0:04 📺 Introduction to revisiting the Kobo Sage and its battery life issue. 0:19 🔋 Main problem: questionable battery life in initial testing. 0:38 📉 Despite the small, thin battery, the initial results were unexpectedly low. 1:00 🛠 Conducted multiple tests and received updates to understand the battery performance. 1:34 🖊 Writing tests showed consistent results of 2.5-2.7 hours per charge, confirmed by Kobo. 2:30 📑 Explanation from Kobo: high battery consumption is specific to constant writing. 3:29 🔄 Built-in optimizations reduce battery consumption when not writing. 4:00 🧪 Testing method: consistent across all devices to ensure comparability. 4:22 📚 Main usage: reading and marking up documents, where battery life is significantly better. 5:01 ⚠ Potential buyers, especially heavy note-takers, should be aware of the battery limitations. 5:11 🔌 Power cover accessory can help top off the charge during breaks. 6:13 ⚡ Power cover charges via the device, prioritizing device battery first. 7:06 📈 Updated results: 16-25 hours of battery life for reading, depending on front light usage. 8:22 📊 Conclusion: Kobo Sage is a fantastic e-reader with some note-taking capabilities. 9:30 📝 Not suitable as a dedicated note-taking device due to limited battery life and pen comfort. 10:16 🌟 Final verdict: an excellent reader with some note-taking abilities, but not for extensive writing.
Excellent quality reviews!! Honest and carefully considered information and data. You’re my benchmark for what RUclips reviews should be 👍🏼. And I’m so glad the Sage battery isn’t a complete lemon any more! Makes it a viable contender once again. Thanks!
I bought it despite the battery issues you had mentioned hoping it wouldn't be an issue. Sold my remarkable 2 after a week. I a pleased with the battery life. Great for reading and for annotating books. It gets the job done for taking notes in a meeting. I use the Microsoft slim pen 2 and it works ok. Definitely not as nice as the remarkable but I'm glad to be out of their ecosystem.
I bought the Sage in December 2021 and subsequently got both the stylus and the power cover. Only later have I started to watch your excellent, in-depth, super-thorough reviews. I won't buy another e-ink device without checking your channel first 🙂 I have had one total, inexplicable battery drainage happening overnight without even using the reader; something similar to Mateo Bratanić's alarming report in another post on this page. To me, this has only happened once, however, and I have read dozens of books on the Sage since buying it. I have also used it with the stylus for short notes and annotations. What I am worried about is this: will the power cover affect the lifespan of the Sage's internal battery negatively? If I charge both the Sage and the cover, the cover will continue to charge the battery of the Sage, keeping it at 100% until the cover's own charge starts to drop, so the Sage battery will be discharged less-and less frequently-than if I used it with the standard sleep cover. I can of course wait until the power cover is completely discharged and the Sage battery gets pretty low too, but it seems to defy the purpose of carrying around a "power bank" for your reader. Is this a real problem, or is my worry unjustified? Thanks for some really amazing videos!
QUESTION! I'm still worried re the READING time. 1) What would the reading time be on say, 80% brightness for front light? 16 hours? 2) How does the battery life compare with the Libra 1, which I have and is quite good with BL? I need to replace my Libra 1 with its atrociously tiny memory space (6.72 GB usable) with a 32 GB device, and thought it might be nice to get an extra inch of screen space (i.e 8 inches) by going to Sage. But if its too risky maybe I will just get Libra 2.
I had simular results. I contacted Kobo and did the same steps you did and as a reader it is working well. The note taking I only use as a pad to jot down notes and not deep writing. I use my Onyx Boox Note Air for that. Thank you for the follow up review.
Cool, thanks. You are the man. You do the homework and it is a great help to all of us. I purchased the Sage a little while ago and I'm enjoying it. Like being able to markup stuff and had only planned to jot quick notes with it, not using it as my main note taker. So it's good for me.
Thank you Voya for all of your dedication and hard work. For my purposes after this update from you I feel comfortable getting the sage. I mainly want to be able to mark up my books and make a few notes in the text.
Please, if you use this me Kobo Sage mainly for reading, will the battery still be an issue? I would like to know before I choose between the Sage or Forma. I like the Sage because of its sharp pixel and clarity look for the reading.
