Aura NEW Kobo Aura Impressions Thread!

[Prestidigitweeze]

In the end, users have to be empirical about ergonomics and habits. Even if no one else understands why they chose one e-reader over another, the choice has to be correct for them.

Besides which, sometimes people have to voice their objections in order to get over them. Have you ever posted your reasons for being utterly annoyed with a device, only to discover shortly thereafter that you'd stopped minding those aspects of the user experience? As my Jewish grandfather might have intoned, sometimes we have to kvetch about the unfamiliar in order to accept it.

[thomasn75]

You don't even have to swipe you can just tap. So i can hold my aura and tap screen with thumb to turn page. Works for me.
I miss book reviews in kobo store. I suppose they have not recovered from the good reads amazon tie up

[rxmom03]

I tap (and rarely swipe) to turn pages and am glad you can switch sides with the Kobo Aura settings (although it would be nice if it were easier/quicker) to get to them! My dream e-reader would have a setting (like I can do on Mantano) where you could set both sides to go forward and then swipe back for the times you want to go back (or tap the middle, or something). That way I can switch hands (holding the e-reader) without changing the settings.

Mary

[kingjain]

Originally Posted by Chocky

And for me it makes the text look "fuzzy" for the top 1" or so.

It is quite strange. I tried examining it under a bright light and couldn't see any of the "fuzzyness." But when I look at it under low light conditions, it is very visible at some angles.

[Chocky]

Originally Posted by kingjain

It is quite strange. I tried examining it under a bright light and couldn't see any of the "fuzzyness." But when I look at it under low light conditions, it is very visible at some angles.

Just needs to be a point source like an LED lamp or the Sun coming from over your shoulder.

Well it did on those I looked at.

Also, the "Kobo Specialist" at W H Smiths thought I was being picky even though he could see it. Still got a refund because he said "The customer is always right".

[Josieb1]

My pin pricks have stayed static at 3 tiny ones that don't impact me at all. And now I've added my own font and converted my mobi's to ePub allowing g for an increase line height and widows and orphans I am quite content with my Aura.

With the font at roughly the same size as on my Paperwhite, similar margins etc I get 20 lines of text per page with 22 on the Paperwhite, and no wasted space.

I'm still popping back to WHSmith on Saturday, just to have a chat, but generally quite happy with my Aura.

[SONOiO]

Originally Posted by rxmom03

I tap (and rarely swipe) to turn pages and am glad you can switch sides with the Kobo Aura settings (although it would be nice if it were easier/quicker) to get to them! My dream e-reader would have a setting (like I can do on Mantano) where you could set both sides to go forward and then swipe back for the times you want to go back (or tap the middle, or something). That way I can switch hands (holding the e-reader) without changing the settings.

Mary

But you dont have to switch sides with the software! While tapping left or right turns pages accordingly you can use the swipe gestures whereever you want (and how far your fingers will reach). So I can flip backwarts even on the right side or move forward on the left just with the thumb.

[radius]

Originally Posted by Nightyume

The illumination on mine is almost perfect. My only complaint is that the lowest setting can flicker, pulsing between two intensities. If I turn up the brightness and then lower it to the minimum again it can fix this but doesn't always. I don't mind because I get the impression that to truly avoid this they would have to make the minimum brightness setting higher and I don't want that.

I think you are right in your guess.

The frontlight probably uses LEDs and they can only be on or off. So the way to get more or less lighting is by varying the duty cycle (ie: percentage of time on compared to off).

The higher the frequency they do this at, the smoother it will be. If they frequency is low, then at low brightness levels, the dark period will be too long and depending on the frequency of ambient light may even cause a beat/strobe effect.

[radius]

Originally Posted by Josieb1

I've now got at least one more, possibly two pin holes in the screen. Does anyone have any idea what's causing them to suddenly appear?

I'm pretty sure this is a speck of dust in between layers of the screen. The front light reflects off it and you see it as a bright point of light.

There are two possibilities for how it got there:

1) Not quite clean enough assembly room at the factory - you are probably OK then with regards to any other "pin holes" appearing,

2) Kobo Aura design or assembly flaws allow dust to get into the screen because of bad seal - you may see more appear over time; partly depending on how you keep your device (ie: always in tighly sealed case, carried in fuzzy coat pocket with lots of lint etc)

[Lennier]

Well, I gave up on the Kobo Aura and have gone for a Sony PRS T3. Not as slick and no light but it is well made and it does some things better than the Aura: whiter screen, landscape/portrait option and buttons (which may seem a bit old hat these days but they're actually really useful!) Kobo have just sent me a questionnaire asking me about my views on the Aura. I'll give mark them high on good design and usability and low on overall quality.

[gargoyle67]

Originally Posted by radius

I'm pretty sure this is a speck of dust in between layers of the screen. The front light reflects off it and you see it as a bright point of light.

That may explain why people see some appear and other disappear over time,
I wonder if you move a statically charged object (say a balloon after rubbing it on your sweater\jumper) across the screens surface it would brush the particles aside

[Josieb1]

My pin pricks are static, they've never moved or changed.

[samhy]

I just bought one on a whim since it was somewhat discounted. I'll report back later

[Markismus]

I just got one last tuesday. My kobo Aura HD crashed on the floor.

Because I found it rather laggy, (especially flipping pages back instead of forward, ) I tried the Aura which has the same ARM-chip but only half the amount of dots to render.

At first I found the screen less, but that was to be expected. Today (Saturday) koreader is finally usable for kobo Aura and it seems to be quite a bit faster.

The multitouch is rather limited to zoom function or brightness setting. In pdf-files you can zoom, in epub you can change the light brightness. Today koreader development started looking into multitouch for their software and hopefully it will include zoom and rotate screen.

I am starting to think about keeping the Aura.

[adityadubey]

Got mine today after playing with it at a local store (they've officially launched in India recently). I like the design, and the ridged back does make it easier to hold. The screen is an absolute gem though, and the lighting is very even and makes it look really nice. I am having some initial issues with Wifi sync though, but this seems to promise a very immersive reading experience, so I'm willing to put up with a few niggles.


One question for more experienced users though, is there anyway to remove the sleeping / power off indicator from the screen saver?

[Image exceeds guidelines for size - MODERATOR]