Glo Things to cover in Kobo Glo review?

[9littlebees]

Hi everyone, I'm new to this forum, due to the fact that I have only just pre-ordered my first eReader, the Kobo Glo. Being a bit of a tech-head and review junkie, I thought I'd post a review of the Glo here on MobileRead after I've had a little play with it.

So basically this thread is to ask you guys for things I should look out for and general questions (probably Kobo specific) I should address in my review, that you wouldn't necessarily get from your standard review sites, though I won't be doing anything that will void the warranty. It's apparently going to be available from the 1st October here in the UK, so I should be getting it sometime the week after next.

Here's the colour-coded outline for my review (updated regularly with new requests):

CONTENTS

• Introduction
• Unboxing & First Impressions
• First Steps & Loading Content
• User Interface & Readability
• Functionality
• Kobo Customer Service
• Bug List, Conclusion & Rating

INTRODUCTION
About Me

• Current role (engineering project planner), no current or previous affiliation with any eReader manufacturers
• Previously bookshop branch manager, physical book lover
• eReader newb (mention Kindle / Kobo / Aldiko apps on Android as only prev experience)
• Prev experiences with eBooks on LCD screens (PC, Android)
• Why I haven't gone for a Kindle (family in the US that could provide a Paperwhite, if wanted)

About Review

• Real-world review, with no bias
• No previous experience with "proper" eReaders
• Addressing questions / concerns from MobileRead community (link to thread)

About Kobo Glo

• Reflection on specs, inc formats, resolution & other features

UNBOXING & FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Unboxing and comments on physical device

• Packaging & protection of unit
• General presentation
• Documentation (manual, warranty, etc)
• Peripherals & accessories (UK mains plug?)
• Perceived robustness (compare to my Android - plastic body but glass screen)
• Quality of home button and ports
• Perceived durability of screen
• Comments on LED lights - location, how well-protected, etc
• Comments on quilted back, comfort of holding it
• General thought on the physical unit

FIRST STEPS & LOADING CONTENT
Preparing for First Use

• Does the battery have an initial charge?
• Duration of first recharge - UI elements, LED notification, etc when charging
• Does it need to be tethered to PC to activate and get to work?
• Able to access free books, side-load from Calibre, etc without logging into Kobo (i.e. work out of the box)?

Loading Content

• List of any bundled free books
• Availability of officially supported epubs & price comparison with Amazon ebooks
• Navigating Kobo Store from device, and ease of ordering kepubs
• Comparison of DRM epub vs same book in kepub, when both purchased from Kobo store
• Ease of getting back to where you were reading after loading/buying new books (try it with kepubs & side-loading to see if different)
• Adding additional dictionaries

USER INTERFACE & READABILITY
User Interface

• Firmware number
• Comments & photos of home screen
• Ease of navigating the menus and settings
• Comments on social settings (Reading Life, Facebook integration, etc)
• Web browser - which is installed and possible to change? How does it work?
• Browser scrolling - how does Glo scroll on long/wide pages - soft buttons / double touch / shaking?
• Browser zooming - how does Glo zoom / increase font in browser?
• Browser comfort - possible to render sites (i.e. forums to only see messages)?

Readability

• Page turn speed
• Ease of turning pages one-handed
• Thoughts on screen clarity/quality with light on and off (inc contrast)
• Light brightness levels, in low-light and total/near darkness, inc uniformity of light distribution
• Note-taking - can notes be exported? How are they accessed outside the book itself? Do notes sync with kepubs between devices?
• Highlighting text - anything special, does highlighting of kepubs carry over onto other versions of Kobo (i.e. PC)?
• Footnotes - how are they displayed? Thoughts / comments
• Dictionaries - size requeired for each, can they interpret foreign text (try to use example from every supported language - test with Anna Karenina)
• Provide list of supported dictionaries
• Which non-Latin alphabets (Cyrillic, Arabic, Japanese, Chinese, etc) are supported, and how are they displayed? Support for font size and weight changes?
• Similar feature to Paperwhite's "time left to end of chapter"?

