Libra 2 Serious buyer's remorse with Libra 2

[shamanNS]

@Quoth Yeah yeah, and @moshano Libra 2 must also be faulty and so was the case for each person that ever complained about that Kobo model's battery.
And those people that had constant freezing and reboot issues on first hardware revision of Libra 2 must all have had faulty units. My Libra 2 doesn't have random freeze or reboot issues (at least so far) so maaybe Kobo managed to fixed those problems but at the price of the horrible power management.

It's more likely either faulty model (as in the whole Libra 2 series of devices) with bad design and components used or bad firmware but either way the end result for the end user is the same:a eInk device that looks good only when compared with phones and tablets with LCD screens.

Either way I can't ever be "mistaken" when I'm objectively describing how MY particular Libra 2 unit works. And I'm most definitely not the only one with those "issues" with Libra 2.

[JSWolf]

My Libra 2 is the model first released by Kobo.

I'll take a note of the battery when I go to sleep and take a note when I get up and see what the number is.

Is the light on when you read? If so, what number is the light at? I use my light in bed at 3.

[shamanNS]

If you're replying to someone's comment and joining a discussion you should at least make an effort to read all of the comments.
I have already addressed my usage of Kobo's frontlight in a previos answer to @Quoth.
As previously stated:

Originally Posted by shamanNS

Yeah I forgotten to comment on the frontlight usage: arround 60% of my total reading time I read with fronthlight turned off (I prefer how the screeen looks when it reflects the light from my floor lamp that I have beside my bad), the rest of the time when I'm using the frontlight I use it turned on to 18-25% intensity.
I never read any of my reader with room light turned off (as in total darkness) and reader's frontlight being the only light source... to me that looks and feels to much like reading on a tablet and I could never get used to that.

So, most of the time if I'm using the frontlight that means that I'm lying horizontaly (on my side) in my bed while I'm reading and then there isn't enough light from the floor lamp reflected of the reader's screen so I'm lazy and instead of getting up and messing with height of the lamp I just turn on and turn up Kobo frontlight to add make the screen bright enough.
The same thing I also have always done on my Kindle (the difference being that Kindle's light is less intense and there I usually put it at 15 out of 24 max, plus 20 out of 24 on the warm light slider.
And on the Kobo my preferred combo when "giving a helping hand to the floor lamp" is 18-24% & 8 out of 10 for the warm light.

Like I said: I don't read in dark rooms. Obviously if I did that those values for the reader frontlight would be waaaaaaay to strong. But when you combine room / ambient lights with reader's built-in frontlights using lower values gets you the same effect as if it it was turned off completely

In short : if I'm sitting neer my floor lamp I don't use Kobo's or Kindle's built-in light . If I'm lying down I use both the floor lamp and built-in frontlights of the reading device.
And I do the same regardless of using Kindle or a Kobo. And using Kindle that way doesn't prevent it from letting me read at least 1200 screens before needing to recharge. Kobo under the same conditions last 450-550 screen.
Everything but the device itself is the same: same font, same font size, same version of KOReader, same book, same epub file, same bed, same reading posture..
Kobo's non-flush screen does indeed reflect slightly more ambient light / light from the floor lamp in my room when compared to Kindle PW5's "flush" screen.
And 0.2" difference between those 2 screens can't account for the battery life difference.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by shamanNS

And those people that had constant freezing and reboot issues on first hardware revision of Libra 2 must all have had faulty units. My Libra 2 doesn't have random freeze or reboot issues (at least so far) so maaybe Kobo managed to fixed those problems but at the price of the horrible power management.

My Libra 2 is the first revision (bought when released) and I had a few freezes in the beginning. After a couple of firmware updates they vanished, though. I haven't had freezes or reboots in a long time.

I guess if you expect your ereader to last for months on a single charge, then the Libra 2 is a disappointment. I'm perfectly fine with the battery lasting for a week or two, as I said, so for me this is not an issue at all.

And it's not Amazon vs Kobo issue either. Both of them have had models with good battery life and not so good battery life.

[Aleron Ives]

Originally Posted by shamanNS

It has been 21 days since I last changed my Libra 2 but then when you consider that I read on it only 4 hours / less than 150 screens and it is currently at 21% battery left then those 21 days don't look so rosy no more

Yeah, as Quoth said, your unit sounds faulty. I get 20 days when reading an hour or two each day.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

My Libra 2 is the model first released by Kobo.

I'll take a note of the battery when I go to sleep and take a note when I get up and see what the number is.

Is the light on when you read? If so, what number is the light at? I use my light in bed at 3.

When I posted this, my Libra 2 was at 91%. Now it's at 90%. It drained 1% or less (most likely less).

[shamanNS]

You posted only 10 hours ago

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by shamanNS

You posted only 10 hours ago

It's still sitting at 90%. It's now 12 hours ago. If it was to lose so much in sleep, it would have lost more then 1% buy now.

