Kobo Elipsa - Opinion

[Lectorlector25]

Hi all,

I am looking for an e-ink tablet to read and take notes, as I like taking notes at work and would like to have an e-ink tablet so I can take the notes and easily transfer them to my computer. However, e-ink tablets are very expensive.

I have seen in a store the Kobo Elipsa (the first one) for £180 with the pen. I would be grateful if you could help me with a few questions that I have:

• Since it was released in 2021, is it still a device that gets updates?
• Can you edit PDF files or Word files that you save on the device? I mean, can you add comments to these files?
• Can you make notes on books?
• I have read that you have to charge the pen. How long does the battery normally last?
• What do you think about the writing experience on the Elipsa?
• Do you think the price is worth it, or do you think I could find something better for the same price?

Thanks

[Cootey]

I own an Elipsa. I would not recommend buying one anymore. As soon as the Elipsa 2E came out, updates for the Elipsa model made my unit slower even though the updates also expanded my Elipsa to have feature parity with the 2E. The features came at a price: speed.

The Elipsa simply doesn’t have a fast enough processor for its large screen. In comparison, my Kobo Libra Color is a pleasure to take notes on. Fast, responsive, and useful.

If you like the big format, I’d consider paying extra for the 2E.

[Quoth]

The Sage is better than the Elipsa for notes (I gave away my Elipsa).
The Sage has more pixels too, and battery life is acceptable with BT, WiFi and light off.

You can only add drawn text to a PDF (adds a layer) and epub is only sensible with typed text. The Nebo app only for pen to PC text outside ebooks and PDFs.

I use NxtPaper 11 for Nebo which does allow PDF with pen to PC Txt. I use a NxtPaper 14 for larger PDFs.

The eink is simply far too slow and clunky for pen notes compare to Nxtpaper 11 or Nxtpaper 14. Also the Notebooks on Kobo (using a seriously cut down version of Nebo) are completely separate from epubs or PDFs.

I do touch keyboard annotation of epubs on the Sage, because that exports as computer text.

[pickyaxe]

anything involving notes has been a miserable experience on any Kobo device I've tried. forget about it.

in my opinion, there's one thing this device does, and does really well: reading comics/manga and unoptimized PDFs, using KOReader.

I would not buy it in 2025.

[Lectorlector25]

Originally Posted by Cootey

I own an Elipsa. I would not recommend buying one anymore. As soon as the Elipsa 2E came out, updates for the Elipsa model made my unit slower even though the updates also expanded my Elipsa to have feature parity with the 2E. The features came at a price: speed.

The Elipsa simply doesn’t have a fast enough processor for its large screen. In comparison, my Kobo Libra Color is a pleasure to take notes on. Fast, responsive, and useful.

If you like the big format, I’d consider paying extra for the 2E.

Thanks for your advice. It's a shame that the Elipsa started to work slower; that's so unfair!

The issue with the 2E is the price. Do you know any reliable stores where I can find a second-hand one for a good price?

[Lectorlector25]

Originally Posted by pickyaxe

anything involving notes has been a miserable experience on any Kobo device I've tried. forget about it.

in my opinion, there's one thing this device does, and does really well: reading comics/manga and unoptimized PDFs, using KOReader.

I would not buy it in 2025.

Thanks for your message.
Which affordable brands would you recommend? Do you think that the first Onyx Boox is better than the Elipsa for note-taking?
What about the Scribe (2022)?

If you had to choose between the Onyx Boox and the Scribe 2022, which would you pick?

Thanks!

[Aleron Ives]

Amazon locks everything down and limits what you can do. Boox devices are using Android, so you get pretty much every feature you could ever want at the expense of a much more complex system to navigate. If you're comfortable with Android, Boox is by far the better choice. Both Amazon and Onyx use Wacom passive pens, so you can use any Wacom pen you want, and it never needs charging.

[Cootey]

Originally Posted by Lectorlector25

Thanks for your advice. It's a shame that the Elipsa started to work slower; that's so unfair!

The issue with the 2E is the price. Do you know any reliable stores where I can find a second-hand one for a good price?

