Aura Kobo Aura ONE issues

[Grawl]

I have two slightly annoying issues with the new Kobo Aura ONE:

- The battery drains way faster than my previous devices (Sony, Kobo Touch). I'd say it can go as fast as 50% a day with a few hours of reading. Not a big issue since I can charge it, but it's not what I'm used to.
- When I finish a book it acknowledges it, because it moves the book to a different shelve. However, in the "reading life"/statics screen, it always stays at "0 books finished".

Are there solutions to these issues?

[Willa]

Originally Posted by Grawl

I have two slightly annoying issues with the new Kobo Aura ONE:

- The battery drains way faster than my previous devices (Sony, Kobo Touch). I'd say it can go as fast as 50% a day with a few hours of reading. Not a big issue since I can charge it, but it's not what I'm used to.
- When I finish a book it acknowledges it, because it moves the book to a different shelve. However, in the "reading life"/statics screen, it always stays at "0 books finished".

Are there solutions to these issues?

These are known issues. Kobo have/are in the process of releasing an update 4.1.7729 to correct these. You can download the update via the desktop app (dependent on the country you are in and whether Kobo has pushed it to you yet) or you can choose to sideload it from here see post 1, the download link is there. Note Kobo does not support sideloading updates.

Instructions on how to install:

- Plug your ONE into your computer and mount it
- Unzip the firmware zip file
- You will see three items: 1. the KoboRoot.tgz file, 2. manifest.md5sum file and 3. the "update" folder.
- Copy all three items to the .kobo folder on your ONE
- Eject the ONE, and then unplug it

The update will happen automatically.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Grawl

I have two slightly annoying issues with the new Kobo Aura ONE:

- The battery drains way faster than my previous devices (Sony, Kobo Touch). I'd say it can go as fast as 50% a day with a few hours of reading. Not a big issue since I can charge it, but it's not what I'm used to.
- When I finish a book it acknowledges it, because it moves the book to a different shelve. However, in the "reading life"/statics screen, it always stays at "0 books finished".

Are there solutions to these issues?

One note about Willa's reply. The 4.1.7729 firmware update has helped with quite a few people's complaint about rapid battery drainage but some people are still reporting issues. The reading stats bug is almost fixed but at times, I had to refresh the home screen to get the updated books/hours to show on the tile.

[Dark-marmotte]

in regards to the stats, for me, the update has repair the problem

[Zaroff]

Alright, I have to be the devil's advocate again.

Firmware 4.1.7729 solves NOTHING. As far as battery is concerned.

So, I've posted in other threads about the problems I was having with this thing, pre and post firmware update.
So I managed to get a replacement unit, finally, from where I bought it from. Which means that currently, I have both on hand.

First, the screens couldn't look more different if they tried. Kobo QC? Forget about it. Screens are all over the place. If anyone doubts that, I can post pics within a minute.

Second, I set up the new device exactly following the recommendations, to the letter, of another poster (I forgot the name, mea culpa) suggesting never to turn on wifi in the first place, which I didn't. Only, what do you know, at the end of the setup process through the PC application, at first reboot, wifi is enabled by default. So, so much for that, but thanks.

And, finally, guess what, after a half day use of the new unit, the dreaded 10% drop appears. This is with 4.1.7729.

Kobo Aura One isn't ready for prime time, and should never have been released in the sorry state it's in. Period.

I strongly discourage anyone from investing in this thing until Kobo sort their crap out.

[Arbait]

No problem to connect KA1 firmware 7729 by USB to the KOBE desktop / file explorer of my PC win 10 pro 1607 / 64 BUT as soon that i connect the ereader with Calibre (portable 2.70) i get a BSOD.

[dnastase]

Originally Posted by Arbait

No problem to connect KA1 firmware 7729 by USB to the KOBE desktop / file explorer of my PC win 10 pro 1607 / 64 BUT as soon that i connect the ereader with Calibre (portable 2.70) i get a BSOD.

Lol, you cannot fault but Windows for that
It should never be possible for an application to kill the operating system.
And KA1 as a device is even more remote than that from the OS ...

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Zaroff

And, finally, guess what, after a half day use of the new unit, the dreaded 10% drop appears. This is with 4.1.7729.

Kobo Aura One isn't ready for prime time, and should never have been released in the sorry state it's in. Period.

I strongly discourage anyone from investing in this thing until Kobo sort their crap out.

Out of curiosity, how many hours of reading was done during that half day? Given the battery life numbers, a drop of ~6% per hour read would not be unexpected given the average battery life of one month is predicated on reading 30 minutes per day (for that mythical average reader and average reading speed). Personally, I find the battery life is dependent on several factors including font size -- most of the power seems to be used while refreshing the screen. While you are reading the screen, very little power is used so the more text on the screen, the fewer page turns and the less power used to read a book. That by the way is why I find the tests where someone flips pages as fast as they can to be a bit risible.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Zaroff

Alright, I have to be the devil's advocate again.

The pedant in my has to point out that you are not playing Devil's Advocate.

Firmware 4.1.7729 solves NOTHING. As far as battery is concerned.

So, I've posted in other threads about the problems I was having with this thing, pre and post firmware update.
So I managed to get a replacement unit, finally, from where I bought it from. Which means that currently, I have both on hand.

First, the screens couldn't look more different if they tried. Kobo QC? Forget about it. Screens are all over the place. If anyone doubts that, I can post pics within a minute.

