Store points
If you’re wondering about the spec of the Kobo Arc, it runs a 1.5GHz dual-core TI OMAP 4470 ARM-compatible processor with 1GB of RAM and features a 1280 x 800-pixel, 216ppi IPS 7in display. During tests with performance benchmark tool AnTuTu, the device was a tad slower than a Nexus 7 which, considering the latter is a quad-core device, isn’t bad going.
Apart from the occasional slow book load and online bookstore refreshes, there was no noticeable lag in everyday use. Movies looked pretty good too, aided by the front-facing speakers and SRS audio bass boosting. Just don’t go too over the top here, as the speakers will distort if pushed too hard.
The single ended, front facing speakers arrangement is loud and clear. It's not ideal for landscape viewing, but you get used to it
The battery life is the only real drawback, but it’s not because it’s inadequate. This is an Android tablet, not an e-reader, so you get hours rather than weeks. Kobo states 10 hours which seems a fair estimate, but with casual reading you’ll no doubt manage several days between charges.
As for investing in the Kobo bookstore, it seems that the company has just about all bases covered to sync content across multiple devices. I ran the desktop app on a Mac, which crashed on first run but has been fine ever since. I tried the PC version on a Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet 2 which failed during its first sync but has also been fine ever since. The iPhone and iPad versions fired up without complaint.
AnTuTu results and format warning from a free book on the Kobo store
I have to say, flicking through a full-colour cookbook looked great when displayed on the desktop app. Even so, viewing colour photo books on the Kobo Arc is absolutely fine, and being a touchscreen device is a positive advantage if you do get busy in the kitchen.
Browsing the bookstore could do with some refinement though. I could view the free books on offer easily enough from the Kobo Arc – as this appears as a category option – but you try searching through them. I entered an author's name but the results came back with a mix of paid-for and free content, which wasn't very helpful. The desktop app is even worse, as it doesn't show the free content at all.
Clockwise from bottom: Kobo Arc with iPhone 4S, Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet 2 and iPad 2 running the Kobo bookstore apps
Oh, and before I forget, I transferred ePub titles to the Kobo Arc that, once imported and the content section had refreshed, were presented perfectly. Just be aware that non-Kobo sourced titles forego all the sharing comments functions apart from posting your own Reading List notifications.
The Reg Verdict
All in all, I’m impressed with the Kobo Arc. It took a little while to learn to love it, but I’d say it’s been worth the effort learning how to weave content into the Tapestries function.
Indeed, for those likely to share a device, it offers a great way to keep some level of separateness although the Recommended reading feature is likely to reflect all of the users, which could be interesting, embarrassing and annoying in equal meassure. For those with multiple interests, Tapestries offers a useful way of diving into your favourite things without too much faffing about. And even if this feature doesn’t appeal, the Kobo Arc is still a very pocketable and affordable Android tablet. ®
Kobo Arc
COMMENTS
Re: Kobo has already been where the smart shoppers have ended up.
@AC - 16:34
What makes you think my epubs are pirated? Have you heard of Gutenberg? Does the concept of scanning material you already own, OCRing it, and converting it to epub surprise you - and in what significant way is it different from ripping a CD (apart from the obvious 'it takes a lot of time and effort')? Are you aware that the Kobo desktop application - required to purchase ebooks - is not available for Linux?
I don't care about reading on multiple devices. I do care about DRM: I object to any technology which assumes I am a thief and will do my damnedest to avoid it. I object to any technology which prohibits my usage of that which I have purchased as I please and so I do not purchase DRM encumbered material. But I have several hundred epubs, and for each in copyright (and many older) I have a paper original, in the same way that for each of my .ogg or .mp3 files I have the original CD.
But I am neither thief nor pirate, and resent the implication. You bought a bookselling mechanism. I bought a book *reading* mechanism.
...the social reading and statistics actually make you want to stay with Kobo.
Surely you jest, sir?
Of all the things I want a reader to be, a device that tells the world what I'm reading and me what the world thinks of it is the last... reading is, was, and always should be a private activity, something to do on your own when you want to shut the world out. 'Social reading' is a contradiction in terms in my world.
Epub based is the reason I use Kobo - though I won't buy any book with DRM or which I cannot store and view on a local device *without* the necessity of wireless connection.
Re: Kobo has already been where the smart shoppers have ended up.
"You bought a bookselling mechanism. I bought a book *reading* mechanism."
Well said man! Cheers to that!
Re: "Reading" material, huh?
I'm fairly sure that they do that deliberately in the screenshots just to amuse us sharp-eyed readers...
Tapestries? Discoveries?
I am driven *mad* by tags...
Strikes me there's no need for anything more complex than an alphabetical series of books, one page (shelf, in the older 'glo') to an author... I want to see who I have on the device, and then I want to see the titles. I don't want to see 'adventure', 'crime', 'foreign authors', 'cheese development board', or 'science fiction' - particularly as there is so often a disagreement between different taggers as to which category a book should be in, which renders the whole concept somewhat tenuous, if not pointless.
Hierarchical reference is a concept probably older than libraries; it's worked well for centuries. But the last five or ten years have buggered the concept completely. I can't listen to a whole album in the order the artist intended; I can't see at a glance whether I have anything by a particular author. The whole world has gone mad in a pokey slidey pokey slidey interface that simply falls over if there are more than a couple of dozen items.
I have yet to see an ebook which can handle - without jumping through hoops - any significant number of books (i.e. four hundred to a thousand). I have certainly never seen the obvious 'autotag' button: tag by author.
Meh.
</rant>