FUNCTIONALITY
Functionality

• Using microSD cards to store & access eBooks, and also interact with Calibre (using both generic & branded, plus new and used cards)
• Purchasing non-standard books and ease of converting & sideloading (inc Amazon, Google, Smashwords, BOB, B&N)
• Do eReader settings override font, justification, line spacing, margin widths, etc if these are set in an eBook?
• Functionality with side-loaded eBooks, including epubs, PDFs, CBRs, CBZs, etc
• Add-in (i.e. non-standard) font handling
• Functional differences between epubs and kepubs (also, kepubs vs "official" epubs, i.e. purchased from WH Smith)
• Compatibility with Adobe Digital Editions, including ease of syncing with the Glo, and exporting ebooks, data, etc from ADE to the Glo
• Thoughts / comments on checking out ePubs from local library service
• Format handling when reading epubs converted by Calibre
• In sleep/off mode, are epub book covers properly full screen right away, or do they require editing in Calibre?
• Investigate issue of device setting itself to standby mode after having been turned "off" by long switch press (not the case with mine as of 3/1/13 when I last switched off on 28/12/12 - 6 days prior).
• In sleep/off mode, does the last book read show, or is it the book before last, or other?
• After other elements of review are finished, fully charge battery then test battery life with light left switched on continuously
• Duration of full recharge, following full discharge as above
• Can a Glo's library be organised from within Calibre, without issues?
• Functionality of "shelves" and support for it outside of the device, also do shelves have full functionality with ebooks stored on a microSD
• Are any features / configurations lost upon restarting the device?
• How the Glo navigates the Touch's "Home button" areas without a physical button

KOBO CUSTOMER SERVICE
Kobo Customer Service

• Email response time & helpulness to general query
• Email response time & helpulness to bugs
• Email response time & helpulness to feature suggestion
• Ease of contacting (& helpulness) by telephone in UK / international head office

BUG LIST, CONCLUSION & RATING
List of bugs encountered
Conclusion

• Does it live up to my expectations as a first-time eReader owner?
• Will I use this as a replacement to physical books?
• Thoughts on commerce elements (i.e. local Amnesty bookshop, unable to sell "used" ebooks)

Rating

• Based on the sections of review above, score out of 10, weighted as follows:
  
• Robustness, durability, comfort of physical device (20%)
• Preparing for use and loading content (10%)
• User interface & Readability (30%)
• Functionality (30%)
• Kobo Customer Service (10%)
  
• Overall rating

Books to test ([source]: [title]):

• Kobo: First Contact (EPUB)
• Amazon: Purple (converted from MOBI to EPUB)
• MobileRead: The Savage Stories of Conan & Three Men in a Boat (EPUBs)
• Project Gutenberg: Anna Karenina (EPUB)
• epubBooks: Heart of Darkness (EPUB)
• Smashwords: Yesterday's Gone, Ep 1 (EPUB)
• DigiLibraries: 20 Days in the Darkness (EPUB)
• FeedBooks: Blindsight (EPUB)
• BaenBooks: Oath of Swords (EPUB)
• Web-Writer.net: Magical World Builder's Guide (EPUB)
• DriveThruRPG: Eureka (EPUB)
• DriveThruRPG: Savage Worlds Deluxe (PDF)
• ComicBookPlus: Amazing Adventures 1 (CBR)
• LibrariesWest: The Colour of Magic (EPUB library rental)
  

[PeterT]

Minor suggestion.... if you do a review please be prepared to update it; Kobo is known to bring out fixes to issues that are seen.

[9littlebees]

Originally Posted by PeterT

Minor suggestion.... if you do a review please be prepared to update it; Kobo is known to bring out fixes to issues that are seen.

Good point, and I will endeavour to keep it updated following major firmware revisions and general fixes.

[David Munch]

• How many bugs you encounter.
• How easy do you find to navigate the thing.
• How easy is it to get content onto it.
• Did it actually live up to your expectations, as a first-time owner of an ereader.

[the.Mtn.Man]

How durable is the screen? That's is my primary concern after seeing what happened with the Nook GlowTouch, but I'm not sure how you would ascertain that without some form of destructive testing.

[9littlebees]

Originally Posted by David Munch

• How many bugs you encounter.
• How easy do you find to navigate the thing.
• How easy is it to get content onto it.
• Did it actually live up to your expectations, as a first-time owner of an ereader.

I'll add these to the list on the first post in an edit.

Originally Posted by the.Mtn.Man

How durable is the screen? That's is my primary concern after seeing what happened with the Nook GlowTouch, but I'm not sure how you would ascertain that without some form of destructive testing.

Yeah, I can comment on the general durability of the screen, but I am not planning on stress testing it!

[soulfuldog]

I'm really interested in how the screen compares with that of the Kobo Touch. So what you think of the clarity/quality of the screen with the light off as well as when it's on - though as you don't have a Kobo Touch to compare it with, that's maybe not something you'll be able to say too much about?

