Hello, entities that lurk in my phone. You might remember my last “review” or comparison between KLC and Kobo Forma.
I thought that maybe an update was in order, seeing that the KLC is going to stay with me till one of us dies.
Usually the ereader has to retire before I do, but don’t let that keep you from betting against me!
Anyway. The KLC.
I have to admit that while I’m not too thrilled by the darkness of the screen, I also have to admit that the backlight doesn’t seem to use a lot of battery (I keep it on between 5 and 16%, I haven’t needed more than that).
Pictures show the screen under full, midday sun. And my drink.
THE PEN:
I don’t do much highlighting or doodling on the Colour, probably because I ain’t gonna drop 60€ on the pen (also there’s a thing called metapen for around 29€ that works on the Colour, which I’m also NOT going to buy hehe).
BUUUUUUUUT I do have a friend with terrible self control that bought the pen and allowed me to try it. Hilarious, since in my 5 minute test I used it more than her since she got it lol.
Pen is nice to hold, highlighting is snappy. Good. Writing… For an emergency… OK. I can definitely write my name on it. But this is no Remarkable 2.
And that’s my review of the pen. The Kobo case that has room for the pen is nice too.
My case is from Aliexpress :)
BACK TO THE SCREEN
I have to admit that 7" is perfect for an ereader. Perfect.
The pages fly by, I see no ghosting, nothing to complain about. No delay when pressing the buttons (VERY GOOD BUTTONS, PEOPLE. THE VERY BEST).
However, I’ve seen people claiming that ereaders don’t reflect light, like an actual book, when placed under, I don’t know, let’s say, the fucking sun. I swear I don’t get why people claim that. Maybe I keep misunderstanding them?? But just in case: e-ink does have reflections, sometimes. You have to angle the screen to obtain the desired shine free surface.
Examples:
FEATURE I WASN’T EXPECTING:
“Read out loud” Honestly it’s not that great because itreadsthetextlikethis ignoring commas and any other punctuation you can think of. But hey, it exists.
Verdict: 'tis a good device, fellas. I still think that a Libra 2 would have been the ideal solution, but this isn’t bad. And somehow fingers don’t stain the frame (the screen yes).
You might be wondering… Where did the Forma go?? Did I throw away my soul-ereader?? NEVER.
It crossed the black-and-white bridge (just below the rainbow bridge that pets cross eventually) and landed on the desperate hands of my mother. Seeing how attached she has gotten to it in two weeks, I’m looking to hire a hobbit or two to cast the device into the fires of Mount Doom or something.
Maybe I should have noticed that she, too, wanted a fancy ereader because hers wasn’t dead, but should have been.
Thanks for reading!
Thanks for reading!
My mini review to add to yours :)
Have had this reader since day 1, Would probably not get again though it’s not that bad I would get rid of it though.
If you primarily read ebooks, the colour eink isn’t as hi def as B&W eink, really notice the difference side by side with my gf’s Kindle. It’s still legible, just not as good
I thought I could read PDFs and then use the pen but the screen is too small for that. I really like the physical buttons for page turns, however the downside is the reader is now too big to pocket (wide) compared to my older Kindle which did pocket in cargo pants type pockets.
I do use the embedded elibary App to borrow books from the local library but 1/2 the time don’t finish them in time before they are gone. I mostly used DRM stripped books via Calibre directly (USB) and have mostly given up on reading PDFs. I don’t read comics so can’t comment on that aspect
Annoyances: It has gotten better but it rarely went back to the same page when I reopened it, it still does that but only 1 in 10 times now not 1 in 3. I got mine with the official flip cover and have the meta pen…
If you have a cover and it’s closed there’s no visible LED to show you the charge state when you plug it in to charge, Kindle has orange for charging and green charged, so you can visually see the SOC. The power button is on the back, so if you had the cover turned back and put it down and it goes to sleep, you had to close the cover and reopen it, or move the cover aside and fumble for the power button. They have fixed that with a firmware upgrade recently by allowing the page turn button to be a “start me up” button.
It gets regular updates, I had one the other day but I only turn the Wifi on once a month or so to specifically check (preserve battery life) It’s battery life is less then stellar. It does have USB C :)
Thanks for your review!! It touches plenty of subjects that mine didn’t :D
I do wonder one thing tho: why do you want to keep it updated? My forma hasn’t been updated since 2022 or so (I don’t use any complementary app to read)
I swear I don’t get why people claim that.
They may be exaggerating, but it’s still way less reflective than a conventional screen. (The matte surface diffuses the light quite a bit, so you’ll never see your own reflection or anything like that.) Coated paper reflects intense light too, but isn’t anything close to a mirror, so maybe that’s a better comparison.
I love the Wandering Inn series, though I’m partial to the audio books, which I suppose is sacrilege to say given the community.