Kobo Forma - 8GB

The Kobo Forma is nice because of its size and the open nature of its software. But, it also suffers from a few hardware issues that should have been fixed over the years since its release (i.e., they need a new version). The first issue is the power button. People have been complaining about it since the beginning. For us, it works (for many others, it flat-out doesn't). But, it's awkward to push. That, coupled with the delay in waking the device means that you're not sure you pushed the button correctly to turn the thing on. Plus, I would prefer a button on the back of the device instead of on the side of the device. Second, the grip is angled. That sounds like a good idea. But, in use, it actually seems to make it a bit awkward to hold the device. The third issue ... MoreThe Kobo Forma is nice because of its size and the open nature of its software. But, it also suffers from a few hardware issues that should have been fixed over the years since its release (i.e., they need a new version). The first issue is the power button. People have been complaining about it since the beginning. For us, it works (for many others, it flat-out doesn't). But, it's awkward to push. That, coupled with the delay in waking the device means that you're not sure you pushed the button correctly to turn the thing on. Plus, I would prefer a button on the back of the device instead of on the side of the device. Second, the grip is angled. That sounds like a good idea. But, in use, it actually seems to make it a bit awkward to hold the device. The third issue is the USB connection. It's the standard, old micro-USB. With a hardware refresh, it should be changed to a type C USB. Not for any kind of speed/power issue. But simply because it's such a pain in the tush to have to figure out which way is the correct way to insert the cable. Then, the port is on the angled grip, so it's tough to get the angle right. And finally, I'm not sure it should be on that grip at all. A better location might be on one of the non-grip sides. Fourth, the Forma is coated in a soft, rubber coating. That makes it easy to grip, but it also results in a lot of oily residue sticking to it. Most of those issues are minor, and I agree that reading on a Forma is nice. But, if the batteries on our Kindles hadn't been about gone, I'd have held out for a refreshed version of the hardware that fixed those issue.

Right size for an eReader to recreate the feeling of holding and reading a book, but so lightweight. Great to be able to set the font size and line spacing. Showing the front cover of the book while in sleep mode or powered off is a nice touch. However, the atrociously designed Power ON/OFF button operation instead of a positive click lets the unit down. One does not know when to release the button after pressing, in order to achieve the objective. It is a trial and error process. Hence not a 5-star rating.

Power button is very hard to press and mushy, you basically press, wait, and hope. Page turn buttons are decent (so why not make it like those)?Pages frequently turn upside down even in portrait mode (happens when reading in bed and especially when setting the reader down). They need to provide a rotation lock mode (where you orient it the way you want and then lock it down). I see people complaining about this on forums going back years. There are settings in developer mode, but the screen still flips and then it's even harder to get it to flip back once it does.The "frontlight" looks exactly like a backlight, and activates my eyestrain in the same way. I wish it were an actual led that shone on the front as if I were shining a flashlight on it. I need to buy a ... MorePower button is very hard to press and mushy, you basically press, wait, and hope. Page turn buttons are decent (so why not make it like those)?Pages frequently turn upside down even in portrait mode (happens when reading in bed and especially when setting the reader down). They need to provide a rotation lock mode (where you orient it the way you want and then lock it down). I see people complaining about this on forums going back years. There are settings in developer mode, but the screen still flips and then it's even harder to get it to flip back once it does.The "frontlight" looks exactly like a backlight, and activates my eyestrain in the same way. I wish it were an actual led that shone on the front as if I were shining a flashlight on it. I need to buy a clip on light.Font rendering is no better than on Kindle, and for custom fonts you have to make sure to add the "Normal" font first or you'll have to factory reset to clear it.Speaking of factory resets, the tablet randomly resets itself and I have to put in all my settings again. Has happened multiple times now. Also sorting randomly reverts back to "Recent first".Main screen has a Kobo advertisement and you can't make your books the main page.Adding a book to a collection doesn't remove it from the book list, so it's a huge pain to organize a book collection on the device, and it's easy to lose books. Have to use calibre, and that comes with problems of its own like corrupted databases.Kobo should host their own moderated help forum, because the current third party help forum is unhelpful, toxic, and elitist.

It is a very nice device, indeed, and reading is a pleasure with it. I like very much the background light, and all the settings that make reading much easier. However, I think the device has important drawbacks, which I do not know how do they relate to the specific architecture of these devices, but that refrains me from recommend it to anybody:- Response time is very long. Me being used to the response time of an iPad (or any smartphone), the Kobo reader seems a device from last century. It is excruciatingly slow to respond, and often hangs and do not respond at all.- Price does not correspond to quality. It is just unjustifiably expensive for what it is. Any smartphone with a much superior processor is three times cheaper, and performs so much faster in any task.

