What is with all the Trolls? I love my Kobo.

[viviena]

Originally Posted by erictoma

Kobo is still a good choise, but the last post has scared me, because the member has said : I realized it was way overpriced, had the slowest page turns I'd ever seen, had a TERRIBLE battery life, and finally started freezing when it chose to.

I think the point that Wet Coast made about early adopters applies here. When Ko1 came out, it was pretty buggy and Kobo CS seemed overwhelmed. Recent firmware has helped to iron out the bugs, but it seems some people's Ko1s are still misbehaving. For what it's worth, my Ko1 has none of those problems except for slow page turns, something that can't be helped due to hardware limitations. The new Ko2 has better hardware, and as a result, faster page turns.

I personally think that the Ko1 was great for its time -- when it came out, there were few other decent readers at such a price. Then the Kindle 3, with its low low price and its improved hardware came out, and suddenly the Ko1 looked overpriced and outdated. Not its fault, but I can understand why Kobo felt the need to release the Ko2 so suddenly after the first.

[JPenguin]

Originally Posted by erictoma

.....
Kobo is still a good choise, but the last post has scared me, because the member has said : I realized it was way overpriced, had the slowest page turns I'd ever seen, had a TERRIBLE battery life, and finally started freezing when it chose to.

Well to address those specific points:
1. Overpriced? No, it isn't overpriced but it also isn't necessarily the best value. I believe the Kindle 3 WiFi will work out a fraction cheaper and it has a better screen and more established ecosystem (but it is more restricted).
2. Slowest page turns? This could be true, I definitely would like faster page turns on my Kobo but it isn't a deal breaker for me.
3. Terrible Battery Life? The battery life on my Kobo is fine, I can go well over a week with 1 - 2 hours of reading per day. I don't really know how long my Kobo lasts on a charge, it lasts long enough that I don't remember when I last charged it. I know not everyone experiences this, I suspect this is a quality control issue.
4. Started Freezing? Again I don't believe this is a wide spread issue.

I find the quality control issues a bit more worrying to be honest, there are a lot of people struggling with short battery life even after several replacements. Now there are 2 Kobo's in my house and neither have poor battery life so perhaps this is a bit overblown.

I do love my Kobo, I prefer it's menu system over the Sony Readers (although I would like collections, etc), I prefer the lower price than the Sony Readers, I prefer the OPEN ecosystem of the Kobo with ePub over the Kindle.

The negatives of the Kobo from my experiences:
- slow page turns
- updates are slower than promised (I understand their difficulties but isn't really acceptable that their "coming soon" promises get stretched to over 7 months (newspapers for original devices))
- buggy updates (again this is similar to the above, I can put up with the issues but it is still a negative)
- desktop sync software is buggy
- [Edit] slow start-up

We've had several people trolling and we do also have some very ardent Kobo supporters. We've also had some people that were trolling but now contribute and we've also had several supporters who have moved on to new readers.

[HarleyB]

Originally Posted by erictoma

Kobo is still a good choise, but the last post has scared me, because the member has said : I realized it was way overpriced, had the slowest page turns I'd ever seen, had a TERRIBLE battery life, and finally started freezing when it chose to.

It's important to remember that this was ONE PERSON'S experience with their Kobo. While their experience was not pleasant many others have not had the same problems.

When I purchased my Kobo back in May it was the only ereader I could find for sale in Australia where I could try it first - it was also the CHEAPEST I could find available for me to buy. After I purchased it other readers became available and the prices dropped. That happens with any tech product.
I had battery problems and exchanged my first reader when it was about 3 weeks old. The replacement was much better and the delay in exchanging it was simply a matter of waiting for more stock to become available. Borders (in Australia) were very helpful with my battery problems - no complaints from me there.
While I agree the page turns are a bit slow it is the 40 to 50 second start up time that I find the most frustrating but it is what it is.
My Kobo has never frozen in the 6 months of loading and reading books. I have about 80 books on my Kobo and so far I have read about 60 of them.

I think the Kobo is a great little device and I think that many people agree with me. However it is important to find the ereader that will make you happy. If it is not going to suit your requirements then it doesn't matter what I think of it!

[Pookeysgirl]

I've had my Kobo since May 1st (pre-ordered in April). I took my first one back because it wouldn't turn on and got a replacement right away at Chapters. Since then I've had very few issues, nothing I couldn't handle with some support from the wonderful MR members . Personally the slow page turns don't bother me, I just click the next page button as I'm reading the last line. I'm more bothered by the slow startup, but I'm impatient sometimes . As far as the battery is concerned, I have no issues there. I can go almost 3 weeks at a time in between charges and I use it for at least 2-3 hours a day. Sometimes more. See the sticky above regarding how many page turns some people are getting.

[judyz]

Wow. Holy responses!

Glad to see I am not alone.

To answer the question I was asked what I like most about the Kobo...

Simplicity is probably the biggest. I can download any .epub and drag and drop it onto the drive in Windows Explorer and boom there it is. With so many free books out there my Kobo has paid for itself already. I am also a big fan of the soft touch quilted back.

The experiences of early adopters with the first Kobo sound pretty awful. Overpromising and under delivering is never a good strategy.

