Why I decided to go back to my Oasis, and sell my Libra H2O.

[Pjama]

I originally purchased my Libra last March, after I finally became fed up enough with amazon not providing covers as screen savers to move to Kobo. I remember thinking about whether I should buy a new cover for my Oasis (to help me love it more ), or jump ship altogether.

I thought about the things l loved about Kobo the last time I had one (a Kobo Aura One, back in 2017).
These things were:
The progress bar along the bottom. Ever since amazon removed this, I had missed it. So when I found out Kobo had included this in their software I was very tempted.
The better font handling – somehow, the page just looks better wrt formatting and layout. I liked to appearance of having the chapter and book title at the top and bottom of the screen, making it (to my eyes), more book like. Please don’t criticize me for wanting my reader page to resemble a book. That’s what I want, I appreciate we are all different.
I also wanted to be able to play some basic games, something I really missed from the older kindles, and that amazon had, again, taken away.
When I got my Libra, I was very impressed, I read voraciously on it, played the games (quite a lot at first, dwindling to now, where I do not play them at all), I also enjoyed having the reading stats back, although, they are somewhat glitchy, as became clear over time.

I am an enthusiastic highlighter, and over the course of the past year, have become a little frustrated with this function on the Libra – maybe this is just me, but, recently, when I have been highlighting, the reader frequently needs to be moved forward a page, then back to the page I am trying to highlight, otherwise the highlight is invisible. Another issue I had was if the highlight was visible on the first attempt (without going page forward and back), the remainder of the onscreen text would be patchy and faded, meaning I would always have to go forward and back at least once whatever happened.

The page display is beautiful, and the layout is wonderful, I love it as a reader, but I cannot justify having two premium readers. I am getting back into reading in other languages again, and the kindle excels here, with having the built-in vocabulary flash cards, and the translation function.

I also got four months free kindle unlimited with my husband’s new Christmas kindle.

These are just some of my reasons, to start with. I always felt guilty having the two readers with basically the same specs, I thought the feeling would go away, but it didn’t.

I find my Oasis screen lighting is extremely even, and the text looks perfect too, so have been reading on it more and more recently, to the point where my Libra H2O is neglected.

I didn’t know where to put this post, but thought it might help someone trying to decide. Both readers are wonderful, anyway, and if I was looking now, I’d be very tempted by the Libra 2.

[Sirtel]

Hmm... I've never felt guilty about having several ereaders, mostly with the same specs. Sounds very strange to me. I have several laptops as well, but only one TV and no car.

I also never feel I have to justify my wishes to anyone, even to myself. That's something I've often read about people doing and it also feels very strange to me.

Of course I'm basically a lone wolf and avoid any team playing like a plague. Possibly that's the reason. I'm not in the habit of explaining to others why I want what I want.

[Pjama]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Hmm... I've never felt guilty about having several ereaders, mostly with the same specs. Sounds very strange to me. I have several laptops as well, but only one TV and no car.

I also never feel I have to justify my wishes to anyone, even to myself. That's something I've often read about people doing and it also feels very strange to me.

Of course I'm basically a lone wolf and avoid any team playing like a plague. Possibly that's the reason. I'm not in the habit of explaining to others why I want what I want.

Ha, ha, we are obviously complete opposites.

I am constantly justifying things to myself and others, well, not 'things' as such, just this particular ereader purchase. I have been wrestling with my conscience over this for almost a year now.

I don’t feel any such guilt over my purchase of a white kindle basic, I suppose because it is 'inferior' to my Oasis so I can easily justify it as a back up.

(I am also always constantly comparing things, so when I’m reading on one device, I’m thinking wistfully about the other device - and ecosystem/reading environment, and vice versa. Therefore one has to go, then maybe I can find some peace.)

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Pjama

(I am also always constantly comparing things, so when I’m reading on one device, I’m thinking wistfully about the other device - and ecosystem/reading environment, and vice versa. Therefore one has to go, then maybe I can find some peace.)

Ah, yes, now that's familiar. That's one of the reasons I decided to sell my Nook - it just doesn't measure up to others software-wise. (I know some here love Nooks, but I've always felt quite frustrated with mine). Kindles and Kobos are close enough not to make me feel so, especially as you can tweak many things with Calibre.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Pjama

I am an enthusiastic highlighter, and over the course of the past year, have become a little frustrated with this function on the Libra – maybe this is just me, but, recently, when I have been highlighting, the reader frequently needs to be moved forward a page, then back to the page I am trying to highlight, otherwise the highlight is invisible. Another issue I had was if the highlight was visible on the first attempt (without going page forward and back), the remainder of the onscreen text would be patchy and faded, meaning I would always have to go forward and back at least once whatever happened.