The e-reader market has yet to produce a truly great device in my opinion, but the Kobo Forma might be the best one out there for the simple task of reading books.+ I like the size of the device. It's big enough to read most PDFs without too much trouble. Regular books feel great. It's very thin and light, so it doesn't feel too big.+ I appreciate that Kobo keeps these devices more open than other e-readers. For example, Amazon disallows the epub format on Kindle, and Onyx Boox devices violate open source licenses.+ The Pocket integration is a game changer for me. I've almost stopped reading internet articles on my phone and computer. Anything I want to read gets saved to Pocket and automatically shows up on the Kobo. This has helped me focus on reading more ... MoreThe e-reader market has yet to produce a truly great device in my opinion, but the Kobo Forma might be the best one out there for the simple task of reading books.+ I like the size of the device. It's big enough to read most PDFs without too much trouble. Regular books feel great. It's very thin and light, so it doesn't feel too big.+ I appreciate that Kobo keeps these devices more open than other e-readers. For example, Amazon disallows the epub format on Kindle, and Onyx Boox devices violate open source licenses.+ The Pocket integration is a game changer for me. I've almost stopped reading internet articles on my phone and computer. Anything I want to read gets saved to Pocket and automatically shows up on the Kobo. This has helped me focus on reading more valuable articles instead of reading junk for hours, and it has also saved my eyes.+ The OverDrive integration is great since I use OverDrive/Libby a lot to check out books. Nothing you can't do on your phone in the Libby app, but it's a bit more convenient having it on the device.+ Dropbox support works well for wirelessly adding files.+ Battery life is more than enough for me.+ The power button is not as bad as other reviewers have said, in my opinion.- Occasional bugs. I've had the device randomly restart on me once, and I've also seen it refuse to download Pocket articles.- Occasional slowness. I think I've only noticed this when trying to turn the page on certain PDFs.- The auto-rotation is inaccurate enough to be slightly annoying. Sometimes I'm shaking the device to get it to rotate or flipping it back and forth.- I kind of miss the Goodreads integration on Kindle devices.- No USB-C.- It feels like it's due for an updated model by looking at the specs.- I wish the browser was better and/or there was a supported way to write apps for the device, but then again no other device allows this yet.

I upgraded from the Aura One which was also a premium model.The Forma is great, it feels about the same weight due to the plastic screen instead of the glass screen on the Aura One.The automatic flipping of the screen is great and you can lock it so it only flips to portrait only rather than portrait/landscape.People have complained about the power button being very hard to push. I don’t think they realise that you don’t need to push it so hard, you just need medium pressure applied for about 3 seconds. The reasoning I guess would be so you don’t put the device to sleep accidentally when turning pages with the soft keys.Overall, it works flawlessly and aside from not really getting much of an upgrade internally, the advantages gained over older models would ... MoreI upgraded from the Aura One which was also a premium model.The Forma is great, it feels about the same weight due to the plastic screen instead of the glass screen on the Aura One.The automatic flipping of the screen is great and you can lock it so it only flips to portrait only rather than portrait/landscape.People have complained about the power button being very hard to push. I don’t think they realise that you don’t need to push it so hard, you just need medium pressure applied for about 3 seconds. The reasoning I guess would be so you don’t put the device to sleep accidentally when turning pages with the soft keys.Overall, it works flawlessly and aside from not really getting much of an upgrade internally, the advantages gained over older models would be the page turn soft keys, the night mode is not as yellow as the previous models, the screen is wider which helps with landscape mode and it feels more tactile in your hand.I’m pretty happy with the Forma so far, it’s just a little on the pricey side unless you grabbed one over the Boxing Day sales.

After years in the Kindle world I was looking for something different, with a better feel and a better integration with products outside of the product's company. Kobo Forma is fabulous. It's incredibly easy to set up, and I connected it with my local library's electronic borrowing system in under a minute. The amount of adjustment (fonts, backlight color and brightness) is great, and I've felt no eye strain using it. I love the feel, especially with the super smart origami case (which is stable and a nice fidget when I'm not actively using it). I love that I can change the orientation, and I love that you can go through pages with either the touch or the buttons. Having gone through the Kobo store, it's not got as many search options or whathaveyou as Amazon, but ... MoreAfter years in the Kindle world I was looking for something different, with a better feel and a better integration with products outside of the product's company. Kobo Forma is fabulous. It's incredibly easy to set up, and I connected it with my local library's electronic borrowing system in under a minute. The amount of adjustment (fonts, backlight color and brightness) is great, and I've felt no eye strain using it. I love the feel, especially with the super smart origami case (which is stable and a nice fidget when I'm not actively using it). I love that I can change the orientation, and I love that you can go through pages with either the touch or the buttons. Having gone through the Kobo store, it's not got as many search options or whathaveyou as Amazon, but it's already made a couple spot-on recommendations for me and, since I tend to come to the story with an idea of what I want, any potential lack is not an issue.

