Best 8+ inch device in terms of clarity and contrast

[Cosmos]

Just a final final xD update for anyone who stumbles upon this thread. The Sage has incredible contrast and clarity. Better than the inkpad 4, mobiscribe wave, my old PW4 and the kindle scribe.

Unfortunately, I decided to part ways with the Sage. I do a lot of academic reading at work (on koreader) and found the battery to be an issue for very long reading hours especially when doing intensive reading going back and forth on koreader with several pages etc. It's all battery intensive.

I decided to try the Elipsa 2E but expected to be disappointed based on the useless reviews on YouTube by the big name reviewers. I expected to see an inferior screen although a comment on Reddit saying the Elipsa 2E had much better readability than the Scribe gave me some temptation to try it.

And to my surprise, the screen SCREAMS Kobo. If you come from a Sage, the way the letters pop out and how clear the edges of the letters are is instantly recognisable. Text really just pops out and you think you're reading a book which does not happen on the Scribe. The screen feels completely transparent.
Voja on my deep guide emphasized that the screen is "crystal clear". I agree, it really is CRYSTAL clear. I think reviewers need to do more for people who care about clarity the most. After all, eye strain is why many people migrate to eink. What you see on most reviews is a PPI comparison which is utterly useless.

The scribe in comparison feels like it has cloudiness on top of the text. Some mild haziness/blurriness that can cause significant fatigue for some people (including me) because my brain would try to look harder at the letters to achieve clarity (which is not achievable) and so I get eye strain. I couldn't really bare reading from the Scribe at all. A couple of people on Reddit also noted the same.

I think Kobo must have must have mastered the refractive qualities of the layers on top of the eink screen. They are truly masters at this and I believe they will lead the market at some point especially now that they have done their subscription thing to rival Amazon. I think the fact that they don't use a WACOM layer in their devices is part of why they are crystal clear. Bit disappointing that reviewers keep criticising the lack of WACOM but surely Kobo must have been avoiding WACOM for a reason.

Both the scribe and elipsa 2e have Carta 1200.
I couldn't note any advantage of the increased PPI on the Scribe. The difference in clarity between the screens is incredible to the point PPI difference becomes meaningless. I recommend that you buy both and compare readability over some time.
I think Kobo should advertise their screen clarity a bit more really. Or perhaps give it a marketing name. I got the kindle scribe for around 190 pounds (basic model) with all the discounts trade in etc.. Paid 350 for the Elipsa 2E and despite paying twice it certainly is worth it. Ergonomics of the Elipsa 2E and weight are both excellent. It doesn't feel cumbersome in my hands at all. The same cannot be said for the Scribe.

[Aleron Ives]

How's the battery life on the Elipsa 2E compared to the Sage? It's supposed to have a more efficient CPU compared to both the Sage and the Elipsa 1.

[Quoth]

I have no issue with battery life on the Sage (vs Libra), but I don't use KOReader. I think an earlier version of it was worse on battery than the native reader. Also I don't use front light, wifi or BT. I have an original Elipsa, but I don't use it much now, only for some PDFs, so I can't say what difference there is on the battery.

I also find the Sage better for notes. It's a better size than Libra or Elipsa for oridinary novels.

[Cosmos]

I am yet to test koreader on the Elipsa 2E. They're working on a version and it sounds like they're making good progress. I think they're about to test the first compiled version actually.

With the Sage, I did use the latest koreader version where they optimised it to enable sleep mode after a 3-10 seconds which reduces the number of cores active. That option has to be manually enabled. Despite that, with quite intensive reading on a heavy PDF I could only.get 5-6 hours which was a little bit annoying. The test I did was a page turn every set seconds and most likely wasn't reflective of my heavy use. This was why I got less hours in real life usage.

As soon as koreader is formally out on the Elipsa 2E, I can do the same test on it. But from what I hear, the CPU is a dual core and is more optimized. Battery capacity is double. So should be considerably better. Reviews on the internet are also very promising. I toyed with it for 4-5 hours and did some reading and the battery life only went down by 10% but obviously this is no reliable test as battery markers can be wildly inaccurate. Best thing is to put it on automatic page turn on koreader and see how how much it lasts until it turns off. However, this is going to be reflective of koreader consumption only rather than Nickel (original platform reader). But from first glance, it really sounds like battery will not be an issue.

[Quoth]

I'd get hugely more on native ereader on Sage. All day & all night.
I'd fix epubs on Calibre rather than use KOReader. I did have it on Elipsa for PDFs but now only on the Android eink.

Really in the family there are now 5 of us with the Sage and no-one is complaining of poor battery life. Used to be only Kindles.

[Strrav]

Originally Posted by Uncle Robin

The battery life I get, since it was put me off buying a Sage for a long time. Not buying an erader (any ereader) because it's 3 years or so since release I don't get. THe tech is ismple, well-proven and without a lot room for ground-breaking advancements. A new Sage today would be new, not 3 year old stock, and the reading experience would be as good as it was when the device was released. Just keep a power bank handy.