[shamanNS]

Ok, I've done the so called "manual (factory) reset" and now let's see how the battery drain in sleep mode behaves after that and with an older firmware. After doing that is says it is now on firmware version: 4.34.20148 (57c2aebbb6, 10/6/22). Until this moment I've used it with latest firmware (4.38.xxx) installed.

As far as I can tell that firmware build wasn't released as an update?



Any suggestions in regards to recommended firmware build (other than the latest, 4.38... since that one was on my device for previos 45 days and poor battery life I've observed was with the latest firmware) to try?

What I've done is: factory reset from Settings menu > power off > manual factory reset> choosing "I have no WiFi" option to let me connect to my PC to edit "Kobo eReader.conf" file to add "SideloadedMode=true" line > transfer a single epub file using Windows Exploer (so no Calibre, no Kobo Desktop app thing) > disconnected USB cable and let it import the added book > forced a power off (to "apply" / to turn on SideloadedMode),since it was only offering WiFi setup or no WiFi thing, still even after editing the config file > once it booted I've turned off WiFi, BT, sleep cover wake up option.
Now charging it back to 100% and will not be using the device at all for next couple of days.

[JSWolf]

My Libra 2 is down to 89%. I did look at it occasionally. So in about 22 hours, it lost no more then 2%. Most likely 1.XX%. So at that rate, I'd be able to have my Libra 2 sleeping for more than 50 days. Even if it was 2%, that would be 50 days.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by shamanNS

Ok, I've done the so called "manual (factory) reset" and now let's see how the battery drain in sleep mode behaves after that and with an older firmware. After doing that is says it is now on firmware version: 4.34.20148 (57c2aebbb6, 10/6/22). Until this moment I've used it with latest firmware (4.38.xxx) installed.

As far as I can tell that firmware build wasn't released as an update?



Any suggestions in regards to recommended firmware build (other than the latest, 4.38... since that one was on my device for previos 45 days and poor battery life I've observed was with the latest firmware) to try?

What I've done is: factory reset from Settings menu > power off > manual factory reset> choosing "I have no WiFi" option to let me connect to my PC to edit "Kobo eReader.conf" file to add "SideloadedMode=true" line > transfer a single epub file using Windows Exploer (so no Calibre, no Kobo Desktop app thing) > disconnected USB cable and let it import the added book > forced a power off (to "apply" / to turn on SideloadedMode),since it was only offering WiFi setup or no WiFi thing, still even after editing the config file > once it booted I've turned off WiFi, BT, sleep cover wake up option.
Now charging it back to 100% and will not be using the device at all for next couple of days.

Stick with the firmware that's on it and after you've checked the battery life, go back to 4.38 and try it. Then you'll have something to compare 4.38 to.

[Aleron Ives]

Originally Posted by shamanNS

Any suggestions in regards to recommended firmware build (other than the latest, 4.38... since that one was on my device for previos 45 days and poor battery life I've observed was with the latest firmware) to try?

4.34 and 4.35 both seem to be fine. The frequent database corruption problems appear to have been introduced in 4.37 (4.36 was the Elipsa 2E launch firmware and isn't available on other models).

[moshano]

I think would be nice that in config you could setup a shutdown time, i.e., after 24 or 48 hours of no use, the Kobo automatically powers off.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by shamanNS

Ok, I've done the so called "manual (factory) reset" and now let's see how the battery drain in sleep mode behaves after that and with an older firmware. After doing that is says it is now on firmware version: 4.34.20148 (57c2aebbb6, 10/6/22). Until this moment I've used it with latest firmware (4.38.xxx) installed.

As far as I can tell that firmware build wasn't released as an update?

That firmware version suggests that you have the newer version of the Libra 2. One of the changes there was in the power management.

For the most part, new devices tend to come with a firmware version that is promptly updated, in the case of your device, 4.34.20097 is probably that version.

[shamanNS]

Yeah, I have a newer revision of Libra, I checked that using Terminal in KOReader when I bought the device.



And what is a "factory firmware" on my device should be newer than 4.34.20097 (as 20148 > 20097, and October vs September).
I didn't let it connect to WiFi after doing the "manual factory reset" so it couldn't download and install any updates

But yeah, when I unboxed the device in 15th of December 2023 I registered and logged into a Kobo account and to do that I had to connect to WiFi and thus it instantly proceeded to download and install 4.38 without asking me anything So I that was what I was using.

Now as a last-ditch effort I've tried to see if the factory reset itself + downgrade back to what was initial firmware out of the box will have any impact on battery life.

Not really holding my breath for that.. this is how the device worked since the day 1, and I didn't do anything special with it (added 1 epub & 1 kepub to compare stock firmware, then proceeded to "install" KOReader and I've been mainly using that, stock software I've used only for the purposes of comparing battery drain) after it auto-updated to the latest firmware.
And even now when I've charged it today (in preparation to doing factory reset) I noticed that in like 2 minutes time from supposedly 88% full to 97% full. The battery indicator is clearly not that reliable...