[treadlightly]

Some behaviour that I have found differs between ereaders and am curious about:

-Open an ebook, read a few pages. Go to home page, side-load a bunch of new ebooks. How easy is it to get back to where you were reading?

-Does the ereader override font, justification, line spacing, margin widths, etc based on settings configured in the ereader if they are set in the ebook? You may need to locate a poorly formatted ePub as a testcase.

[9littlebees]

Originally Posted by l_macd

I'm really interested in how the screen compares with that of the Kobo Touch. So what you think of the clarity/quality of the screen with the light off as well as when it's on - though as you don't have a Kobo Touch to compare it with, that's maybe not something you'll be able to say too much about?

Added it to the original post, but I agree, I have no basis for comparison, as this will be my first eReader.

Originally Posted by treadlightly

Some behaviour that I have found differs between ereaders and am curious about:

-Open an ebook, read a few pages. Go to home page, side-load a bunch of new ebooks. How easy is it to get back to where you were reading?

-Does the ereader override font, justification, line spacing, margin widths, etc based on settings configured in the ereader if they are set in the ebook? You may need to locate a poorly formatted ePub as a testcase.

Both points have been added. From what I've read here on the forums, the first point can probably be answered (assuming the UI firmware is not far off from the Touch). New ebooks override the current reading list, though it looks like there is an easy workaround (reload the library to sort by reading date to reset the home screen display).

[jackastor]

Originally Posted by 9littlebees

Hi everyone, I'm new to this forum, due to the fact that I have only just pre-ordered my first eReader, the Kobo Glo. Being a bit of a tech-head and review junkie, I thought I'd post a review of the Glo here on MobileRead after I've had a little play with it.

So basically this thread is to ask you guys for things I should look out for and general questions (probably Kobo specific) I should address in my review, that you wouldn't necessarily get from your standard review sites.

Already planned are (EDIT: updated with replies):

• Screen delay when advancing / retreating a page
• Firmware number and general layout of the Home screen
• Battery life with the light continuously on
• Comments on the new, slightly less comfy-looking quilted back
• Ease of turning pages one-handed
• List of any bugs encountered
• Ease of navigating
• Ease of getting content onto it
• Does it live up to my expectations, as a first-time eReader owner
• General durability of the screen
• Thoughts on screen clarity / quality with light on and off
• Ease of getting back to where you were reading, after side-loading new ebooks
• Does eReader settings override font, justification, line spacing, margin widths, etc if they are set in an ebook?

It's apparently going to be available from the 1st October here in the UK, so I should be getting it sometime the week after next.

I think your approach is good. I notice you mentioned not doing a stress test... but really how would you do that any way.. its a reader it does one thing and one thing only. Its not like a tablet where you could stress the cpu by tasking it.
At any rate I look forward to your review, I anticipate many are waiting for realy world review not a pcmag style, or blog review.... but a real world review by a real user!

Cant wait

Jack

[9littlebees]

Originally Posted by jackastor

I think your approach is good. I notice you mentioned not doing a stress test... but really how would you do that any way.. its a reader it does one thing and one thing only. Its not like a tablet where you could stress the cpu by tasking it.
At any rate I look forward to your review, I anticipate many are waiting for realy world review not a pcmag style, or blog review.... but a real world review by a real user!

Thanks, really looking forward to trying the Glo out and letting everyone know the answers to all their burning questions.

As for the "stress test"... I work for an engineering company and "stress test" is a general term for putting stress (usually physical) on a piece of equipment. I appreciate that on the interwebs it usually is used in the context of computer equipment (esp overclocking), hence the confusion.

What I was actually referring to by "stress testing" was something like dropping it from a height or dropping a shoe on the screen, to test its durability - something I will not be doing.

I also won't be doing anything to void the warranty. Actually, I'll probably mention that in the original post.

[EldRick]

Please evaluate:
- side-loaded epub and PDF documents - full-function for fonts, ability to sync, restrictions on search or dictionary lookup, etc.
- add-in font handling. Apparently non-standard fonts don't get the Type Wizard functions, but do non-standard fonts at least get the ability to set margins, line-spacing, and fine-increments of size?

[rashkae]

How many basic fuctions are crippled when loading in an Epub rather than Kobo's proprietary kepub format. The KT, for example, couldn't even set bookmarks for almost a year after release.

Does the Kobo still need to be tethered to a PC to get it activated and working?

Does the Kobo now work out of the box, or does it still require a song and dance to create and log in a Kobo account before it does anything?

[PeterT]

@Rashkae; bitter much?

[berklon]

If it handles formatting properly when converted by Calibre, as mentioned in this thread:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...35#post2194435