For the record, most of that is probably ghosting left behind because Kobo doesn't do a full refresh of the screen after any annotation activity. Tapping the screen twice (once to bring up the menu, once to dismiss it) is the simplest way to clear it. From memory, Kobo have done the full refresh after annotations are made at some time, and there were complaints about that being done.

[Pjama]

Originally Posted by davidfor

For the record, most of that is probably ghosting left behind because Kobo doesn't do a full refresh of the screen after any annotation activity. Tapping the screen twice (once to bring up the menu, once to dismiss it) is the simplest way to clear it. From memory, Kobo have done the full refresh after annotations are made at some time, and there were complaints about that being done.

Thanks for this info.

[Pjama]

Kobo does so many things better, though. For instance, the cover as screen ‘saver': on the kindle oasis this is usually upside down for me - I am left-handed. Seems somewhat amateurish/lazy on amazon's side. On the Libra, it always displays correctly, no matter which way up I leave it. EDIT: I checked this again, and it works perfectly! But I noticed that the rotation function is a little sluggish, maybe it was something to do with that? Anyway, this was my mistake.

The page numbers are displayed (optionally) in the correct place (for me, anyway), in the middle bottom. The kindle page numbers are skewed off to the left, which I personally don't like, although, now I think of it, I suppose many books actually are like this.
There are so many things that are much much better on Kobo, such as automatic sorting by author, margin options, font options, etc.

In an ideal world, my ereader would marry the best functions of both kobo and kindle.

In this world, however, I am compromising on these nice to haves to use the kindle. I have been reading a book in Spanish, and it has been bliss using the vocabulary flash cards along with the translation function. It’s really impressive, and super helpful when I get stuck at a tough passage.

Which reminds me - battery life - another compromise I am making, given that the Libra H2O's battery life is excellent, and the Oasis's is poor. I have finally managed to accept that this reader will always need to be charged every other day - however, I have managed to get three days out of it lately, maybe due to a firmware update?

And, talking of the Nook, I have been tempted by that in the past, particularly as I have a B and N practically on my doorstep, but reading about all the side loading issues on here, as well as having NO FONT OPTIONS have made this a big fat no for me. So at least that was an easy decision to make.

I definitely see myself having a Kobo in future, and if the Libra 2 had had a faster processor, I might have bought it. I was very tempted by the improved screen.

ETA: I thought of something else - I love the pinch to change font size on the kindle, and the swipe/slide to adjust brightness on the Kobo. I don’t love going into the menu to change brightness and warmth on the kindle and font size on the kobo. I am constantly adjusting the light and warmth on my readers.

Please, ereader companies, please make a reader that has both pinch to change font size AND swipe/slide to change brightness, plus add the KO Reader option to adjust warmth by swiping/sliding the right hand side of the screen.

OK, that has reminded me of another reason I wanted to stick to my Oasis - I can read it with no front light on at all during the day. The background color is a much much lighter gray than the Libra. This is probably how I have managed to get the battery lasting a little longer, not (just) a firmware update.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Pjama

Spoiler:

Kobo does so many things better, though. For instance, the cover as screen ‘saver': on the kindle oasis this is usually upside down for me - I am left-handed. Seems somewhat amateurish/lazy on amazon's side. On the Libra, it always displays correctly, no matter which way up I leave it.

The page numbers are displayed (optionally) in the correct place (for me, anyway), in the middle bottom. The kindle page numbers are skewed off to the left, which I personally don't like, although, now I think of it, I suppose many books actually are like this.
There are so many things that are much much better on Kobo, such as automatic sorting by author, margin options, font options, etc.

In an ideal world, my ereader would marry the best functions of both kobo and kindle.

In this world, however, I am compromising on these nice to haves to use the kindle. I have been reading a book in Spanish, and it has been bliss using the vocabulary flash cards along with the translation function. It’s really impressive, and super helpful when I get stuck at a tough passage.

Which reminds me - battery life - another compromise I am making, given that the Libra H2O's battery life is excellent, and the Oasis's is poor. I have finally managed to accept that this reader will always need to be charged every other day - however, I have managed to get three days out of it lately, maybe due to a firmware update?

And, talking of the Nook, I have been tempted by that in the past, particularly as I have a B and N practically on my doorstep, but reading about all the side loading issues on here, as well as having NO FONT OPTIONS have made this a big fat no for me. So at least that was an easy decision to make.

