Yesterday I posted some first impressions of the Kobo Aura One, and by far the most impressive thing about it is the larger screen.
I and many others have been hoping for a larger Kindle for the past few years and it never happens. Luckily Kobo isn’t afraid to change things up a bit.
I wanted to post a couple of pictures to give an idea of the size difference between a Kindle’s screen and the Kobo Aura One.
All Kindles have 6-inch screens so it doesn’t matter which one of the four you pick the screen is the exact same size on all of them.
Three of the four Kindles have 300 ppi E Ink Carta screens, the exception being the entry-level Kindle which has a lower resolution screen (167 ppi).
The Kobo Aura One has a 7.8-inch E Ink Carta screen that also has 300 ppi, so they’re all very similar in terms of appearance and specs, but the Aura One bumps the size up another notch.
The 7.8-inch screen is a good compromise between 6-inches and the next size up, 9.7-inches, which seems a lot larger by comparison.
People have mentioned that 7.8-inches is more like a hardcover, but it’s really not quite that large, and it’s definitely not anywhere near that heavy.
Personally I really like the larger screen size, and the 300 ppi is a nice bonus. Hopefully more companies start following Kobo’s lead on this as well. The larger size is especially good for folks with poor eyesight that need to use larger font sizes, and people that like reading stuff like comics and manga.
I’ll post a video comparing the Kobo Aura One with the Kindle Paperwhite 3 next week for a closer look at the screens and software differences.
Size vs weight is the battle here no? With Amazon going for lighter with the Oasis and Kobo going with size with the Aura One.
The crazy thing is the Kindle Oasis with its fancy cover actually weighs more than the Aura One (albeit without a cover).
Yes, but I think Amazon is banking on the fact that a typical reading session isn’t longer than however long the Oasis without the cover will last.
Absolutely love my Aura One so much so that i got rid of my Voyage and Paperwhite. Sure i still find the Kindle software a bit smoother, especially highlighting but the screen on the Aura One is PERFECT! Not just the size but the clarity, eveness, better font contrast and options that my Kindles simply couldnt match. Truly impressed.
I bought an Aura One and it had quite few issues: battery drain (over night), phantom touches and the light sensor constantly adjusting the brightness. Also, it is not recognised by any of my Windows 10 devices.
I returned it for an exchange which had all the same issues plus the comfort light having a orange hue left and green hue right side of the screen (which the fisrst unit did not have).
Turns out there’s a firmware update to be released that is supposed to address this which has been delayed since Sep 26th. There seems ZERO quality control for this product that is sold at a premium price.
I just returned it for a refund and closed my Kobo account. Never again.
Please do a size comparison of the Kobo Aura One vs iPad mini! I haven’t found one at all yet!
Sure, just send me an iPad mini and I’ll do a comparison. 😀