I think another common theme with new gadgets is that the early adopters get the worst of it. In 2 months when the new iPad with cameras and all the things the current iPad does not have comes out there will be a lot of people who just got one for Christmas who will be upset. I am quite sure that by this time next year there will be colour e-ink readers and my fancy new Kobo wifi will not look quite so fancy. For me that was one of the attractions to getting on the ereader bandwagon by spending as little as I could since I knew it was quite possible that next years model will be better, faster and cheaper. If I spent $300 instead of $150 I might have had a harder time talking myself into an upgrade eventually.

[durruti]

Originally Posted by Jafo

I've never had any problems with my Kobo. I like it mostly because of the fact that it doesn't have a lot of features. I want to read a book on it. That's it. No distractions. And it's great for that. I don't even want the wifi. I actually don't see the point of that but that's just me. And the weird part? I'm a computer geek and a gadget junkie. But not when I'm reading a book :-) . I liked it so much, I got one for my wife too.

I did a lot of reading on here and elsewhere, for a few months, actually before I finally got a Kobo Wifi - not because I wanted wifi, but because the original (then down to $99) had finally sold out. I chose it for the same reason -- I can read books and documents on it - period. I was apalled when I saw how pdf's looked on it - I read a lot of pdf's - but when I discovered how easily Calibre converts pdf to epub, all was well. I was thinking of buying something else for my wife, just for variety, but after her borrowing mine a few times, I think I'll get a second Kobo.
Someone on here quoted a start-up time of 50 seconds, I think? From powered off to being able to use the controls, I don't think I've ever waited more than 5 seconds. Maybe this was a version one issue? And as for supposedly slow page turns -- I don't know: if I think about flipping a page on a real book - I mean, it just isn't an issue for me.

signed: satisfied Kobo customer

[tpw]

Originally Posted by durruti

Someone on here quoted a start-up time of 50 seconds, I think? From powered off to being able to use the controls, I don't think I've ever waited more than 5 seconds.

Maybe you got a mythical Kobo with a core i7 processor? Or more likely you are not actually powered off, just returning from sleep mode. I've never heard of a kobo booting up from power off in 5 seconds. There'd be a lot less grumbling on these forums if they did

[stodge]

I almost bought a Kobo. For me the positives:

- cheap
- epub support
- Canadian
- like the Kobo environment (multiple devices)

Negatives:

- questionable build quality, especially the d-pad
- screen not as good as Kindle/Sony
- performance

I think given how new the Kobo is, one or two more hardware and software revisions should make a huge difference. Especially now the Kobo website (at least kobobooks.com) is steadily maturing.

[durruti]

Originally Posted by tpw

Maybe you got a mythical Kobo with a core i7 processor? Or more likely you are not actually powered off, just returning from sleep mode. I've never heard of a kobo booting up from power off in 5 seconds. There'd be a lot less grumbling on these forums if they did

You're right -- I did a hurried edit of a too-long post, and really screwed up (I need to proofread my posts) The part about 5 second waits was about sleep mode. The part that got snipped was "about 30 seconds" from powered off. My point was supposed to be: about 30 seconds compared to "over 50 seconds" is actually a lot, and sounded to me like a difference between the 1st and second generations. But anyway, my Kobo is in sleep mode a lot more often than powered off, and I don't see any problem with battery discharge in sleep mode.
Having never used a 1st gen Kobo, I can't say, but it sounds like a lot of improvements were made. Which, again, is pretty common in electronics between 1srt and 2nd gen.

[MrsJoseph]

I've only had my Kobo for about a week or so, but so far I love it. I took a very long time in deciding what ereader I wanted to own. I took the time to review formats, multiple devices, ability to borrow books from my public library, and price points. I made my decision carefully - and the only device I *might* have gotten instead of my Kobo is the Sony Daily Edition (but it was $300! too much for me).

The only things I wish my Kobo had are:
auto-connect to wi-fi
ability to arrange books by folders/multiple shelves (take your pick)
Bookmarks & annotations (i'm leading a book club discussion soon...gotta take notes)

other than that, I'm good :-)

[sabredog]

Collections, goto and bookmarking are my wants as well.

[ModReader]

Goto and bookmarking.

Otherwise love it.

[vatsuko]

i've bought my kobo about 3 -4 month ago (i think )

and yeah aside from

the long page flip that took me forever to get to where i want..

i really love my kobo


hey i think it's the most stylish simplistic reader there is.


i saw my friend's kindle 3 yesterday and was astound by its much faster page flip... and i was struck with envy ......

if only kobo would release a new reader with faster page flip, better screen and i can trade my old kobo with it ( with like only 5$ price ), it would be a heavenly

(sorry bout my language , i'm not a native english user)

[sabredog]

The Kobo 2 has faster page turns and a much better, though non Pearl (Kindle 3 and Sony are Pearl e-ink screens) screen.

So the improvements you want are already available.

[zoran]

Originally Posted by vatsuko

i saw my friend's kindle 3 yesterday and was astound by its much faster page flip... and i was struck with envy ......

Time goes by. Kobo was the most cheap and simple device once.
Just wait few months and you will envy for something else.

if only kobo would release a new reader with faster page flip, better screen and i can trade my old kobo with it ( with like only 5$ price ), it would be a heavenly

Come on! There is a chance in some future to get reader for free
and sign a contract for books. I assume it is better to invest a sum
of green paper (or another color) and choose what you want to buy
and when you want to buy. It is not a million. Just recall how much
you spend for <insert> or <insert>. Pleasure of your life for free?
Rarely. Almost never.