I have the sa:e problèm. I;like very much sage but don t want to buy because of the battery . I Wait for next generation

[Dibbler]

Originally Posted by Cosmos

Just a final final xD update for anyone who stumbles upon this thread. The Sage has incredible contrast and clarity. Better than the inkpad 4, mobiscribe wave, my old PW4 and the kindle scribe.

Unfortunately, I decided to part ways with the Sage. I do a lot of academic reading at work (on koreader) and found the battery to be an issue for very long reading hours especially when doing intensive reading going back and forth on koreader with several pages etc. It's all battery intensive.

I decided to try the Elipsa 2E but expected to be disappointed based on the useless reviews on YouTube by the big name reviewers. I expected to see an inferior screen although a comment on Reddit saying the Elipsa 2E had much better readability than the Scribe gave me some temptation to try it.

And to my surprise, the screen SCREAMS Kobo. If you come from a Sage, the way the letters pop out and how clear the edges of the letters are is instantly recognisable. Text really just pops out and you think you're reading a book which does not happen on the Scribe. The screen feels completely transparent.
Voja on my deep guide emphasized that the screen is "crystal clear". I agree, it really is CRYSTAL clear. I think reviewers need to do more for people who care about clarity the most. After all, eye strain is why many people migrate to eink. What you see on most reviews is a PPI comparison which is utterly useless.

The scribe in comparison feels like it has cloudiness on top of the text. Some mild haziness/blurriness that can cause significant fatigue for some people (including me) because my brain would try to look harder at the letters to achieve clarity (which is not achievable) and so I get eye strain. I couldn't really bare reading from the Scribe at all. A couple of people on Reddit also noted the same.

I think Kobo must have must have mastered the refractive qualities of the layers on top of the eink screen. They are truly masters at this and I believe they will lead the market at some point especially now that they have done their subscription thing to rival Amazon. I think the fact that they don't use a WACOM layer in their devices is part of why they are crystal clear. Bit disappointing that reviewers keep criticising the lack of WACOM but surely Kobo must have been avoiding WACOM for a reason.

Both the scribe and elipsa 2e have Carta 1200.
I couldn't note any advantage of the increased PPI on the Scribe. The difference in clarity between the screens is incredible to the point PPI difference becomes meaningless. I recommend that you buy both and compare readability over some time.
I think Kobo should advertise their screen clarity a bit more really. Or perhaps give it a marketing name. I got the kindle scribe for around 190 pounds (basic model) with all the discounts trade in etc.. Paid 350 for the Elipsa 2E and despite paying twice it certainly is worth it. Ergonomics of the Elipsa 2E and weight are both excellent. It doesn't feel cumbersome in my hands at all. The same cannot be said for the Scribe.

Even the larger screen if the Elipsa 2E, against that of the Sage, does not make a noticeable difference of it using 227dpi? I note that as another review noted how the equivalent Amazon large screen e-Reader was preferred, suggesting that the lower DPI of the Elipsa was part of that reason.

Do you continue to be impressed with your Elipsa.? The Sage would suit my needs much better, but I'm deterred from trying it due to the potential battery issues.... Sad that that point is often raised in respects of the Sage.

[Quoth]

The battery issue of the Sage is overstated. Without front-light, WiFi or BT I don't notice having to charge the Sage. Maybe once a week on charger for 15 minutes. It also charges when getting updates from Calibre via USB. It charges very much faster than any other ereader, with a compatible charger.

I've a PW3 and it's always been poorer than Kobo when not used (standby). I've not been conscious of any charge life issue with the Sage compared to PW3, H2O original, Libra or Libra 2.

[Dibbler]

Originally Posted by Quoth

The battery issue of the Sage is overstated. Without front-light, WiFi or BT I don't notice having to charge the Sage. Maybe once a week on charger for 15 minutes. It also charges when getting updates from Calibre via USB. It charges very much faster than any other ereader, with a compatible charger.

I've a PW3 and it's always been poorer than Kobo when not used (standby). I've not been conscious of any charge life issue with the Sage compared to PW3, H2O original, Libra or Libra 2.

Thanks, I did wonder how much of a "real" issue the battery life would be with the Sage, if used just for reading.
Using my 2016 bought Kobo Aura One and the battery life is still good, but that has got me accustomed to the larger screens. My wife has recently acquired a Libre 2 and whilst she thoroughly enjoys that the downsize in screen size, might be marginal, is something that I would prefer not to do.
The Sage does seem ideal for my needs.

[Quoth]

I have a Libra (used to read when I'm doing narration), a Libra 2 and a Sage. I read about 4 to 8 full novels a week on the Sage. There are 6081 titles including some PDFs, and 16.6 G bytes are free of the 32 G (includes OS etc).
I suspect it could hold 18K to 24K epubs (novels, not comics or picture books). I have quite a few Advanced notebooks and saved (exported) docx, txt etc from them not listed in the 6081 titles, but obviously using storage.
The Advanced Notebook handwriting conversion works equally well with Kobo pen and two models of 3rd party "basic" style pens sold for MS Surface 3 or later (The kind without the "One Note/Magic" button).