New Kobo coming? Which?

[Sirtel]

The Sage can't really take very high levels of frontlight, it will drain quickly. That was shown by some reviewers when the Sage was first released. With the frontlight at 100% the battery was dead in an hour, and that with a brand-new device.

That's why I don't use my Sage in daylight. At night, in a dimly lit room, with frontlight at a low level, it will last several days, with 2-3 hours of reading per day.

[Quoth]

I don't use my Sage front light at all unless there is a power cut or I'm visiting somewhere dim (very rare). Same was/is true on all my other readers with the option (PW3, Oasis 2, Libra, Libra 2, Elipsa). If there is enough light to read an old paperback book, then the eink is fine.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Quoth

I don't use my Sage front light at all unless there is a power cut or I'm visiting somewhere dim (very rare). Same was/is true on all my other readers with the option (PW3, Oasis 2, Libra, Libra 2, Elipsa). If there is enough light to read an old paperback book, then the eink is fine.

I can't stand a grey screen. It must be white or whitish. So when reading in daylight (indoors and not in full sunlight), I crank the frontlight up. Mostly I read at night in a dimly lit room, though. Then a low level of frontlight is sufficient.

Edit: yeah, I hated old yellow paperbacks too.

[John F]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

I can't stand a grey screen. It must be white or whitish. So when reading in daylight (indoors and not in full sunlight), I crank the frontlight up. Mostly I read at night in a dimly lit room, though. Then a low level of frontlight is sufficient.

Edit: yeah, I hated old yellow paperbacks too.

I always have the front light on. Ambient room light just isn't that pleasing to my eye. 30% front light with some ambient light, and 10% at night with dark mode (little ambient light). I just charged my Kobo Clara 2E and it was down to 33% after 19 days, reading 2-4 hours a day typically.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by John F

I always have the front light on. Ambient room light just isn't that pleasing to my eye. 30% front light with some ambient light, and 10% at night with dark mode (little ambient light). I just charged my Kobo Clara 2E and it was down to 33% after 19 days, reading 2-4 hours a day typically.

That's some really good battery life there.

As a 6" device without buttons is not something I want to read on, I'm willing to put up with worse battery life than that. Still, there's no doubt Kobo messed up with the Sage; its battery could have been better without increasing the overall weight. It's really badly optimized IMO.

[John F]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

That's some really good battery life there.

As a 6" device without buttons is not something I want to read on, I'm willing to put up with worse battery life than that. Still, there's no doubt Kobo messed up with the Sage; its battery could have been better without increasing the overall weight. It's really badly optimized IMO.

So far, buttons on ereaders don't really matter to me. Whenever I try them, they seem hard to press, in the wrong place, ... I very seldom used them on my Forma, Nook, ...

[Barty]

Thoughts on why the Sage battery is so bad?

[enuddleyarbl]

Originally Posted by Barty

Thoughts on why the Sage battery is so bad?

Because of MBAs. Someone decided someplace that they could save a penny or two.

Sorry, my cynicism is breaking out. It's just that I see this happening over and over again. Some small cost saving measure with only "minor" negatives. But, then they repeat the process continuously until we're left with a product that's no good at what it's designed for (not saying that's yet the case with the Sage).

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Barty

Thoughts on why the Sage battery is so bad?

I've read it has something to do with the processor, but I'm no techie and most of it was pretty incomprehensible to me.

[Uncle Robin]

What's the usual time between a first FCC heads up and a release announcement?

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Barty

Thoughts on why the Sage battery is so bad?

Very likely that the Sage has a 1.8GHz quad-core processor compared to the 1GHz single core processor used by Kobo's previous ereaders but did not get a larger battery to support that hardware. The Sage has the same 1,200mAH battery used by the Forma. By comparison, the Elipsa dropped back to a dual-core processor for the 2E release but kept a 2,400mAH battery. The Libra 2 has a single core processor and a 1,500mAH battery.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

I've read it has something to do with the processor, but I'm no techie and most of it was pretty incomprehensible to me.

Kobo could have put in a much stronger battery. That would have solved the problem. Instead in order to save money, Kobo put in a stupidly weak battery.

[rantanplan]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Kobo could have put in a much stronger battery. That would have solved the problem. Instead in order to save money, Kobo put in a stupidly weak battery.

And then Tolino were dumb enough to order the same chipset, put it in a Libra 2 shell, rebranded it to "Tolino Vision 6", put their android software on it, and thought it was a great idea.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Kobo could have put in a much stronger battery. That would have solved the problem. Instead in order to save money, Kobo put in a stupidly weak battery.

They mysteriously wanted to sell "power covers".

[Uncle Robin]

All of the above is why I'd love it if this new device, whenever it comes, turned out to be a new 8-inch with a better battery. Nice and simple.