Thank you for your sharing. But the problem is still the battery, easily drop by 30% in one hour, it could be due to the 1.8Ghz Quad core processor that drain the battery, I already did the factory reset, I will try again. Can you also do a battery life analysis with the kobo sage power cover together ?
Battery life is terrible, after Factory reset and also after the last firmware update. I even have Power Cover but to no avail. Sage drains Power Cover' battery while in sleep mode in the course of two day from 100% to 0% (without reading or using it). I really do not understand what those guy in Kobo Rakuten are thinking they produced after so many successful readers!
I have terrible battery life on the kobo elipsa. Really disappointing to see that even just reading, the batteries are way too small. I’m selling mine to get a boox lumi 2
Thank you :) Well, they are quite different. Note Air 2 is a better product in practically every aspect when compared to Sage, but it is also considerably more expensive, larger, heavier and has a steeper learning curve. Sage can do plenty of things well, but it doesn't have a s good of a reader Experience as Note Air 2. If Note Air 2 is in your budget and not too big, it's hard to find a better device than that. Also, check the Nova Air. Same functionalities, lower price, size and weight :)
What about listening to audio books? If writing on the sage present battery issues, I would assume that listening to audio books would also tax the battery.
Yes it would, but I didn't test it because the pricing of Kobo audiobooks is very high, and I didn't want to spend that much on something I know I will absolutely never use. But yeah, it's a safe bet that audio books would also be taxing as it would involve some decoding on the CPU side, but more importantly, it would have constant Bluetooth transmission, and that spends battery on any device.
How about the background? I found it too dark so the contrast seems poor. and I need a lot of light to see. Has elipsa or other devices a real white background? Or all of them are so dark?
Many thanks for great review. What is the best 8 inch ebook reader by your pinion today? For me taking notes not important. May be Pocketbook InkPad 3 Pro, or Kobo Forma? Thanks in advance
SO just reading books and PDF files for 2-3 hours daily will the battery hold its own for at least couple of weeks or not? Also if kept in stand by with a magnetic cover closed how long will it last? Will it consume alot of juice from the battery? Thanks
i bought it - and awaiting its arrival. i liked the reading experience when i tested it at the gadget store. i do plan to use it for notetaking and annotating books and pdfs, but i am never away from a power source for very long. i have a lot of power banks - couldn't one just use a power bank versus the power cover? also, can it be used as usual with the power cover on it? i would consider the power cover if it can still be used while reading or taking notes. i am also wondering if any further updates have helped this situation. Another issue - did you turn off wifi and Bluetooth? sorry if i am missing that piece of information. i guess i am getting a little tired of my paperwhites small screen. i have the max2 and lumi2. so going to the paperwhite just isn't cutting it anymore.
I recently received my Kobo Sage in the mail. I have a quick question - I hope someone here can reply. When I plug in the Kobo to charge - two things happen 1. it turns on the device. So, I turn it off again. BUT, i do not get the battery charging indicator light on the device. Should not the LED light blink or stay solid when the device is charging? Another thing. When I plugged it in. It said battery is 3% and needs 11 hours to fully charge. then two hours later - battery is 99%, but then it says 3.6 hour until full.
I've been using the Sage extensively over the past 2 weeks and I can confirm that, no the light indication doesn't light up (I'm not sure it has any?), and as for the text, if you check it after a few minutes, not immediately, you will see that it will give you a more correct reading. The easiest thing is to flip it on to see the actual battery level and check that way, as this is a screen saver option that will not be accurate. Something far weird that I noticed is that if I am in a book and reading, and I plug it in to charge, the buttons work, but the touch doesn't, and on my device it was 100% reproducible. Weird. But I still love it as a portable reader, I just wish the battery life was better.
@@MyDeepGuide thanks for the quick reply. there is a light there. when i plug the sage in - it will auto-start the device (and for a moment i see a white light) - that is similar to my iPad air2. i do not like that. I want to tell it when to turn on and off. if the light is not supposed to stay on - how does one know it is truly charging? i do have some cables that give indication - but i find it odd that the device doesn't indicate. as for your issue - i have not yet noticed that. but i have noticed that where i charge plays a role in how different devices react. some times if i use an ungrounded outlet - i will "feel" the electricity a little bit - and this creates some type of "electro-field" around the device and make touching the screen not work precisely (or at all). thanks for your reviews. just great. Are you using a screen protector on the sage? I have one on order. And I also ordered a renaisser raphael 520 as the stylus.
