Kobo Aura One vs Onyx with large screen...?

[martienne]

Kobo Aura One seems to have higher availability and more users, whereas Onyx is very dedicated to Open source and supporting all formats. I also like the Russian - English lookup in Onyx, although I can definitely live without it just thought it was nice and handy.


My feature preference list:

• Large screen, 8 -10 inches
• Supports epub and djvu
• Able to highlight or scribble in books
• Built in light source
• No flickering when turning pages
• Crisp white and black - i.e. proper contrast. Not pale grey and dark grey...
• Prefer touch screen but it's not a must-have.
• As light as possible.
• Nice UI, stable and convenient...
• My Ebook library is in Calibre

Which one would you go for?

But when I look at Onyx page and compare with what's available in "E-reader store" in Germany, it seems they don't have the latest Onyx?

Please give me some advise as to which model makes the most sense to go for

[Marinolino]

Good e-Reader 10.3, Boyue (Likebook Note 10.3) and Jezetek 10.3 have all presented their frontlit 10.3" prototypes this month, which are expected to hit the market soon, as well as Onyx's frontlit 9.7" Note S, so, in the meantime you might want to try Kobo-Aura out, and then sell it if it is not good enough for you, since you should simultaneously use your M92 or another eink or tablet for scribbling.

You must install Koreader on Kobo Aura, because without Koreader it is simply not good enough for pdf/djvu (installation is pretty quick and simple).

Kobo Aura One (using Koreader) is good enough at plain reading (without annotating) of almost every pdf I own, A5 or A4 sized, one-column or two-column, textual (original) or scanned material, regardless using its reflow mode or print mode.

We can e.g. set left & right swipe gestures to quickly jump to the latest bookmarked page (with the notes at the end of the book) and then as quickly back, without using the menu and several taps, which is very useful since we can't open multiple pdfs as with Onyx N96 where Neoreader2 allows for four simultaneously opened tabs/books.

[Alanon]

Regarding what you've listed, I'd say the Kobo will probably be more to your liking if crispness and contrast are the deciding factors. For the best possible results, you'd need the latest Carta generation screen (for the best contrast currently available) but also a high enough resolution for the best DPI and overall crispness of text. From what I've seen while browsing the Onyx site, there is no large-screen Onyx device with a Carta screen and a resolution like the Aura One (1872 x 1404), other than the truly large 13-inch MAX models. The crispest screen I've seen is a 6-inch with a 1072 × 1448 resolution in the Monte Cristo 3. The DPI and the crispness should be the same as the Aura One, but the screen is smaller. The Aura One will offer fairly crisp text similar to a real book.

I've never used Onyx readers, but I can say that the Kobo software will require adjustments in order to work optimally. You'll definitely need KOReader (continually developed and improved) to handle PDFs and comic files in any reasonable fashion, and even then pinch and zoom will not really work. The default software will also need to be modified to maximise screen-space and other details. However, the final product - DjVu and PDF in KOReader with text reflow, with the default software with callibre for kepub and epub management all work rather well, better than I thought when I first started. There are options to increase contrast in the software, for a more intense black colour. However, if you're against tweaking, modifications, patches and all that, then Kobo is definitely not the way to go.

[martienne]

Originally Posted by Marinolino

Good e-Reader 10.3, Boyue (Likebook Note 10.3) and Jezetek 10.3 have all presented their frontlit 10.3" prototypes this month, which are expected to hit the market soon, as well as Onyx's frontlit 9.7"

Great tips! Yes - when looking at the Onyx homepage, I'm seeing some models that are not available in the German Ebook reader store.
So they're becoming available within the next 1-2 months? If so, I can wait and check out a review once somebody's bought it.

Boyue and Jezetek are unfamiliar brands to me... I'll check them out. So far I never bought any big - name ebook reader, those ones could be something for me.

You must install Koreader on Kobo Aura, because without Koreader it is simply not good enough for pdf/djvu (installation is pretty quick and simple).

Oh, what's this about!? What is Koreader? What's the difference to the normal software that is pre-installed? What is required to change it?