About that power button

I just got my Forma and I have to say it's great. My Kindle Oasis just wasn't cutting it and the Forma is everything I had hoped the Oasis would have been. I've read a lot of reviews here and on Rakuten complaining about the power button being so difficult to work and that made me a little hesitant about buying it, but I did anyway. Most people were saying that you have to push real hard to get it to turn on, so that's what I did the first time and I had the same result as they did. It finally came on and I downloaded some books and decided to put it to sleep and let it charge. I felt around the side for the button and just started to give it a good push when my finger slipped off. To my surprise it went right to sleep. So, to test it again I tried turning it on ... MoreI just got my Forma and I have to say it's great. My Kindle Oasis just wasn't cutting it and the Forma is everything I had hoped the Oasis would have been. I've read a lot of reviews here and on Rakuten complaining about the power button being so difficult to work and that made me a little hesitant about buying it, but I did anyway. Most people were saying that you have to push real hard to get it to turn on, so that's what I did the first time and I had the same result as they did. It finally came on and I downloaded some books and decided to put it to sleep and let it charge. I felt around the side for the button and just started to give it a good push when my finger slipped off. To my surprise it went right to sleep. So, to test it again I tried turning it on with just the slightest push, not more than a light tap and it turned right on. Now, it could be that I got a good one and they got defective ones, but I think that they feel like the button needs to actually be pressed in when that's not really the case. It just needs a light press and wait a second or two before it comes on or goes to sleep. If you do press hard, trying to push it in it will cause the difficulties they're complaining about. So, if you're having trouble, try this and hopefully it'll work for you.

Much better than I expected!

I moved from a Kindle to a Kobo Clara HD and now have a Kobo Forma. I love the larger display - it makes reading so much more pleasurable than the standard 6" devices - particularly for my older eyes. The Forma is thinner and lighter than I thought and is easy to hold in bed.I am very sensitive to uneven lighting and was very pleased that the lighting on my Forma is even across the screen. No problems there. The text is super crisp.I borrow ebooks from my local library - which is not possible using a Kindle. Choosing ebooks from a library where choices are more curated is a far better experience than the usual online stores. That they're free is just icing on the cake!I highly recommend this Kobo Forma. It is clearly the best ereader on the market.

The Kobo Forma is a great eReader!

I have had Kindle eReaders for over a decade, everything from the cheapest to the most expensive (Oasis 2). This Koba Forma eReader is easily as responsive and easy to read as anything that I have had from Amazon. Th Koba Forma is priced lower than the Oasis 2, but has similar features and functions. I find the Koba Forma to be a better product because it has a larger display, adjustable (or automatic) lighting changes to remove blue light, OverDrive built in, DropBox integration, and several other features that are unavailable in the Oasis 2.Having been in the Kindle ecosystem for so long, I have hundreds of books. There are ways through Calibre or Ebubor to convert books that I own in the Kindle ecosystem into Kobo books and easily load them into my new Kobo. I ... MoreI have had Kindle eReaders for over a decade, everything from the cheapest to the most expensive (Oasis 2). This Koba Forma eReader is easily as responsive and easy to read as anything that I have had from Amazon. Th Koba Forma is priced lower than the Oasis 2, but has similar features and functions. I find the Koba Forma to be a better product because it has a larger display, adjustable (or automatic) lighting changes to remove blue light, OverDrive built in, DropBox integration, and several other features that are unavailable in the Oasis 2.Having been in the Kindle ecosystem for so long, I have hundreds of books. There are ways through Calibre or Ebubor to convert books that I own in the Kindle ecosystem into Kobo books and easily load them into my new Kobo. I am also able to purchase new book through the Walmart/Kobo partnership easily through a web browser or directly on my Kobo Forma eReader. Prices vary slightly on book between Amazon and Walmart eBooks, but many are the same price or less. There are also hundreds of free book available through Walmart eBooks/Kobo, as well as hundreds of thousands of ebooks in the Public Domain for free from sites like Project Gutenberg or DPLA (Digital Public Library of America).The Kobo Forma has an adjustable light that allows you to read in the dark, plus it is waterproof if you want to read by the pool without worry of damage. The built in OverDrive allows you to borrow books from many public libraries right on the Forma. Through the built-in Dropbox integration, if you have epub books from other sources, you can drop them in a Dropbox folder and they automatically sync to your Kobo eReader. The 8 GB of storage can hold a reported 8000 books, though I don't have anywhere close to that many. Battery life seems to be very good, and can be extended by turning off the wifi when not needed.I am really happy to see Walmart getting into the ebook market. Competition is a good thing, and Walmart is big enough to be true competition to the online giant that sells Kindles.** As an bonus, you can also download the Kobo app for your phone, tablet or PC and pick up where you left off reading on your Kobo Forma eReader.