Thank you for sharing your experience. No, I don't use a screen protector, but that pen might be interesting to try, as the default Kobo pen is just so bad that I don't want to use it at all.
@@MyDeepGuide the interesting thing is the renaisser pen snaps to the kobo. it has a magnetic ability - i am not sure if that is a good idea or not - will it damage the internal memory of the sage. i dunno. the good thing is the pen is rechargeable and doesn't need a quad a battery.
Hey, have you seen the announcement for the new Boox Leaf? A 7inch reading only device is appealing to me as I'm not interested in the notetaking aspect. TFS :)
Yes, I've seen it and it looks interesting. I'm not sure if I'll be getting the review loan unit, but if I do, then I'll test it out and we'll see together what's it like :)
MAYBE you (OR SOMEONE) can help with this question. It's not about batteries. Where can I get a replacement cable for Kobo Sage? Can't even find it on Amazon. They have kobo cables but not for the Sage model. Kobo does NOT sell cables only---I checked with them.
I ended up getting the regular case and then attaching a pen holder (built for the iPad pen) to the top of it. This setup works really well. But yes, battery life is not very impressive at all. ITs simply become a device I charge fairly often, which is true of many of my devices so not the worst thing in the world but definitely a bummer.
All the channels glossing over the battery life are just giving sales pitches instead of reviews. Likely because they rely on being given free review products so they don’t want to make any critical statements
Not really, it's much more likely that they don't do the battery testing at all, but instead just read the press release sheet they receive from Kobo and that's it. Proper testing takes time, and overwhelming majority of reviewers simply don't bother with actually reviewing a device. Instead, they regurgitate a press release blurb, dump a video online and move on to the next bit, inorder to produce more "content".
Well, devices arrive in a certain order, and I do reviews in the first come first serve order. So, next in line is Libra 2 review, then Note Air 2 and then Max Lumi 2. So probably next week.
@@neko_tizon Not sure, but I think it is plenty. to the point that it doesn't matter much.
3 года назад+1
I have also power cover, but buttery life is bad. Sage takes all the battery juice from power cover in 2 day without reading. It goes from 100% to 0. I am thinking it is not due to defective Power cover, but crazy battery on Sage.
No, I performed the test I described and reported the results. You can also check my Kobo Sage battery reporting to see if you still think Kobo pays me, and then, if you think that your initial comment and accusation was unfair and unwarranted, maybe you could apologize ;)
![Blox Fruits Dragon Rework Update [Full Stream]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/EqDAp8udhm0/mqdefault.jpg)
0:04 📺 Introduction to revisiting the Kobo Sage and its battery life issue.
0:19 🔋 Main problem: questionable battery life in initial testing.
0:38 📉 Despite the small, thin battery, the initial results were unexpectedly low.
1:00 🛠 Conducted multiple tests and received updates to understand the battery performance.
1:34 🖊 Writing tests showed consistent results of 2.5-2.7 hours per charge, confirmed by Kobo.
2:30 📑 Explanation from Kobo: high battery consumption is specific to constant writing.
3:29 🔄 Built-in optimizations reduce battery consumption when not writing.
4:00 🧪 Testing method: consistent across all devices to ensure comparability.
4:22 📚 Main usage: reading and marking up documents, where battery life is significantly better.
5:01 ⚠ Potential buyers, especially heavy note-takers, should be aware of the battery limitations.
5:11 🔌 Power cover accessory can help top off the charge during breaks.
6:13 ⚡ Power cover charges via the device, prioritizing device battery first.
7:06 📈 Updated results: 16-25 hours of battery life for reading, depending on front light usage.
8:22 📊 Conclusion: Kobo Sage is a fantastic e-reader with some note-taking capabilities.
9:30 📝 Not suitable as a dedicated note-taking device due to limited battery life and pen comfort.
10:16 🌟 Final verdict: an excellent reader with some note-taking abilities, but not for extensive writing.
Excellent quality reviews!! Honest and carefully considered information and data. You’re my benchmark for what RUclips reviews should be 👍🏼. And I’m so glad the Sage battery isn’t a complete lemon any more! Makes it a viable contender once again. Thanks!
