Clara The Dilemma of choice.

[moofychops]

Hello to you all,
For complicated reasons having both the Aura One and the Clara HD, I have to return one of them. They are sitting here, both brand new. I make up my mind to send back say the Aura One, and two minutes later I change it to the Clara HD and again the cycle repeats its self.
As I cannot possibly keep both, what or which one should I return please help.
Ron

[patrik]

_Where_ do you read?

Home -> Aura One
On the go -> Clara

What do you read?

non-fiction -> Aura One.

[RobertJSawyer]

The Kobo Clara HD is much more portable than the Aura One; also, as a much less expensive item, one might worry less about losing/damaging it while traveling. Only if I exclusively read at home would I myself choose to have ONLY a Kobo Aura One.

[gilster]

Originally Posted by RobertJSawyer

The Kobo Clara HD is much more portable than the Aura One; also, as a much less expensive item, one might worry less about losing/damaging it while traveling. Only if I exclusively read at home would I myself choose to have ONLY a Kobo Aura One.

Agreed. I keep both an Aura One and a Kindle Oasis. The Aura One would be a problem on the go, but I love it when in my easy chair.

[bgalbrecht]

If your library uses Overdrive, and you download Overdrive books directly to your Aura One, or you like to read in the bathtub, by a pool or on the beach, go with the Aura One.

[anacreon]

Other factors I'd add

• how are your hands? I have very arthritic hands and the Clara is lighter and smaller so easier to hold, though the back is somewhat slippery (but probably improvable with a skin). The difference is not huge though, and even on the go I've read on the Clara one-handed while gripping a bus pole - for short trips.
• how do you prefer reading? If kepubs, with margins, header and footer, then the One is better. If you don't mind epubs with no margins, the real estate might be less important to you.
• how are your eyes? If you can read comfortably with a smaller pitch or narrow font, then Clara is fine.
• what do you read? If you read books with long sentences, poetry for instance, or German where you have to see the verb at the end to make sense of what you read, or books with charts, tables and such, then the One is WAY better.
• how long do you read? I'd say that for half an hour or an hour a day, Clara is mostly fine. For longer reading sessions or complex books, I much prefer the One.

The look of the page is important to me, I read books of all kinds and I have aging eyes, so if I had to choose just one reader, I'd choose the One.

[haydnfan]

Originally Posted by anacreon

Other factors I'd add [*]how are your eyes? If you can read comfortably with a smaller pitch or narrow font, then Clara is fine.

This doesn't make sense to me, you can adjust the font size on both.

[*]how long do you read? I'd say that for half an hour or an hour a day, Clara is mostly fine. For longer reading sessions or complex books, I much prefer the One.

I think the opposite because while Kobo works wonders for keeping the weight of an 8 inch ereader down, I can still feel its weight in long reading sessions.

If you appreciable long line width and medium to large font sizes and you have no problem with the weight then the Aura One makes sense. Else the Clara HD.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by anacreon

• how are your eyes? If you can read comfortably with a smaller pitch or narrow font, then Clara is fine.
  
• what do you read? If you read books with long sentences, poetry for instance, or German where you have to see the verb at the end to make sense of what you read, or books with charts, tables and such, then the One is WAY better.

The look of the page is important to me, I read books of all kinds and I have aging eyes, so if I had to choose just one reader, I'd choose the One.

Originally Posted by haydnfan

This doesn't make sense to me, you can adjust the font size on both.

With the same amount of text on the screen, the Aura One can use a larger font size. As anacreon mentions under his what do you read section, poetry and German text where rather often you need to read the whole sentence to make sense of it and later mentions that he has aging eyes, his comment made sense to me.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by gilster

Agreed. I keep both an Aura One and a Kindle Oasis. The Aura One would be a problem on the go, but I love it when in my easy chair.

And if it's an Oasis model 1, then it's a problem of a poor design.

[haydnfan]

Originally Posted by DNSB

where rather often you need to read the whole sentence to make sense of it and later mentions that he has aging eyes, his comment made sense to me.

Not to me.

1. Look at the next line to see the end of the sentence. Certainly in the fraction of a second it takes to go to the next line you won't forget what you read. I really doubt that the majority of German readers are using small font sizes anyway.

2. This would be a problem on any size ereader with any font size. You're not going to make it a 1:1 correspondence between a sentence and a line. A sentence ends early, the next sentence begins and won't be concluded until the next line. This will happen more often than not.

3. What does reading German prose have anything to do with the OP who is from Wales?

The OP is certainly not forced to use a small font size on a 6 inch ereader. Whether he reads in English, German, Swahili. Doesn't matter. It was a silly assertion that needed to be debunked.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by haydnfan

Not to me.

1. Look at the next line to see the end of the sentence. Certainly in the fraction of a second it takes to go to the next line you won't forget what you read. I really doubt that the majority of German readers are using small font sizes anyway.

Switching to the next line is easy enough. Switching more often to a new page due to less text on the screen, not quite so easy. Out of a perhaps morbid curiosity, can you give a source for your opinion on German readers and their choices in font size?

Originally Posted by haydnfan

2. This would be a problem on any size ereader with any font size. You're not going to make it a 1:1 correspondence between a sentence and a line. A sentence ends early, the next sentence begins and won't be concluded until the next line. This will happen more often than not.

As mentioned, the Aura One allows a larger font for the same amount of text on the screen. Using the same font size on each device leaves the Clara HD with less text on the screen.