I’d check eBay. There’s also a forum on this site for people selling items. You might find a Kobo Elipsa 2E there. Goodwill might have some. Woot, too. It’s all random.

[Quoth]

The wacom pens are not passive. They use electronics powered from the host device.

The 2E has less pixels than the Kobo Sage.

[Lectorlector25]

Originally Posted by Aleron Ives

Amazon locks everything down and limits what you can do. Boox devices are using Android, so you get pretty much every feature you could ever want at the expense of a much more complex system to navigate. If you're comfortable with Android, Boox is by far the better choice. Both Amazon and Onyx use Wacom passive pens, so you can use any Wacom pen you want, and it never needs charging.

Thanks for message.

With regard to Scribe 2022, does it have palm rejection?

I am confused by your comment that the pen is passive.

Does the Scribe 2022 work slower after the Scribe 2024 was released?

Can you still receive updates for the Scribe 2022?

Is the Scribe 2022 a good option for note-taking?

Can you also save PDF files on it and edit them?

I would like to use it for taking notes at work.

[Quoth]

The Scribe can't be used in many businesses as the PDF/Note system has to go through Amazon twice. Less private than Nebo on Android or iOS and much less private than the cut down Nebo on a Kobo.

PDFs can't be edited on anything, sensibly. They are print replica or for print. You can only annotate. You need odt or docx or txt or Nebo formats to edit. The separate notes can be edited on Scribe, but no as easily as cut down Nebo on eink or full Nebo on iOS/Android (which makes MS OneNote on Android look like junk).

Having used four eink models for notes, I think eink is too slow and clunky compared to OLED/LCD and the Nxtpaper models have as good battery life for notes and better screens (matt, no glare) than colour eink. The mono eink is only better than Nxtpaper 2.0 or Nxtpaper 3.0 when its frontlight is off.

[Quoth]

BTW, I didn't find FW updates on Elipsa after Elipsa 2 came out made it any slower. They removed need for KOReader as Kobo added per document PDF margin crop.

[Cedros]

I've been using my Kobo Elipsa almost every day for about eighteen months. Having more or less come to terms with its limitations, I do find it useful for taking notes. But you have to adjust your expectations. There are not infrequent lags and pauses as the machine processes your writing or drawing. Annotating a Kobo e-book on the Elipsa works well. Compared to an iPad, for example, it's really, really slow and can be frustrating. But I like the way the pencil writes on the screen, so there's that. Perhaps in a few more years, there will be significant improvements in this technology. I hope so, anyway!

[Cootey]

Originally Posted by Quoth

BTW, I didn't find FW updates on Elipsa after Elipsa 2 came out made it any slower. They removed need for KOReader as Kobo added per document PDF margin crop.

Not sure what to say. I couldn’t tell you which firmware was the culprit, but my Elipsa didn’t get much use anymore bc of the sluggishness. In fact, its sluggishness running notebooks was one of the driving reasons that I upgraded to the KLC the very day they went up for sale. It seems to be doing better once I set it up as a Japanese Kobo attached to my Rakuten account, but the notebooks are still sluggish and buggy. (I don’t think the language difference is what improved things, but that my db is smaller and newer with my Japanese account.)

[kandwo]

Originally Posted by Lectorlector25

Thanks for message.

With regard to Scribe 2022, does it have palm rejection?

I am confused by your comment that the pen is passive.

Does the Scribe 2022 work slower after the Scribe 2024 was released?

Can you still receive updates for the Scribe 2022?

Is the Scribe 2022 a good option for note-taking?

Can you also save PDF files on it and edit them?

I would like to use it for taking notes at work.

The Scribe is limited in its note taking. And it wants to convert PDFs to Amazon's own proprietary format when they are sent to the device.

He probably means that Wacom pens don't have to be charged. "Active" pens have a separate battery.

I have an Onyx Boox note taker (the Go 10.3) and it's great for notes. And their reading software is fantastic for PDFs, which you can annotate to your heart's content. You can also import PDFs into the note taking program and use them as templates.

I would definitely recommend the Go 10.3 if you don't need a frontlight.