UPDATE: I'm increasing my rating from 4 to 5 stars after using for months. With software updates, the device has been very stable and a pure joy to read on.
ORIGINAL REVIEW:
Overall, I think the Libra 2 is a fantastic ebook e-reader, and I recommend it. There are a few things that knock off 1 star from a perfect rating, though.
Hardware - The good things:
- The screen is amazing. The text is very crisp and dark and the front light is very even (at least on my unit).
- The warm light is very pleasing for evening/night reading and works very well. (The evenness of the lighting was ever-so-slightly not perfect with the addition of the highest setting of warm light, but not enough to be distracting).
- The rounded corners of the grip side make holding it in one hand fairly comfortable.
- The weight of the device is light enough that it can be held one-handed (without a case) in comfort for a while.
- The battery provided me 20 hours of reading using very generous front-lighting (probably over 70% most times) (with Wi-Fi turned off). The battery reached 10% at that point and popped up a low battery message. I'm not sure how this compares to other e-readers since manufacturers like to advertise in weeks instead of hours, but using their convention of 30 minutes per day, this would be about 6 weeks of reading between charges.
- It's available in white, which is what I got, because it is very good at concealing fingerprints.
- The power button's location is well placed. It never gets accidentally pressed and is easy to feel for without looking, and it has a definite click to know that it's been pressed.
- The USB-C port is obviously nice to have (vs. micro USB). (Note: The included cable is a USB Type-A to USB Type-C cable, and no charger is included. So you will still need a charging brick with a Type-A port to use with this, and will need a Type-A port (or adapter) on your computer if you connect it to one.)
Hardware - The not-so-good things:
- The plastic case has a cheap feeling to the touch. It is not as nice as the more rubbery touch of the Kindle Paperwhite, for example. My unit even makes a slight creaking noise when squeezed gently near the corners. The embedded texture on the back helps make it feel a bit less cheap and does help to provide more grip when using without a case, but it still isn't "pleasurable" to the touch. It's just plastic. if you use a case while holding it, this won't be an issue.
- The page turn buttons, whether by design or not, have an uneven pressure to them. If pressed toward the inside, it requires much more force to get it to click. If pressed toward the outside, only a light force is required.
- When turning the front light completely off, the screen background is grayer (less white, less contrast) than other e-readers I've seen (e.g. Kindle Paperwhite, Kindle Oasis). (But with almost any amount of front light, the contrast is outstanding.)
Hardware - One other thing:
- The screen is slightly recessed. I personally prefer this to flush-screen e-readers. It doesn't have as "premium" a look, but it makes it very obvious to feel if the touchscreen is being contacted or not and prevent accidental touches.
Software - The good things (common to all Kobo e-readers):
- The interface is very well organized, clean, and simple to use.
- The front light brightness can be adjusted with just a simple swipe up or down along the left edge of the screen, without first dropping down any menu and then having to close that menu.
- The header can optionally show remaining pages in the chapter, which I find to be more useful than an estimate of how much more time is left, which can easily be miscalculated.
- A subtle book progress bar is optionally displayed along the bottom of the screen. I really like this and prefer it to seeing a percentage. It provides a similar feeling to reading a physical book, where you can just tell how far you are in it, but without having to take any more screen space than necessary.
- Kobo's concept of "pages": I really like the way Kobo software determines how many "pages" are in a book. It readjusts this number automatically based on the font size, margin settings, etc., so when it displays the number of pages left in a chapter, for example, you know that there are exactly that many page turns left for the settings you have selected for that book. I find this to be much more useful than Kindle's way of showing pages, which is to correspond to the published physical book when possible.
- Built-in Overdrive. It's nice to be able to check out and return books from the library right from the device.
- Built in Pocket App support. I have not used this feature, but it's nice to know I can read supported web articles on the Kobo if I want.
- epub format support: I've found that some of the classic literature is available in epub (but not Kindle) format, so I can borrow from the library without having to use any conversion software as I would on a Kindle.
- Installing additional fonts is simple. Just connect to a computer, create a "fonts" folder, and drag the fonts into it.
Software - The not-so-good things:
- There are still some bugs (which will hopefully be fixed). My initial experience was not great. But all the bugs I found and list here were encountered during setup and configuration. I have not had any issue at all during reading sessions, which is what is most important.
- Upon first powering up and connecting to Wi-Fi, after the device did an immediate software update and appeared to be finished with it, it became EXTREMELY laggy. It would take maybe 30 seconds to respond to actions. Rebooting resolved it.
- The device has rebooted spontaneously while searching the Overdrive catalog and locked up completely a couple times (once while in sleep mode and once while changing a setting).
- After connecting to Wi-Fi successfully, the device prompted me again for the password the next time I connected and again a third time. Only after that did it finally save the connection settings as it should.
- When an Overdrive library book is returned, Kobos automatically download a "preview" copy from their store as a placeholder (supposedly to store annotations, bookmarks, etc, but also I'm sure as a convenient way to purchase the book). That's a bit annoying, and these can easily be removed after being downloaded, but one time it downloaded preview copies alongside their corresponding three library books I had checked out (that I had NOT returned and were NOT expired) and it erased all my progress in them.
I have not tested any of the audiobook or bluetooth features.
For me, I like the device so much that the issues I listed are easily acceptable. The bottom line is that it is very enjoyable to read on the Kobo Libra 2.
| 商品尺寸 | 17.8 x 19.4 x 3 cm; 0.37 克 |
|---|---|
| 产品颜色 | 黑色 |
| 包装清单 | 电子阅读器、适配器 |
| 制造商 | Kobo |
| 型号 | N418-KU-BK-K-EP |
| 商品重量 | 0.37 g |