Kobo Aura One (using Koreader) is good enough at plain reading (without annotating) of almost every pdf I own, A5 or A4 sized, one-column or two-column, textual (original) or scanned material, regardless using its reflow mode or print mode.

Ok, good to know - so that would be more of a reader for fiction books, would you agree? My dream is an ereader where you can annotate just like in a normal book, including with colours.

We can e.g. set left & right swipe gestures to quickly jump to the latest bookmarked page (with the notes at the end of the book) and then as quickly back, without using the menu and several taps, which is very useful since we can't open multiple pdfs as with Onyx N96 where Neoreader2 allows for four simultaneously opened tabs/books.

Ah ok! This is really another almost must-have feature in order for e-readers to truly replace books in every area. Because if you're studying or researching, you are probably used to sitting at a table with multiple books open at the same time... A truly fabulous e-reader would figure out a way to replicate that...

Thanks a lot for lots of helpful advice

[mobama]

Originally Posted by martienne

Great tips! Yes - when looking at the Onyx homepage, I'm seeing some models that are not available in the German Ebook reader store.

Onyx's 9.7" screens have very sparse resolution, I'd say they are not worth it. The ppi should be above 200 to be tolerable.

Onyx's advantage as well as disadvantage is Android. In Android, in theory, you can install any app you like, but Android 4 is old, many apps are incompatible, the apps that install are not optimised for e-ink, and the entire Android 4 itself, modified by Onyx, is not too well optimised.

It's not to the point of being a dealbreaker for me though. And I have heard better things about the more modern Android 6 in the huge Onyx Max2 and Note.

Originally Posted by martienne

Oh, what's this about!? What is Koreader? What's the difference to the normal software that is pre-installed? What is required to change it?

On Android, Koreader is a hit and miss. On my Onyx (Android 4) I have given up trying to get it to work.

However, on Pocketbook Inkpad 3 (with a 7.8" screen, same screen as Kobo Aura One), it performs excellent. Koreader has both epub/txt and pdf/djvu reading capabilities with almost all possible settings you can imagine. If you have many pdf files to read, Koreader is a very welcome app. Koreader has its own subforum here https://www.mobileread.com/forums/fo...play.php?f=276

[martienne]

Originally Posted by Alanon

Regarding what you've listed, I'd say the Kobo will probably be more to your liking if crispness and contrast are the deciding factors.

Thanks for great advice. Do you have the same experience with Onyx, i.e. that it's not quite crisp enough (black on white)?

Originally Posted by Alanon

For the best possible results, you'd need the latest Carta generation screen (for the best contrast currently available) but also a high enough resolution for the best DPI and overall crispness of text. From what I've seen while browsing the Onyx site, there is no large-screen Onyx device with a Carta screen and a resolution like the Aura One (1872 x 1404), other than the truly large 13-inch MAX models.

The crispest screen I've seen is a 6-inch with a 1072 × 1448 resolution in the Monte Cristo 3. The DPI and the crispness should be the same as the Aura One, but the screen is smaller. The Aura One will offer fairly crisp text similar to a real book.

I've never used Onyx readers, but I can say that the Kobo software will require adjustments in order to work optimally. You'll definitely need KOReader (continually developed and improved) to handle PDFs and comic files in any reasonable fashion, and even then pinch and zoom will not really work.

KoReader again! I'm guessing this is some modded or alternative software for a better reading experience. I'm getting too old for things like this, lol... I'll only change it if it can be done in under an hour.

Originally Posted by Alanon

There are options to increase contrast in the software, for a more intense black colour. However, if you're against tweaking, modifications, patches and all that, then Kobo is definitely not the way to go.

Good to know. I'm not against tweaking and modding, if there are clear instructions. But I don't want to experiment or have to do complex hacks to make minor improvements.

Given this, does any other reader come to mind, that would be good for me?