Originally Posted by haydnfan

3. What does reading German prose have anything to do with the OP who is from Wales?

The person to whom you replied is from France not Wales. Nothing to do with the OP. Quite possibly anacreon reads poetry and German prose.

Originally Posted by haydnfan

The OP is certainly not forced to use a small font size on a 6 inch ereader. Whether he reads in English, German, Swahili. Doesn't matter. It was a silly assertion that needed to be debunked.

As I said, "amount of text on screen". I can use a larger font on my Aura One for the same amount of text on the screen. For those of us who are staring multifocal lenses in the eye, that can be an advantage. For those who have more elastic lenses, being able to have more text on the larger screen with the same font size as used on the smaller screen can also be an advantage.

[moutondocile]

I was having the same dilemma. I bought both device with the intention of returning one after about a book read on each. Since both were my first e-readers, I wasn’t sure what I valued the most.

Settled on the Clara HD in the end for the following reasons:
-I value portability a lot more. I would bring along my Clara HD a lot more often ŵith me because of how small and easy to carry it is. I would find myself reading a lot more in a given amount of time than when I was on the Aura One

-The water resistance doesn’t matter to me.

-I don’t use the Overdrive functionality.

I did like the Aura One a lot. The extra screen real estate was awesome, and I would recommend it to anyone with poor eyesight since you can fit a lot of bigger text on the screen without having to change pages too often. In the end, I realized didn’t value the main features of the Aura One that much, so I kept the Clara HD.

[Derf]

I was in a similar boat, trying to decide between the luxury big-screen Aura One and the newest 6" best-value Clara HD... and while I didn't get to read on both, I agree with that sentiment; that if I could only have one device, I would prefer one that is more portable and I can read anywhere.

I would like to know though... if I spent the money on a second device, is the Aura One worth it? I don't see any comparisons side by side with the Aura One to the Clara HD. There are some videos of the Aura One next to a paperwhite 3, or the Paperwhite 3 vs the Glow HD, or the Clara HD vs the Aura H2O... But also, a lot of the comparisons were with older firmware on the Aura One. I'd really like to see the Aura One compared to the Clara HD. Especially since the Aura One is a couple years old, and is a Mach 6 device, and the Clara is a Mach 7 device. So I'm curious if the Clara is any faster/better in usability, and if the battery drain issues on the Aura One have been resolved with newer firmware.

[Tony1988]

Originally Posted by Derf

I was in a similar boat, trying to decide between the luxury big-screen Aura One and the newest 6" best-value Clara HD... and while I didn't get to read on both, I agree with that sentiment; that if I could only have one device, I would prefer one that is more portable and I can read anywhere.

I would like to know though... if I spent the money on a second device, is the Aura One worth it? I don't see any comparisons side by side with the Aura One to the Clara HD. There are some videos of the Aura One next to a paperwhite 3, or the Paperwhite 3 vs the Glow HD, or the Clara HD vs the Aura H2O... But also, a lot of the comparisons were with older firmware on the Aura One. I'd really like to see the Aura One compared to the Clara HD. Especially since the Aura One is a couple years old, and is a Mach 6 device, and the Clara is a Mach 7 device. So I'm curious if the Clara is any faster/better in usability, and if the battery drain issues on the Aura One have been resolved with newer firmware.

Good E Reader are pretty much the only ones who have done good review comparisons of the Clara wih other e-readers. They will probably eventually get to the Aura One.

edit..Nathan from Theebookreader....just posted a good comparison.

[moutondocile]

Originally Posted by Derf

I was in a similar boat, trying to decide between the luxury big-screen Aura One and the newest 6" best-value Clara HD... and while I didn't get to read on both, I agree with that sentiment; that if I could only have one device, I would prefer one that is more portable and I can read anywhere.

I would like to know though... if I spent the money on a second device, is the Aura One worth it? I don't see any comparisons side by side with the Aura One to the Clara HD. There are some videos of the Aura One next to a paperwhite 3, or the Paperwhite 3 vs the Glow HD, or the Clara HD vs the Aura H2O... But also, a lot of the comparisons were with older firmware on the Aura One. I'd really like to see the Aura One compared to the Clara HD. Especially since the Aura One is a couple years old, and is a Mach 6 device, and the Clara is a Mach 7 device. So I'm curious if the Clara is any faster/better in usability, and if the battery drain issues on the Aura One have been resolved with newer firmware.

I've had both since the Clara's launch and here is how I would compare them.

-The touchscreen is noticeably more responsive on the Clara. I would often have to touch the screen multiple time or a lot harder on the Aura One for it to register the proper input. The gesture to adjust the brightness (which I use a lot) works a lot better on the Clara because of that.

-They run at the same speed.

-The lighting was more even on the Aura One out of the box. My Clara unit had some minor lightbleed which I fixed using the instructions in this video : https://youtu.be/sxqVLnosNTI?t=11m29s (it WILL void your warranty…do it at your own risk). After doing this fix, I couldn’t be happier with the Clara’s screen.

-I never managed to get a good battery life with the Aura One. It was ok for the most part, but it had a couple episodes of battery drain (even with the newer firmwares). The Clara HD is a lot better on this front.
-The lighting temperature is different on both. The Aura One had a much cooler screen compared to my Clara HD, but it could also get quite a bit brighter too.

-The comfortlight feature works well on both. The Aura One can get a lot warmer, an “almost red” kind of orange with the comfortlight cranked all the way up.


Overall, the usability is a bit better on the Clara HD because of the more responsive screen. I would recommend trying both devices to see if you have the same experience as I did.