Hey, any tips on how to fix the battery life?
I bought it despite the battery issues you had mentioned hoping it wouldn't be an issue. Sold my remarkable 2 after a week. I a pleased with the battery life. Great for reading and for annotating books. It gets the job done for taking notes in a meeting. I use the Microsoft slim pen 2 and it works ok. Definitely not as nice as the remarkable but I'm glad to be out of their ecosystem.
Hi, The the battery life is my big construction as well , gonna buy it , tho. Could you share with your reading experience, how long it last ? Thx
I've been mulling getting a remarkable 2. Mind if I ask what sort of issues you experienced?
I bought the Sage in December 2021 and subsequently got both the stylus and the power cover. Only later have I started to watch your excellent, in-depth, super-thorough reviews. I won't buy another e-ink device without checking your channel first 🙂
I have had one total, inexplicable battery drainage happening overnight without even using the reader; something similar to Mateo Bratanić's alarming report in another post on this page. To me, this has only happened once, however, and I have read dozens of books on the Sage since buying it. I have also used it with the stylus for short notes and annotations.
What I am worried about is this: will the power cover affect the lifespan of the Sage's internal battery negatively? If I charge both the Sage and the cover, the cover will continue to charge the battery of the Sage, keeping it at 100% until the cover's own charge starts to drop, so the Sage battery will be discharged less-and less frequently-than if I used it with the standard sleep cover. I can of course wait until the power cover is completely discharged and the Sage battery gets pretty low too, but it seems to defy the purpose of carrying around a "power bank" for your reader. Is this a real problem, or is my worry unjustified?
Thanks for some really amazing videos!
Voya, I just love your approach; I love your commitment to fairness!
Thank you very much :)
I agree 👍💯
QUESTION! I'm still worried re the READING time. 1) What would the reading time be on say, 80% brightness for front light? 16 hours? 2) How does the battery life compare with the Libra 1, which I have and is quite good with BL?
I need to replace my Libra 1 with its atrociously tiny memory space (6.72 GB usable) with a 32 GB device, and thought it might be nice to get an extra inch of screen space (i.e 8 inches) by going to Sage. But if its too risky maybe I will just get Libra 2.
I had simular results. I contacted Kobo and did the same steps you did and as a reader it is working well. The note taking I only use as a pad to jot down notes and not deep writing. I use my Onyx Boox Note Air for that.
Thank you for the follow up review.
Very impressive follow up and analysis. You put other reviewers to shame. Thank you.
Cool, thanks. You are the man. You do the homework and it is a great help to all of us. I purchased the Sage a little while ago and I'm enjoying it. Like being able to markup stuff and had only planned to jot quick notes with it, not using it as my main note taker. So it's good for me.
Thank you Voya for all of your dedication and hard work. For my purposes after this update from you I feel comfortable getting the sage. I mainly want to be able to mark up my books and make a few notes in the text.
I think the fact that the Sage doesn't come with a stylus suggests that it isn't the primary purpose of the device.
And the Kobo stylus is uncomfortable.
Please, if you use this me Kobo Sage mainly for reading, will the battery still be an issue? I would like to know before I choose between the Sage or Forma. I like the Sage because of its sharp pixel and clarity look for the reading.
Vojo care, hvala!!!
Good transparency/nuance/clarification as always!
Thank you for your sharing. But the problem is still the battery, easily drop by 30% in one hour, it could be due to the 1.8Ghz Quad core processor that drain the battery, I already did the factory reset, I will try again. Can you also do a battery life analysis with the kobo sage power cover together ?
I am waiting for your Boox Air 2 review!
Thank you very much for the final evaluation of the battery honestly and clearly
I saw notification my deep guys and was sure for a review of lumi 2 air 2 or note 5 😰😰😰😰😰😰😰love your content !!!
Great review thanks. I got one no regrets.
Great review; quite in depth and helped me a lot in choosing
Great video! Please review the Boox Leaf ☺️
Battery life is terrible, after Factory reset and also after the last firmware update. I even have Power Cover but to no avail. Sage drains Power Cover' battery while in sleep mode in the course of two day from 100% to 0% (without reading or using it). I really do not understand what those guy in Kobo Rakuten are thinking they produced after so many successful readers!