[mobama]

Originally Posted by martienne

My feature preference list:

• Large screen, 8 -10 inches
• Able to highlight or scribble in books
• Built in light source
• No flickering when turning pages
• Crisp white and black - i.e. proper contrast. Not pale grey and dark grey...
• Prefer touch screen but it's not a must-have.
• As light as possible.
• Nice UI, stable and convenient...
• My Ebook library is in Calibre

When it comes to flickering, e-ink needs to redraw the whole screen occasionally in order to reduce ghosting. Hopefully you won't consider this a bad thing.

Large screens (above 8") tend to have no frontlight. Currently the most favoured screen is 7.8" (Kobo Aura One, Pocketbook Inkpad 3) which has frontlight.

Depending on the reading app, you can set the contrast (gamma and boldness) level. I have heard Kobo's apps do this. Pocketbook's app does not set contrast, but I would say simply changing the font often does the trick. Then again, it's very easy to install Coolreader and Koreader on Pocketbook. Coolreader and Koreader set contrast apart from changing the font.

[martienne]

Originally Posted by mobama

Onyx's 9.7" screens have very sparse resolution, I'd say they are not worth it. The ppi should be above 200 to be tolerable.

Great to know - thanks for sharing this invaluable info.
I'll check against my current reader to get an idea of the perspective. I think that one is a bit dull in the contrast and it probably doesn't have very good resolution either.

Originally Posted by mobama

Onyx's advantage as well as disadvantage is Android. In Android, in theory, you can install any app you like, but Android 4 is old, many apps are incompatible, the apps that install are not optimised for e-ink, and the entire Android 4 itself, modified by Onyx, is not too well optimised.

It's not to the point of being a dealbreaker for me though. And I have heard better things about the more modern Android 6 in the huge Onyx Max2 and Note.

On Android, Koreader is a hit and miss. On my Onyx (Android 4) I have given up trying to get it to work.

However, on Pocketbook Inkpad 3 (with a 7.8" screen, same screen as Kobo Aura One), it performs excellent. Koreader has both epub/txt and pdf/djvu reading capabilities with almost all possible settings you can imagine. If you have many pdf files to read, Koreader is a very welcome app. Koreader has its own subforum here https://www.mobileread.com/forums/fo...play.php?f=276[/QUOTE]
Yeah - MAX2 is overkill for what I need. I don't want to go any higher than about 10 inch - I want it to fit in a handbag or a small backpack.
Onyx doesn't list "Note" as one of its current products - is it a legacy version or slang for some existing model? There is one model called just Max, without the 2 suffix.

Thanks for the tip on the Koreader subforum.

[martienne]

Originally Posted by mobama

When it comes to flickering, e-ink needs to redraw the whole screen occasionally in order to reduce ghosting. Hopefully you won't consider this a bad thing.

This is something I liked about Onyx. They have a system against flickering, to minimize it. It's called Snow (something) and it's apparently about reducing refreshing to minimum and also try to make it so it doesn't feel like "flicker".

Originally Posted by mobama

Large screens (above 8") tend to have no frontlight. Currently the most favoured screen is 7.8" (Kobo Aura One, Pocketbook Inkpad 3) which has frontlight.

Ah yeah, Pocketbook! I forgot about that one. Have you got any experience of Pocketbook INkpad 3 vs Kobo Aura One. I notice that they are exactly the same size.

Originally Posted by mobama

Depending on the reading app, you can set the contrast (gamma and boldness) level. I have heard Kobo's apps do this. Pocketbook's app does not set contrast, but I would say simply changing the font often does the trick. Then again, it's very easy to install Coolreader and Koreader on Pocketbook. Coolreader and Koreader set contrast apart from changing the font.

Great to know - thank you!

[mobama]

Originally Posted by martienne

Onyx doesn't list "Note" as one of its current products - is it a legacy version or slang for some existing model? There is one model called just Max, without the 2 suffix.

In Europe, the best Onyx re-seller is ereader.store in Germany.

Here's Onyx Note https://ereader.store/en/e-book-read...-note--25.html

Here's Max2 https://ereader.store/en/13-3-inch-s...-max2--23.html

There are also Chinese webstores aliexpress.com and banggood.com (the search term "boox"). If things are not there, I usually decide they are too hard to get to be worth the effort.

