Top critical review
1.0 out of 5 starsPoor quality, all around. While helpfulness, does not abound.
Reviewed in the United States on July 30, 2016
Wish i could give 0 stars, because that's exactly how many KOBO aura H20's I have. Although i bought 2 of them.
After a second try with the h20 aura, i am now $400 in the hole, and have absolutely nothing to show for it. (I only gave it a second chance because of the terrible selection in the e-reader market. Kindle is super-evil in the way it runs/dominates/undermines/exploits the e-book market, but i bet the devices actually work)
The Story of the first Kobo aura h20
Started it up, read 1 chapter, went to bed. then it was broken. the end. (oh yeah, and nobody cared)
I just woke up to it broken on the nightstand. There was still a picture of the book i was reading, but the life was gone, it never worked again, factory reset be darned. There have been a few other reviews claiming this same thing, in those and in this situation, KOBO did not stand behind its product at all. referring customers to the seller it was purchased from. The seller has yet to approve either of my refunds, so i don't know if i will ever see my money again (I kinda doubt it if they can't get their money back from KOBO either.).
Here is what 'happened' to the second one, -transcript from KOBO customer support re: blank screen and total non-responsiveness.
Jason L: Unfortunately, it seems you will have to go back to the store.
me: really? that's all you have for me? after two broken devices? you want to stand behind that?
Jason L: If it was interrupted during the update, this is what could happen as the software in the device is not complete. The only troubleshooting step to try would be the reset which did not work so you would have to go back to the store.
So, if you decide to buy this thing, here are my two experience based suggestions; 1. never go to sleep, and 2. never turn it on. because either action can TOTALLY BRICK THE DEVICE.
Ok, so maybe the second time could have been avoided IF THERE HAD BEEN ANY KIND OF WARNING THAT THE DEVICE COULD BE TOTALLY DESTROYED DURING A STANDARD UPDATE PROCESS. There was no such indication, so consider this friendly message to be your only warning.
Although it's not like a warning would render this situation acceptable, a factory reset is made to fix soft/firmware problems like this. the Reset does not fix the thing it was made to fix. This is especially annoying considering the aura h20 is presented and priced as a 'high end' device, not only high end, but the durable, tougher e-reader. This rugged high-end impression is totally false (except for the high price, they did somehow manage to deliver on that point).
Finally. (This is a complaint/rant against almost any garbage tech company these days i suppose, however my point addresses the main reason I chose KOBO over Kindle/nook/etc. and enabling this simple option would have avoided the breakage of at least one of my KOBO devices.)
-In truth, there seems to be no option to skip/delay KOBO updates, nor any way i could see to use the device without creating a KOBO account. Actually, if i had known these two facts, i never would have purchased this product in the first place. (I was planning to mostly read free pdf files from an sd card, apparently reading public domain files is a feature that they promote but do not wish to support in real life)
and seriously, what needs updating? why a personal account? for what?(both are obviously needed for purchases, but that should be optional on a device I own outright. Imagine if you had to register your home bookshelf with barnes and noble, and allow them to inspect it periodically to be sure you don't have any non-barnes and noble books on that shelf. Oh and BTW, the shelf was really expensive and fell apart as soon as you got it home. How about some more analogies? Would you buy a proprietary refrigerator that only chills Budweiser and Tyson brand meat products? A car that only drives on roads that post sponsored billboards and reroutes you to McDonalds every time you go to a drive through? a universal personal pocket computer/communicator that only runs computations which have been pre-approved by its own corporate board of profiteering? ...oh wait.)
So, go read a Book-Book, and wait until something with some quality and more freedom hits the market.(they make decent looking 'Tolino' e-readers in Germany, but not available to buy here in usa, wtf?) Anyway, that's what I'll be waiting for. Don't give these companies money for restricting your freedom and access to information. Suck it KOBO (same goes for you amazon, apple, google, and Microsoft after windows 7). GO OPEN SOURCE! LINUX! PUBLIC DOMAIN! YAY EPUB! (..See i'm not all negative)
To sum up my KOBO purchase,( in case i lost you on the rant above.) My wife is more pissed, I am more poor, and KOBO just don't care.