Awesome video! Thanks for the clarification!
I have terrible battery life on the kobo elipsa. Really disappointing to see that even just reading, the batteries are way too small. I’m selling mine to get a boox lumi 2
Have you tried a factory reset?
Really appreciate your honest and comprehensive review! I decided to keep away from Kobo Sage and get a Forma instead.
I bought a Forma two years ago and the battery just crapped out. Two years max? I won't get burned again. Goodbye Kobo.
I'm a huge fan. Hope you see this. Which one would you recommend boox nova air or the kobo sage? I mainly read and would note occasionally.
Thank you :) Well, they are quite different. Note Air 2 is a better product in practically every aspect when compared to Sage, but it is also considerably more expensive, larger, heavier and has a steeper learning curve. Sage can do plenty of things well, but it doesn't have a s good of a reader Experience as Note Air 2. If Note Air 2 is in your budget and not too big, it's hard to find a better device than that. Also, check the Nova Air. Same functionalities, lower price, size and weight :)
What about listening to audio books? If writing on the sage present battery issues, I would assume that listening to audio books would also tax the battery.
Yes it would, but I didn't test it because the pricing of Kobo audiobooks is very high, and I didn't want to spend that much on something I know I will absolutely never use. But yeah, it's a safe bet that audio books would also be taxing as it would involve some decoding on the CPU side, but more importantly, it would have constant Bluetooth transmission, and that spends battery on any device.
Hello thank you but still the libra 2 has the better battery for pure reading?
Absolutely.
@@MyDeepGuide thank you very much for the quick reply!
Super good update on Sage. Thanks!
How about the background? I found it too dark so the contrast seems poor. and I need a lot of light to see. Has elipsa or other devices a real white background? Or all of them are so dark?
Thank you for that précise answer to Kobo .that is clear
Many thanks for great review. What is the best 8 inch ebook reader by your pinion today? For me taking notes not important. May be Pocketbook InkPad 3 Pro, or Kobo Forma? Thanks in advance
SO just reading books and PDF files for 2-3 hours daily will the battery hold its own for at least couple of weeks or not? Also if kept in stand by with a magnetic cover closed how long will it last? Will it consume alot of juice from the battery? Thanks
i bought it - and awaiting its arrival. i liked the reading experience when i tested it at the gadget store. i do plan to use it for notetaking and annotating books and pdfs, but i am never away from a power source for very long. i have a lot of power banks - couldn't one just use a power bank versus the power cover? also, can it be used as usual with the power cover on it? i would consider the power cover if it can still be used while reading or taking notes. i am also wondering if any further updates have helped this situation. Another issue - did you turn off wifi and Bluetooth? sorry if i am missing that piece of information. i guess i am getting a little tired of my paperwhites small screen. i have the max2 and lumi2. so going to the paperwhite just isn't cutting it anymore.
I recently received my Kobo Sage in the mail. I have a quick question - I hope someone here can reply. When I plug in the Kobo to charge - two things happen 1. it turns on the device. So, I turn it off again. BUT, i do not get the battery charging indicator light on the device. Should not the LED light blink or stay solid when the device is charging? Another thing. When I plugged it in. It said battery is 3% and needs 11 hours to fully charge. then two hours later - battery is 99%, but then it says 3.6 hour until full.
I've been using the Sage extensively over the past 2 weeks and I can confirm that, no the light indication doesn't light up (I'm not sure it has any?), and as for the text, if you check it after a few minutes, not immediately, you will see that it will give you a more correct reading. The easiest thing is to flip it on to see the actual battery level and check that way, as this is a screen saver option that will not be accurate.
Something far weird that I noticed is that if I am in a book and reading, and I plug it in to charge, the buttons work, but the touch doesn't, and on my device it was 100% reproducible. Weird. But I still love it as a portable reader, I just wish the battery life was better.
