Libra H2O - Questions

[trcm]

I am still pretty new to e-readers, having only fairly recently (2 years actually, time flies) bought my first Kindle Paperwhite 4, which unfortunately I hate reading from unless using fairly bright background light, I blame this mainly on the flush glass? covered screen, as my partner has a Paperwhite 3 which is magnitudes better in dim light and also has a nicer warm backlight vs the cold and bluish PW4.

I’ve been thinking about upgrading to a Kobo but have a few questions I would love some of you to help answer for me ;

• Does the Kobo Libra H20 have a flush glass layer on top like the PW4? # No it doesn't, so probably more readable.
• Of all the Kobo models, is the Libre H20 considered one of the more readable with and without the light enabled?
• I use Calibre to manage my books, so can the Kobo sync to that wirelessly (I’m tired of hunting for micro usb cables). # Apparently not
• Does the Libre H20 have a decent web browser (TLS1.3 / web sockets) ? # Possibly the same old 'experimental' one as the Kindle?!
• Wide range of margin options? # Yes

Many thanks to anyone who can help me!
—Tom

[Elektron]

I can only answer 2. No, it cant sync to calibre, but there are probably some hacks. As for the margins, no you don't need to hack them because thy are adjustable

[boomboxnation]

1. Not sure what you mean...but if I angle the Libra the text appears to be on the surface
2. I only ever had the Libra
3. You can use the Calibre built in web server. But you need to convert the files to kepub beforehand. I think the 'Kepub Output' plugin and/or the 'Kepub Metadata Writer' plugin are necessary to do the conversion beforehand. It's not a 'sync' per se...but you can get your books from calibre and onto your reader without a cable.
4. Not sure what you mean by decent. It works. There was a recent change that many disliked...but I didn't really notice as I don't use the browser all that often. EDIT: I usually use the Pocket feature to send web content to the reader. This feature rocks.
5. The margins can be made extremely small. Only checked with a kepub file though. (You really want them in kepub format)

[John Hopper]

The Kobo Libra does not have a flush screen, it is slightly indented. The browser is as per any Kobo or Kindle, adequate for basic browsing, but no more.

Sent from my SM-N976B using Tapatalk

[Skydog]

- I use Calibre to manage my books

- I hated the wide margins on the Kindles

Margins for Kindle books are easily changed via Calibre.

[trcm]

Originally Posted by John Hopper

The Kobo Libra does not have a flush screen, it is slightly indented.

Ahh that’s good I think as it sounds more like the Kindle PW3.

[trcm]

Originally Posted by Skydog

Margins for Kindle books are easily changed via Calibre.

Yes but you have to adjust every book in Calibre, which is tedious compared to adjusting on the fly with the actual device.

[trcm]

Bit disappointed to just read that the Libre H20 can struggle opening some longer PDF documents due to only 512MB RAM? That’s going to be a pity as I do open legs academic papers quite often.
Is this really a problem anyone ever notices?

[Elektron]

Some alternate readers could help, see the dev corner.

[Gone]

Find a used PW3, problem solved. ;-)

[NiLuJe]

The guys over at https://github.com/janeczku/calibre-web/ have been working on something that does allow one to hijack the Sync feature and point it to a Calibre-served library instead.

I've never tried it myself, I don't know how far it's gotten since I last looked into it, it might not have hit a stable release yet, and it might require some tinkering, but it was damn cool nonetheless.

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And there's of course @sherman's UNCaGED which allows connecting a Kobo as a Wireless Smart Device (and which will see a new, more user-friendly release Soon (TM) ).