I definitely see myself having a Kobo in future, and if the Libra 2 had had a faster processor, I might have bought it. I was very tempted by the improved screen.

ETA: I thought of something else - I love the pinch to change font size on the kindle, and the swipe/slide to adjust brightness on the Kobo. I don’t love going into the menu to change brightness and warmth on the kindle and font size on the kobo. I am constantly adjusting the light and warmth on my readers.

Please, ereader companies, please make a reader that has both pinch to change font size AND swipe/slide to change brightness, plus add the KO Reader option to adjust warmth by swiping/sliding the right hand side of the screen.

OK, that has reminded me of another reason I wanted to stick to my Oasis - I can read it with no front light on at all during the day. The background color is a much much lighter gray than the Libra. This is probably how I have managed to get the battery lasting a little longer, not (just) a firmware update.

My Oasis lasts a couple of weeks, but then I don't usually read for several hours every day. And my wifi is always off, the frontlight is always on.

[Pjama]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

My Oasis lasts a couple of weeks, but then I don't usually read for several hours every day. And my wifi is always off, the frontlight is always on.

My Oasis lasts forever, providing I don’t actually use it.

[Pjama]

Might need to change the title of this thread as I have just bought a Libra 2 which arrives on Thursday.

I have been reading about how great the screen is and want in. I also ordered the lavender cover. Hoping it is close enough in appearance to my Libra H2O that my family doesn’t notice. I really loved reading on my Libra H2O after going back to it after a week reading only on the Oasis, but was getting obsessive about the slightly uneven lighting. Hopefully this will be the one for me.

ETA: So, I think my optimum reader will be Libra 2 for most books, with Oasis 3 for newspapers (I subscribe to the Washington Post), Prime Reading, and Kindle Unlimited when I have this (currently on a 4 month free trial). The End. I hope.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Pjama

My Oasis lasts forever, providing I don’t actually use it.

Because you cannot turn off your Oasis, it won't last "forever". It will slowly drain and eventually need recharging. Your Kobo can be turned off and while you may need to recharge it someday, it will last very much longer before that time comes. This is yet another advantage for Kobo.

I've read with many Readers with different eInk scree types and resolutions without a front light. I don't see why you'd need to always have the front light on with your H2O Do you keep the light in your place set that low?

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Because you cannot turn off your Oasis, it won't last "forever". It will slowly drain and eventually need recharging. Your Kobo can be turned off and while you may need to recharge it someday, it will last very much longer before that time comes. This is yet another advantage for Kobo.

I've read with many Readers with different eInk scree types and resolutions without a front light. I don't see why you'd need to always have the front light on with your H2O Do you keep the light in your place set that low?

The Oasis hibernates. It's practically the same as turning it off. I charge my hibernating Oasis once every 4-5 months, and the battery has been far from empty when I charge it.

As to the always using the frontlight, I too have it always on, because I don't like unlit Carta screens. They look ugly to me, yellowish gray. I want my screen to be more white than that. Plus, I do have all my room lighting set quite low, as I cannot stand bright light.

[salamanderjuice]

Originally Posted by Pjama

Please, ereader companies, please make a reader that has both pinch to change font size AND swipe/slide to change brightness, plus add the KO Reader option to adjust warmth by swiping/sliding the right hand side of the screen.

You can do exactly that on Boox devices already. Not every Android app supports pinch to zoom to change the text size but the built in reader NeoReader does. It also allows sliding to change brightness and you can have the left side control the "cold" light and the right side control the "warm" light. You can also customize which side you want to do what! Or have it do something else like control the volume.

Boox devices are most flexible, a little harder to use but they can do so much more.

[kyrilson]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Because you cannot turn off your Oasis, it won't last "forever". It will slowly drain and eventually need recharging. Your Kobo can be turned off and while you may need to recharge it someday, it will last very much longer before that time comes. This is yet another advantage for Kobo.

I've read with many Readers with different eInk scree types and resolutions without a front light. I don't see why you'd need to always have the front light on with your H2O Do you keep the light in your place set that low?

Nope. I have both Kindles and Kobos. When in standby mode, the Kindles last much longer than the Kobos, every single device I have, every single time. I think it either has something to do with the sleep/hibernation mode in the software, or the batteries that are used by the companies. Not sure which.

[Dave_the_rave]

I am on the same boat. I can not even have multiple pairs of shoe of one kind i feel somehow wasted.

Coming to this part I am having some challenges with the Kindle ebook transfers and formattings I am considering switch from Kindle oasis to Kobo