Adventures of a Bookonaut: Vale Vox

Dec 28, 2012

Vale Vox

My Kobo Vox which I have had a somewhat strained relationship with since first purchasing it 11 months ago has died. It was down to 1 hour battery life, while operating in airplane mode.

So I’m not happy, and although I will get a replacement with a less than generous 3 month warranty, $279 dollars for one year is not value. A year on what was your flagship device Kobo?

I have been forced back to using a Sony PRS 505 which I had managed to get working again (its 4 years old, holds its charge) and boots up in 2 seconds.

Seriously for a device to read ebooks it kicks the Vox’s ass.

And if you ask me what advice I'd give to someone entering the ereader market it would be go the cheapest, most convenient, most reliable reader for you. If you want cheap reads go e-ink with an external light source, go a brand that has a good rep and at this point in time it would come down to another Sony or a Kindle.

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SB Wright 110p · 636 weeks ago

Comment from Sue Bursztynski rescued from Blogger comments:

What a shame! I think I remember when you were just stressing over your new Kobo Vox! One Lousy YEAR! My sister has another variety of Kobo and has't had any trouble since we worked out how to use it and she inherited an old one from her son. They must have decided they weren't making enough profit and decided to make newer models more flimsy.

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1 reply · active 636 weeks ago

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SB Wright 110p · 636 weeks ago

Yes the neglected to be specific about the type of wireless network you needed to have to unlock the reader. So all up the cost of the Vox to me was originally $8 for a meal to access wifi + $279 form the unit itself + $50 for a wireless connection at home, plus the postage I have had to pay to send it for repairs so $360 for a year.

And all for naught because i found out that the old Sony that had died was just suffering from a glitch induced be an old version of Calibre.

I think the rushed the Vox out to compete with a similar Amazon product.

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tsanad 36p · 636 weeks ago

Commiserations. Maybe the replacement will last longer... Out of curiosity, how long a lifespan were you hoping for?

My Kobo Touch is going strong 9 months later, but I hate the thing and only use it when I travel (which is what I got it for, so I suppose that's OK). The only glitch it has is occasionally (generally when my husband's using it, hehe) the screen stops responding and it needs to be rebooted.

Have you bought many books from the Kobo store? At least their DRM isn't proprietary.
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11 replies · active 636 weeks ago

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SB Wright 110p · 636 weeks ago

I was hoping for about a 3 year lifespan.

What do you hate about the touch? It is a possible choice for me for my next device should the replacement die in the next year.

I have bought about 5-6 books from Kobo, but I also download them as well as have them in my online Kobo library

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tsanad 36p · 636 weeks ago

3 years sounds reasonable.

It's not so much that the Touch doesn't do what's advertised, it's that it's less smart/thoughtful/pleasant to use than every other piece of technology I've owned in the past few years. Also, I'm not actually a big fan of e-ink, but it was a necessary requirement for long-haul flights. I hate carrying paper books around and there's no way an iPad is going to last 30 hours of reading (advertised battery life is 10 hours continuous use). (Side note: another advantage of e-ink is because it doesn't glow, if you get a vaguely bookish cover for it, many flight attendants don't notice you're using it during take-off.) The other reason I dislike it is that I now associate it with long-haul flights and travel generally which is stressful and unpleasant but obviously not a factor that applies to other people.

Apart from the small glitch I mentioned in the earlier comment, it's serving me well. It does exactly what was advertised, down to the somewhat baffling facebook integration which is easily ignored or disabled. It could use with easier organisation of books, but it's not that bad. And the search function of your library works well.

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SB Wright 110p · 636 weeks ago

With e-ink I don't know that I notice the benefits of no screen glare, but having just recently gone back to it - I can pick it up and be reading in 2 seconds, where its more like 15 on the Vox unless i leave it on standby which runs the battery down.

Does it do annotations as well?

I hadn't thought of the airline advantage either, but then I don't do long haul flights. Other than the Kobo do you use Apple products generally?

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tsanad 36p · 636 weeks ago

I think it does theoretically do annotations, but I'm not sure there's any way to get them off the system. And typing on the e-ink is so annoying I've never really tried. I do use the dictionary on occasion, though, and that works find.

Most of the time, I do use either the iPad or my iPhone, depending on where I am and whether my husband has commandeered the iPad (and they sync pages read up to quickly and automatically so it's no fuss to swap between them). Not to mention the fact that Apple's store annoys me less than Kobo's. It's not perfect, but at least it has a wish list that doesn't make me want to punch it when I use it. And the receptiveness of the screen is bliss after the Kobo Touch.
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SB Wright 110p · 636 weeks ago

Hmm Ipad mini sounds tempting. But still don't have the setup to make the most of its features :(

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tsanad 36p · 636 weeks ago

I'm tempted by the iPad mini and I have absolutely no need for it (it's so light compared with the big one!). What setup do you mean? They've become pretty antonymous and don't need to be computer synced if you don't want to. If you don't want to use the iBooks/ their store, there are apps for all the other ebook sources: Kindle, Kobo, Sony, etc.
My recent post New Booksies: epic end of 2012 haul

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SB Wright 110p · 636 weeks ago

I am thinking access to wifi. In terms of setup but I also didn't know about not having to be computer synced

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tsanad 36p · 636 weeks ago

It's not very picky about type of wifi (and I thought from a comment above that you do have wifi at home). I lived in a radio-quiet forest for three and a half months, and it's not like the iPad stopped working (only stopped syncing bookmarks to my phone). When I got really desperate a couple of times I turned my computer into a wifi hotspot (we had cabled internet) for it but I didn't *need* to.
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SB Wright 110p · 636 weeks ago

I suppose what I am getting at is that a mini iPad or any tablet really is overkill for an ereader. I do have a wifi setup at home linked to my mobile internet. The thing is that the wifi is restricted to one room and the internet plan is not conducive to taking advantage of some of the other services tablets and ipads take advantage of ie streaming movies/videos.

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tsanad 36p · 636 weeks ago

Definitely overkill for just an ereader. eInk's cheapness makes more sense. But if you were tossing up for a tablet ereader, I'd try to talk you out of it. ;-)
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