[Alanon]

Originally Posted by martienne

Good to know. I'm not against tweaking and modding, if there are clear instructions. But I don't want to experiment or have to do complex hacks to make minor improvements.

Given this, does any other reader come to mind, that would be good for me?

As far as modifications are concerned, you basically install a start menu to your Kobo, and set it up to boot KOReader and/or the default software, or to ask you on every boot. KOReader has automatic updates through wifi, and it's pretty seamless. It also has a huge number of settings, there are folks on the forum that use it exclusively for all their reading and library needs, and ignore Kobo's official interface. Anyway, once you learn how to handle the modifications to the official firmware, what to do and what not to, you can make sure that the start menu and KOReader stay in place even after updating the official firmware, and the whole process of keeping everything up to date after the initial setup lasts less than 5 minutes, once you know exactly what you want. Everything you need to know is written out here on the forums.

As for flicker, I know that Kobo has an adjustable limit for the full refresh, on the firmware that I use it goes up to 10 pages, and even once every chapter. That means that there will be no refresh whatsoever between the pages until a certain number of flips is reached. There are two things to worry about, however. The first is that without a full refresh every once in a while, you will lose some of the crispness of the text. Carta screens have smoothed the process a lot from what I've read, but artefacts still remain. It's not that bad if you're on a 300dpi screen, as the letters are always fairly sharp, but I believe it will be a problem on lower resolutions. On my Kobo the artefacts are very few. I really have to concentrate to see them (and I have my limit set to refresh once per 8 pages). The "artefacts" resemble books printed on bible paper - when the page on the other side of the paper leaf leaves small letter imprints on the page you're reading (it's usually called "bleed through" or "ghosting"). But honestly, I can notice it only in direct sunlight, and by looking at the blank areas of the page.

The second thing to consider is that most devices have some built-in mechanic for refreshing the screen embedded in the software that you can't alter. Certain actions will always trigger a full refresh. On the Kobo, leaving one book menu to enter another, or zooming a PDF page does this. I believe that the behaviour described is really a limitation of the current E-Ink technology and that every brand of e-reader employs some variation of hard-coded full refreshes. Personally, I would look up Onyx' new technology in more detail, as I'm a bit sceptical. I'm not bashing them, and I could be completely wrong, but it seems to me that they might have given a fancy name to the partial refresh feature that Kobo and Pocketbook already employ. A couple of videos on YouTube of Onyx devices handling PDF files seem to display exactly the kind of flicker/refresh that you see everywhere else.

Now, I believe that the InkPad 3 has the exact same screen as the Aura One, with more LEDs around for the lighting feature, so there shouldn't be any issues there. It also has more features overall - the most important being physical page turn buttons, TTS, and MicroSD card support. Setting aside things like design, Pocketbook devices generally have a more expansive software, with more apps, features, and additions, like games, available out of the box. Text reflow, for example, is also there out of the box, while on Kobo you'd have to install KOReader. I believe it also comes with Lingvo dictionary support, etc. The downside of this is that generally speaking, the official software doesn't seem to be as fast as Kobo's original firmware, but this sort of thing is extremely difficult to judge without using a device personally for an extended period of time. It would be best to look up the availability and usability of patches for the Pocketbook software on the forum, as well as some videos to get a feel for the interface.

When I was considering the purchase of an e-reader, I had to decide between the InkPad 2 and the Aura One, but the previous InkPad had the older Pearl generation screen. By this point, the Aura One has lost most of its uniqueness, and the InkPad 3 is a very good alternative. If I were you, I'd first consider the technical features and what you need based on other criteria - is waterproofing important to you, or audio-related features; how large is your library - can it fit on 8 gigs; do you mind switching between interfaces or prefer a single GUI; what are your specific local pricing and customer support like, etc. For example, if you're ordering online, you have to make sure you use a reputable seller, as many Kobo Aura One models come with poorly calibrated LEDs, resulting in an uneven night light. It's a well-known issue that still affects people. Many also feel that a device that costs that much ought to have expandable storage, better quality control, refund/replacement policies, etc.