@@MyDeepGuide thanks for the quick reply. there is a light there. when i plug the sage in - it will auto-start the device (and for a moment i see a white light) - that is similar to my iPad air2. i do not like that. I want to tell it when to turn on and off. if the light is not supposed to stay on - how does one know it is truly charging? i do have some cables that give indication - but i find it odd that the device doesn't indicate. as for your issue - i have not yet noticed that. but i have noticed that where i charge plays a role in how different devices react. some times if i use an ungrounded outlet - i will "feel" the electricity a little bit - and this creates some type of "electro-field" around the device and make touching the screen not work precisely (or at all). thanks for your reviews. just great. Are you using a screen protector on the sage? I have one on order. And I also ordered a renaisser raphael 520 as the stylus.
Thank you for sharing your experience. No, I don't use a screen protector, but that pen might be interesting to try, as the default Kobo pen is just so bad that I don't want to use it at all.
@@MyDeepGuide the interesting thing is the renaisser pen snaps to the kobo. it has a magnetic ability - i am not sure if that is a good idea or not - will it damage the internal memory of the sage. i dunno. the good thing is the pen is rechargeable and doesn't need a quad a battery.
Do you have any recommendations for an e-reader for manga? Thank you
Hey, have you seen the announcement for the new Boox Leaf? A 7inch reading only device is appealing to me as I'm not interested in the notetaking aspect. TFS :)
Yes, I've seen it and it looks interesting. I'm not sure if I'll be getting the review loan unit, but if I do, then I'll test it out and we'll see together what's it like :)
I had the sale problems of battery life with Kobo Elipsa. Can you do a similar analysis for the Elipsa?
I am around 6 hours with one charge… but only one full cycle. I hope it will improve… 😬 Could somebody confirm it should improve?
Did it improve?
@@mcul3474 Absolutely not!
Thanks for your work . It s important to be clear . Is it possible to take note with the fingers on sage ( without pen ) ?
No.
Thanks for this.
Battery life is critical for any device like this.
MAYBE you (OR SOMEONE) can help with this question. It's not about batteries. Where can I get a replacement cable for Kobo Sage? Can't even find it on Amazon. They have kobo cables but not for the Sage model. Kobo does NOT sell cables only---I checked with them.
The only cable Kobo Sage uses is a standard USB C cable, and for that you can use any USB C cable that is rated for data transfer and charging.
@@MyDeepGuide Thank you! I did find one thru Amazon.
forma seems better. i am going to buy the forma.
I guess this explains the battery cover
Has anyone found a good case for this (the sage) yet that includes a spot for the pen?
I ended up getting the regular case and then attaching a pen holder (built for the iPad pen) to the top of it. This setup works really well. But yes, battery life is not very impressive at all. ITs simply become a device I charge fairly often, which is true of many of my devices so not the worst thing in the world but definitely a bummer.
All the channels glossing over the battery life are just giving sales pitches instead of reviews. Likely because they rely on being given free review products so they don’t want to make any critical statements
Not really, it's much more likely that they don't do the battery testing at all, but instead just read the press release sheet they receive from Kobo and that's it. Proper testing takes time, and overwhelming majority of reviewers simply don't bother with actually reviewing a device. Instead, they regurgitate a press release blurb, dump a video online and move on to the next bit, inorder to produce more "content".
Dude - when do U plan to release a super duper LUMI 2 review? Just like U did LUMI 1 last year
Well, devices arrive in a certain order, and I do reviews in the first come first serve order. So, next in line is Libra 2 review, then Note Air 2 and then Max Lumi 2. So probably next week.
@@MyDeepGuide Thank You very much Sir - really appreciate it! Stay well!
Thank you! Same to you :)
I bought the sage 2 weeks ago! Still no power cover though!
How many hours of reading do you get? Thanks
@@neko_tizon Not sure, but I think it is plenty. to the point that it doesn't matter much.
I have also power cover, but buttery life is bad. Sage takes all the battery juice from power cover in 2 day without reading. It goes from 100% to 0. I am thinking it is not due to defective Power cover, but crazy battery on Sage.
Did you by any chance test battery life with audio books?
No, unfortunately I didn't have the time nor did I want to spend the very high fees for a test audiobook that I'll never use.
I hoped it was the review of the new Onyx Boox Leaf 😾
Did you get paid from Kobo for saying the long hours of reading?
No, I performed the test I described and reported the results. You can also check my Kobo Sage battery reporting to see if you still think Kobo pays me, and then, if you think that your initial comment and accusation was unfair and unwarranted, maybe you could apologize ;)
@@MyDeepGuide thank you for the clarification.