Just got a Kobo Sage. Have 2-3 questions.

[Sirtel]

Yeah, the weight adjustment is definitely not what it should be. Just in case, but have you tried to restart your Sage?

[DNSB]

Totally weird. Here's what I see with Malabar at lowest, middle and highest weight settings. I'm tempted to suggest that you might want to try a real factory reset on your Sage since it was purchased used and I'm wondering if the original owner had trying some patches/modifications. By real factory reset, either the one from the Developer Menu after searching for devmodeon or using the power and page button manual reset.

[pypeke]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Yeah, the weight adjustment is definitely not what it should be. Just in case, but have you tried to restart your Sage?

No, I have not. I thought reconditioned meant that the device was checked out by Kobo and reset before Kobo resold it. Definitely needs a new battery.

Originally Posted by DNSB

Totally weird. Here's what I see with Malabar at lowest, middle and highest weight settings. I'm tempted to suggest that you might want to try a real factory reset on your Sage since it was purchased used and I'm wondering if the original owner had trying some patches/modifications. By real factory reset, either the one from the Developer Menu after searching for devmodeon or using the power and page button manual reset.

I think I will return the Sage.

Thanks to both of you.

[jlinear]

Originally Posted by pypeke

I think I will return the Sage.

I just returned a Sage as well. Also had font adjustment problems. When going into "Advanced" adjustment mode the "Before" and "After" windows bore absolutely no resemblance to the actual book font, in type or size. This happened when using a custom installed font or a Kobo built-in font. The function was rendered totally useless. This was with the latest firmware. Doing a factory reset fixed nothing.

Not to mention the horrendous battery life. I received it on midday day 1 and fully charged the battery. Very lightly used that day and day 2. Picked it up at bedtime the night of day 2 and the screen had the picture of a dead battery. Ridiculous. My Kobo Aura One is 6/7 years old and the battery easily lasts 1-2 weeks. I bought it from Walmart because they have a free return policy. Glad I did. It came from a third party, Blue Proton, which I have heard may charge a restocking fee. Makes me wonder if they are trying to sell returned items as new hoping new customers will accept e-readers others have judged unacceptable.

[Sirtel]

My Sage (3 years old and used almost daily) lasts about 3-4 days with 2-3 hours of reading per day. That is with wifi off, automatic sync disabled and the frontlight at 9-12. A day is certainly unacceptable, unless wifi is on and the frontlight at the upper end.

[jlinear]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

My Sage (3 years old and used almost daily) lasts about 3-4 days with 2-3 hours of reading per day. That is with wifi off, automatic sync disabled and the frontlight at 9-12. A day is certainly unacceptable, unless wifi is on and the frontlight at the upper end.

I turned WiFi, Bluetooth and syncing off first thing knowing battery life was likely to be problematic. Didn’t matter.

[John F]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

My Sage (3 years old and used almost daily) lasts about 3-4 days with 2-3 hours of reading per day. That is with wifi off, automatic sync disabled and the frontlight at 9-12. A day is certainly unacceptable, unless wifi is on and the frontlight at the upper end.

How often did you charge it when you first received it? What is the battery % at when you charge it?

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by John F

How often did you charge it when you first received it? What is the battery % at when you charge it?

Not much less. Never lasted more than a few days, never a week. Honestly, I haven't noticed the battery life getting particularly worse than it was when I received it. I suppose it is probably worse, but I have never consciously measured it, so no idea how much it has decreased.

I usually plug it in when there's 10-20% left. I remember it shutting down only once when I ignored the 10% warning and read on. It has never shut down when not in use, that I remember (i.e. I have never picked it up and found the battery was dead). As far as I can tell, the battery meter on my Sage is more or less correct. Again, I have never calibrated it in any way.

[Aleron Ives]

Wow, I didn't realise the Sage was that bad. Twelve hours of reading is... not great. Kobo really needs to get with the program and release the Sage BW to fix that battery life.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Aleron Ives

Wow, I didn't realise the Sage was that bad. Twelve hours of reading is... not great. Kobo really needs to get with the program and release the Sage BW to fix that battery life.

Yeah, compared to other eink readers, the Sage has atrocious battery life. Compared to phones and tablets, it's still pretty good.

While I would like the battery life to be better, I don't find a few days unacceptable, as I always read at home. I do know the Sage doesn't like high frontlight levels, though, so I use my Libra 2 when I want to crank the light to the middle or high levels (in summer, for example).

[Aleron Ives]

Why would you need more frontlight in summer?

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Aleron Ives

Why would you need more frontlight in summer?

Because I like my screen to be white. Not bright white, rather off/yellowish/greyish white, but certainly not grey. So, the brighter the environment, the higher my frontlight. I know it sounds illogical, but I really hate that natural eink grey. I didn't used to, but started to dislike it after eink readers acquired the frontlight.

[Aleron Ives]

I'm kind of surprised that the frontlight is strong enough to change the colour of the screen in direct sunlight. :o Go figure.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Aleron Ives

I'm kind of surprised that the frontlight is strong enough to change the colour of the screen in direct sunlight. Go figure.

It isn't. I don't read in direct sunlight.

[Quoth]

I mostly don't use the front light and it seems likely that I get 16 to 20 hours.

Most of the power consumption is page turns, or other activity such as looking up a word, TOC etc.

So I'd expect a small font and small margins and lines pacing to give far more hours reading than big margins, large text etc. A font that allows more text per page will also increase run time.

Mostly I leave the Sage charging on PC after adding ebooks via Calibre and eject (twice if needed). So I rarely need to use the charger or be interrupted while reading. Also I have a 2m USB cable.


So while the Sage is poorer battery life than the Libra, it doesn't matter. You can carry a power bank if camping or travelling for use every day or two. A fast charger (1.5A 5V) takes less than 50 minutes from flat.

I don't find the screen grey when actually reading, only if it's "on" and lying on the desk.