[Marinolino]

Originally Posted by martienne

...

KoReader again! I'm guessing this is some modded or alternative software for a better reading experience. I'm getting too old for things like this, lol... I'll only change it if it can be done in under an hour.


Good to know. I'm not against tweaking and modding, if there are clear instructions. But I don't want to experiment or have to do complex hacks to make minor improvements.

Given this, does any other reader come to mind, that would be good for me?

It takes less than a minute to install Koreader app thereon, once you have downloaded the necessary files and read the instructions, basically you just copy its folder into the e-reader, but you have to also install KSM (Kobo Start Menu) beforehand which takes another minute, and is just another case of a simple folder copying with restarting.

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=293804

You can also similarly install Plato app, another promising pdf, epub, djvu reader that they would keep on with improving.

Koreader at work on Kobo Aura One

https://youtu.be/i2oSOeAnD10

Kobo Aura ONE PDF reader vs. KOReader reflow

https://youtu.be/RDQk1kuNMdI?t=4

Also, I don't think that 9.7" Onyx N96ml with 150 dpi Carta+ and frontlight is bad at all for pdf/djvu reading and annotating, and getting a used one for under 250 euros is currently a good idea IMO because there should not be problem of selling it for at least 180-200 euros by the end of the year if we wanted the latest frontlit model.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rM3hTzA65NU&t=1s

p.s.

An useful reading tip for some Kobo Aura One owners;

when using its original pdf reader (in Nickel), I use double taps instead of scrolling, so, if I read a pdf book in landscape mode (zoomed-in at the screen width either by the menu width button or by double tapping), I double tap to get back to the whole page view and then again double tap on the bottom part of the page, to zoom-in into the bottom half of the page, it is quicker and less flickering.

When at the bottom of the zoomed page, one tap (right or left) will bring the beginning of the next or the previous page, zoomed at the screen width.

-----

If the pdf letters of the scanned book are to big in landscape mode (Kobo' screen is 16 cm wide in landscape and usually 13-14 cm text width is quite enough for any A5 pdf book and normal-sighted people) we can quickly add some side-margin using our PC or tablet and a page-size tool in any pdf editor.

It was useful for me on several ocasions even in Koreader' landscape mode, because the letters in the scanned pdf book with a very narrow side-margins were too big for my liking in landscape mode and too small in portraite mode (so, the text width was 15-16 cm wide instead of more agreeable 13-14 cm) and there is currently no percentage-zooming like e.g. in Koreader for Kindle DX, so, I've added a half of an inch margin on each side (takes just a half of minute using a page-size-tool in Adobe Acrobat, Pdf Element, free Pdf-Exchange etc.) and scanned pdf book i.e. its text width was at agreeable page width (about 13 cm) using landscape page-width-mode.

Or, even more quickly, we can simply change pdf size to A4 or bigger, and then crop it in Koreader thereafter for a desired text-width.

We can of course also use Koreader's very good reflow mode on any scanned pdf book (regardless whether there is OCR layer in the background or not) but unlike belletristics, some scientific books with a lot of formulas and special characters often yield a lot of OCR errors, so in such case it is better to use an exact print mode for the true WYSIWYG results, as well as in the case of complex page layouts.

[martienne]

Originally Posted by Alanon

If I were you, I'd first consider the technical features and what you need based on other criteria - is waterproofing important to you, or audio-related features; how large is your library - can it fit on 8 gigs;

Fantastic advice that really points me in the right direction.
Based on this, I'm leaning towards the Pocketbook, but I'll follow your advice and do a proper check of my library, sizes and more, during the weekend.

Pocketbook seems to be on sale in my country, whereas I don't think Onyx is.
I'll get back once I 'm fully up to speed on my expectations.
Thanks so much for sharing your experiences!

[martienne]

Originally Posted by Marinolino

It takes less than a minute to install Koreader app thereon,

Really helpful for me! I'll check out those videos once I'm home from work. Big thank you!