Second, I set up the new device exactly following the recommendations, to the letter, of another poster (I forgot the name, mea culpa) suggesting never to turn on wifi in the first place, which I didn't. Only, what do you know, at the end of the setup process through the PC application, at first reboot, wifi is enabled by default. So, so much for that, but thanks.

That is expected. At no time during the setup via the desktop application to you get an opportunity to turn WiFi off. The original question is asking how do you want to do the setup, not if you want to ever use WiFi.

And, finally, guess what, after a half day use of the new unit, the dreaded 10% drop appears. This is with 4.1.7729.

I don't remember if you have stated what you mean by "the dreaded 10% drop". If I read that statement, I would think that you had checked the battery level and saw a value, then within a couple of minutes checked it again and saw a value 10% lower. If that was over a longer time, even an hour, then a 10% drop isn't actually that bad. And if you are actually using the device constantly for half a day, then 10% battery drop is not much. The figures Kobo quote are 1 month of 30 minutes reading per day. That means roughly 15 hours of reading. And that is roughly 6% per hour of reading. If "half a day" is six hours, then 10% is a lot less than expected. And if I take "half a day" as 12 hours (after all, a day is 24 hours) then 10% battery usage is fantastic for 12 hours of reading.

It really depends on what you were doing with the device.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Arbait

No problem to connect KA1 firmware 7729 by USB to the KOBE desktop / file explorer of my PC win 10 pro 1607 / 64 BUT as soon that i connect the ereader with Calibre (portable 2.70) i get a BSOD.

So the blue screen does not occur when you connect the KA1 without Calibre? The Kobo desktop app and Windows Explorer are able to mount the exposed partition, update, copy files, etc.? Have you tried installing the 64bit version of Calibre instead of using the portable version? Have you checked your computer manufacturers site for any driver updates (especially any that are USB related if you are using a USB 3.0 port)?

[Zaroff]

I'll clarify:

The 10% drop is what happened to many, i.e. starting to use the device and reading and, a few minutes later, dropping 10% battery level. When I say a few minutes, it's five, max. And that indeed does remain with 4.1.7729. As well as the bug regarding the auto sleep, but that's another story, I could live with that.

David: yes, you understood correctly, see above.

I've read in some other thread that it's to be "expected" since it's part of battery calibration. Really? I've owned many more portable/rechargeable devices than I care to remember, from cellphones to laptops to iThings to DAPs etc, and I've never met some such battery "conditioning". I'm not entirely certain Kobo designed such a new way to implement/measure battery capacity that this would normally be needed. Unless they want to make a flaw pass for a feature.

At the end of the day, owing to the screen/battery cocktail, that's 2 failing units out of 2. That computes to 100% lemon. 100% dud.

I maintain KA1 wasn't fit for release so soon. Stubborn facts demonstrate it.

P.S.: I should also note that all the above happened with, very probably, two different batches, since the reseller went out of stock between my first and second unit. So there's that.

[robko]

Originally Posted by Zaroff

At the end of the day, owing to the screen/battery cocktail, that's 2 failing units out of 2. That computes to 100% lemon. 100% dud.

I maintain KA1 wasn't fit for release so soon. Stubborn facts demonstrate it.

P.S.: I should also note that all the above happened with, very probably, two different batches, since the reseller went out of stock between my first and second unit. So there's that.

YOU have had dud units, and that sucks. There shouldn't be any dud units out there (in a perfect world, which doesn't exist). There are lots of others who HAVEN'T experienced what you're talking about, and/or have had drain issues fixed by the firmware update, so your assertion that the KA1 is 100% lemon/dud does not compute.

[Zaroff]

Sorry to burst your bubble, but as far as I am concerned (quote me mentioning all the KA1 out there are lemons), it is indeed factually 100% dud. I didn't speak for others' units, I mentioned the two I had, in a row. Both of which indeed are badly flawed.

Other than that, there are other threads where not only such things re battery have been mentioned (which, again, as best I remember, didn't assert every KA1 out there meets their case), but also sport photo evidence of the ridiculous screen variations. Which makes choosing a KA1 a visual Russian roulette.

You may not like posts tarnishing your fave brand, but then again, had they gotten their act together (KA1 from what I can see generates many more problems than other models, I never had any worries with the Glo HD for example), these posts wouldn't spawn up as much as they are now. Eh.

EDIT: There are the screens variations. No way that can be justified, or excused. Besides, which one am I supposed to determine looks normal and the way it has to?

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Zaroff

I've read in some other thread that it's to be "expected" since it's part of battery calibration. Really? I've owned many more portable/rechargeable devices than I care to remember, from cellphones to laptops to iThings to DAPs etc, and I've never met some such battery "conditioning". I'm not entirely certain Kobo designed such a new way to implement/measure battery capacity that this would normally be needed. Unless they want to make a flaw pass for a feature.

Ummm... power manager on Lenovo laptops has an option to re-calibrate the battery meter. It takes quite a while and involves draining the battery down to 0 and then recharging it to fully charged. And yes, this needs to be done when updating the battery firmware, compensating for the loss of battery capacity over time -- my current laptop shows the original battery capacity to be 93.6Wh while the current capacity is 57.9Wh, replacing the battery and ghod alone knows what other reasons. I've seen this type of utility on several other devices (laptops, tablets, measurement devices) I've owned and/or used over the years.

And I won't even get into the fun we are having with Surface battery life and the seemingly endless series of updates.

[Zaroff]

I understand what you mean, but as much as a lot of devices do have battery recalibration option (which I do regularly on a Macbook for example), wild fluctuations all over the place the way KA1 does, while in use, I've yet to see.