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small powerbutton of KOBO Forma (close-up) |
12x 30x 28x 23x 17x 7x 5x 1x 1x 3x 3x 3x 4 x 3x 1x 6x 3x 1x 7x 1x 1x 1x 1x
1x 2x 19x 3x 1x 1x 1x 1x
This is unacceptable. My wife discovered a method that worked rather reliably: placing the nails of both index fingers on the power button and give a strong short push. It worked most of the time for me too. However, it should not be necessary that starting the e-reader depends critically on the precise way you push the button. At Rakuten Kobo they know how to design physical buttons. The page-up/page-down button is very reliable and big enough. Why not such a robust button to power up the machine? I really don't get it. After more than 10 years of designing e-readers they still don't get it.
The power button of my old Kobo Aura HD works reasonable, but is not particularly elegantly designed. Also, the difference between power down and sleep is really too small. Mistakenly power it down in stead of sleep is really frustrating and unnecessary. It would be better to have a separate sleep and power button. Please! Please! Please!
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pointless 'Swipe to unlock' :-( (page buttons on the right) |
A crazy feature is the fact that after waking up the Kobo Forma from sleep the user is forced to swipe to unlock it (see picture). This is really an unnecessary requirement. I really don't see the point. Pushing the button should be enough. If you do not swipe quickly or in the right direction (see arrow) nothing happens! And the thing goes after some time in sleep mode. A really perfect way to drive users mad!
KOBO invented another difficulty: the difference between getting the e-reader out of sleep and power down is very small. There is only one button. So it is very easy to unintentionally power down in stead of getting it out of sleep. That is very annoying. And bad design. A mistake is easily made. Too easy. The possibility to power it down or getting it in to sleep by the menu would be a great help. Why is it absent? Every PC has that possibility!
It is hard to ignore the power button, but if I ignore it for the moment,
the Kobo Forma is well designed. The screen is nice, the physical page
buttons function as expected. Above that they adapt to the orientation of
the device. The function of the page-down button stays the same
irrespective of the left-right position of the e-reader. The text also
adapts to the four possible orientations: two vertical (portrait) and two
horizontal (landscape). This auto-rotating works, but could be faster and
more smoothly.
Good features are quick downloads of e-books and it is fully charged in
less than two hours. Finally, after many years of slight improvements,
highlighting text works now smoothly. I discovered that special characters (ë,ü) can be included in Notes by the user. And there is a nice feature: smoothly adjusting lightness in the left margin without the need to go in to the menu (brightness % is indicated at the top margin).
Conclusion:
The KOBO Forma is a nice e-reader with a horrible power button. There is an expensive 50 euro Kobo Forma 'Sleep Cover' available. The only problem that it solves is getting the e-reader quickly out of sleep. It does not solve the power up problem because one still needs the physical power button. Both automatic sleep and power-down can be set in the Energy savings menu. So, you don't need a sleep cover for that. I didn't buy it. The Kobo Forma is not particularly cheap: €279,99. At bol.com € 229.99 (without cover!).
Postscript
16 Jun 2022
Disaster: while writing a note, suddenly the KOBO Forma froze. Nothing helped, how forcefully or long one pressed the powerbutton: nothing! nothing! nothing! Frozen. The thing was as dead as a doornail. Out of sheer desperation I returned to my 10 year old KOBO and downloaded the e-book and continued reading. The good thing is that software updates for my old KOBO Aura are available year after year. Dear reader, NEVER buy the KOBO Forma e-reader!
4 July 2022
Again: the KOBO reader freezes when typing a Note! Power button does nothing! Now waiting until battery is exhausted... After 1 or 2 days screen says: 'Please charge your e-reader'. When connecting to a power source the e-reader is awakening!!!
13 Oct 2022
Again: KOBO freezes while editing a Note!
17 April 2023
It worked at least one time when the reader was dead to push the power button for 15 seconds!!! The sleepcover did not help at all. A waste of money!
Nederlandse samenvatting
Ik heb de reader bij bol gekocht en je ziet dat de reviews zeer wisselend zijn. Veel mensen sturen hem terug omdat hij vastloopt. Sommigen hebben ook problemen met de powerbutton. Anderen vinden dat de batterij snel leeg is. Kennelijk is de kwaliteit van dit product nogal wisselend. Ik heb geluk gehad dat ik die andere problemen niet had.
De sleepcover is te koop bij bol.com voor € 49,99 ! Dit werkt alleen voor het in/uit slaap halen, niet power-down/up! Koop je deze erbij dan kost de Kobo Forma
€329.98 totaal! Niet echt goedkoop!
En dat vanwege een slecht functionerende powerbutton! De sleepcover helpt niet wanneer de reader dood of in diepe coma verkeerd. 15 sec de powerbutton ingedrukt houden heeft tenminste 1 keer geholpen! De automatische shutdown na een ingestelde tijd (in settings) werkt ook niet wanneer het apparaat in coma ligt! [17 april 2023]
