Aura HD Uneven lighting at bottom [Kobo Aura HD]

[gerard lambert]

Hi,
I received my Aura HD last week, and I'm pretty happy with it; however I have noticed that the lighting is uneven at the bottom of the screen, and this is a little distracting while reading.

Here is a picture of my screen :


Is that normal or should I expect better? I'm wondering if I should return it next week.

[TechniSol]

Up to you, but it looks a lot like my Glo. If you tip the device almost upright and peer down into the lower part of the bezel you'll notice that's where the LEDs that illuminate the front lighting layer are positioned. The earlier firmware for the Glo, Kobo's first attempt at front lighting, had the option of displaying a transparent or black bar at the bottom of the screen -likely as an attempt at appeasing customers who might be bothered by the minor shadowing effect around the LEDs. I guess you can fault them for not extending the front lighting layer a bit further below the bezel, but there may have been other reasons why that wasn't a good solution.

Personally, on a regular full page of text I really don't pay attention to it when reading as the text stops above the area affected. At any rate, I find myself willing to put up with it for the advantage of built-in lighting vs. the absolute never ending hassle of external lighting.

I'm sure those with Aura HDs will have more to say.

[Ken Maltby]

I find it hard to reply in any way that would be helpful as I can't be sure that my lack of noticing these kind of problems is due to their not being present, or just my lack of perception. It would have to be very apparent before I would notice it. I don't use the light much but when I do, nothing like that has been noticeable.

Luck;
Ken

[doubleshuffle]

Looks very similar to my HD. When you try to look under the bezel, you will see that the light seems to come from five single LEDs at the bottom, and very close to the bottom the individual beams are still a bit separate.

Hard to tell from the photo, but the effect may be a bit more pronounced on your device than on mine, but probably not.

Anyway, that tiny little unevenness hasn't affected my reading experience at all.

[Ripplinger]

It's normal for front-lit screens around the LEDs at the bottom. Remember this isn't a backlit screen like on your phone or tablets, etc., there are differences.

The first pic you had posted that showed the entire screen didn't show the slightly darker cone areas as pronounced; this newer image that you changed with the edit looks like the contrast was increased to show the differences more.

The first image seemed perfectly fine and not out of the ordinary at all. It's certainly much more even lighting than if you were reading by an exterior light or clip-on light and shouldn't be distracting at all.

If you're expecting perfectly even white across 100% of the screen, it's probably not ever going to happen on a front-lit screen.

Edit: When I enlarged the present screenshot, it looks like you have a stuck pixel along the top left edge. It's possible it's a speck of dust too, only you can tell by checking the screen. If it's a stuck pixel, that would certainly bother me and make me return it.

The slight shading around the LEDs though would not bother me at all, especially if they're more in line with the first pic posted.

[Dr. Drib]

This thread is for the Kobo Aura HD - emphasis on the 'HD'.

ADDED: Thread title updated to reflect the fact that this thread concerns the Aura HD.


Don
(Moderator)