does not preclude you being correct in stating that you are having issues with your Clara HD. 999 Clara HDs not having issues does not mean that someone will not run into a lemon with #1000.

There are possibilities as to what is causing your issue ranging from a failing uSD card, database corruption caused by hardware, ebooks with issues or other cause. Legitimate purchases are no guarantee that an epub is not going to have problems. I've run into all too many epubs for which "garbage in, garbage out" was the best description.

[JSWolf]

@Ron100, Nobody is calling you a liar. I was just saying that your problem is not normal and has to be specific to your Clara HD.

If you install Calibre and then the Kobo Utilities plugin, you can check to see if the database is corrupt. If it is, you can sign out and register again. If it still crashes and it's still under warranty, you can contact Kobo about it.

If it's not under warranty, there are a few things you can try.

1. Factory reset https://help.kobo.com/hc/en-us/artic...HD-or-Kobo-Nia

2. Do a manual install of the current 4.26.16704 firmware.

3. @davidfor can send you a image you can write to a new microSD card to try that in case the existing card is corrupt. You do have to open up the Kobo. But it's been said that opening a Clara HD is fairly easy.

[Ron100]

Appreciate the advice gents, database check returns the following - which I have no idea of what it means

Result of running 'PRAGMA integrity_check' on database on the Kobo device:


*** in database main ***

Page 121 is never used
Page 2457 is never used
Page 4445 is never used
Page 5150 is never used
Page 5222 is never used
Page 5223 is never used
Page 5553 is never used
Page 5980 is never used
Page 6008 is never used
Page 6507 is never used
Page 6641 is never used
Page 6658 is never used
Page 6664 is never used
Page 6669 is never used
Page 6705 is never used
Page 8744 is never used
Page 8755 is never used
Page 9257 is never used
Page 9844 is never used
Page 10755 is never used
Page 10913 is never used
Page 11121 is never used
Page 11873 is never used
Page 13919 is never used
Page 14220 is never used
Page 14243 is never used
Page 14815 is never used
Page 14868 is never used
Page 14952 is never used
Page 14992 is never used
Page 15019 is never used
Page 15086 is never used
Page 15322 is never used
Page 15405 is never used
Page 17097 is never used
Page 17256 is never used
Page 19655 is never used
Page 21582 is never used
Page 21809 is never used
Page 21949 is never used
Page 21960 is never used
Page 22038 is never used
Page 22526 is never used
Page 23413 is never used
Page 24792 is never used
Page 24812 is never used
Page 24857 is never used
Page 24863 is never used
Page 24881 is never used
Page 25172 is never used
Page 25191 is never used
Page 25319 is never used
Page 25751 is never used
Page 25822 is never used
Page 25926 is never used
Page 25934 is never used
Page 26326 is never used
Page 26416 is never used
Page 27596 is never used
Page 28116 is never used
Page 28198 is never used
Page 29580 is never used
Page 29605 is never used
Page 29618 is never used
Page 29914 is never used
Page 30103 is never used
Page 30111 is never used
Page 30743 is never used
Page 30775 is never used
Page 31089 is never used
Page 31109 is never used
Page 31235 is never used
Page 31242 is never used
Page 31258 is never used
Page 31389 is never used
Page 31423 is never used
Page 31445 is never used
Page 31459 is never used
Page 31573 is never used
Page 32158 is never used
Page 32272 is never used
Page 33098 is never used
Page 33759 is never used
Page 33962 is never used
Page 34002 is never used
Page 35499 is never used
Page 35760 is never used
Page 35764 is never used
Page 35787 is never used
Page 36022 is never used
Page 36842 is never used
Page 36853 is never used
Page 37087 is never used
Page 37124 is never used
Page 37145 is never used
Page 37151 is never used
Page 37175 is never used
Page 37177 is never used
Page 37181 is never used
Page 37201 is never used

I'm actually hoping in a way the device is faulty, in every technical area without question it's a better device than my old PW1 but from a personal user perspective I've found it worse. That doesn't make sense, I know that and I don't want to shut the door on Kobo but even without the screen freezes I've found it sluggish compared to the PW which simply shouldn't be the case.

[ZodWallop]

I'll say my Kobo Clara has never crashed on me, FWIW.

Anyway, from your list you might want to look at a Kindle Oasis or Kobo Forma.

Both have large screens, since you said you use large fonts. The Forma has an 8" screen and the Oasis has a 7" screen.

Here's what I want -
Warm light - Both have that
Buttons of some description - Both have that
300dpi - Both have that

What I'd like -
Audio options - The Oasis has this. The Forma does not.
Library integration - Depends on where you live. Kobo has good integration with Overdrive in several countries. Kindles only have library integration in the US.
Flush screen, preferably glass - Both have flush screens. I think both are glass?

[ottischwenk]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Flush screen, preferably glass - Both have flush screens. I think both are glass?

Tolino Epos 2 = Kobo Forma has no glass screen.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Ron100

Appreciate the advice gents, database check returns the following - which I have no idea of what it means

That means the database is corrupt. There is a good chance that doing a compress on the database will fix it. Otherwise, you can restore a backup if you have one, or you need to sign out of the Kobo account on the device and then do the setup. That rebuilds the database and reloads the sideloaded books.

[John F]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

... Kindles only have library integration in the US. ...

I thought that on kindles, you borrowed books using a browser?

[Ron100]

Database check comes back 'ok' after compression should hopefully things will improve.
I'll run it a few days and report back, many thanks folks.