I don’t think this is thread-shitting. I was looking for any and all options on e-readers. I will tell you one thing that I really like about the iPad as an eReader: reading magazines or text with lots of graphics. I like to read ATK cooking magazines. It’s a much better experience on the iPad.
I bought one for myself (it was expensive, about as much as the original Kindle), and I really like it too. I have a perfectly functional Kindle Paperwhite, but I had an itch to spend some money on something so I picked this. What I like best about it is the bigger page format, so that you just don’t have to turn the page as often.
Including the library, at least a lot of them. My library has OverDrive which has tens of thousands of Kindle-format ebooks available for free for up to 3 weeks per book.
My history of ebook readers: My father bought me an original Kindle when they were still $350, and I loved it. I still have it, it would probably still work, but after the prices came down and they had a newer, smaller, lighter model, I got one of those. I liked it better than the original, but I think it stopped working after 2 or 3 years. Then I bought a Nook, because I liked the idea of being able to get it at my local B&N store (yes, they still had those then). Unfortunately I left it on a plane after a couple of years, so that’s when I bought my Paperwhite, which has been great ever since. As I said above, I only bought the new Oasis because I wanted to spend some money. One thing I don’t like about it is the cover, which only attaches magnetically, and is stupid expensive for just a cover. It is the only one available so far (variations in color and material only) so I’m waiting for someone else to make something I like better. Also I wish they would call this new Oasis by a distinctive name because when I search for “Kindle Oasis cover” all I get are covers for the earlier Oasis.
I don’t think it’s thread-shitting either. The biggest decision you have to make when you’re in the market for an e-reader is whether to get a tablet (of some sort) or a dedicated, e-ink e-reader(of some sort), or possibly one of each. They both have their advantages and disadvantages, and Fenris and others have done a pretty good job of spelling out what those are.
I’ve been mostly reading library books on my kindle.
the cover is also a supplementary battery.
I got the cover in suede. It feels wonderful to hold, but it started looking “beat up” by the end of the first day I used it. I’m okay with that. Call it “patina”. But it’s something to be aware of if you are shopping.
I’ve got a Kobo Aura and I love it. Waterproof, battery lasts for about a month, decent size screen so I’m not constantly “turning” pages and I’ve loaded lots of books off gutenberg.org with no issues. My only gripe is the lack of fancy covers for it but that’s pretty minor.
Forgive me for being nitpicky, but I wanted to mention that Calibre requires a plugin to remove DRM. If you install Calibre and load your Kindle books into it, it will tell you sorry, those books are encrypted. It won’t prompt you to install a plugin, or even tell you that the plugin exists; you’re on your own with that.
I’ve owned three Kindles, and it drives me crazy that the “official” Amazon covers are all insanely overpriced and not very protective. For the most part, the alternatives are limited to cheaply-made faux-leather cases and expensive handmade covers on Etsy. :mad:
I have owned an e-book reader of some kind or another since 2000 and I switched from a dedicated one to using a Lenovo Yoga tablet a few years ago. It does have the drawback of not being great in a bright light environment, but the form factor with the rounded edge on one side makes it easy to hold and the battery runs for days even when having bluetooth enabled in order to listen to music.
Using a Kindle was never a consideration since it did not support ePub (and still does not). Sure you can convert an ePub to a format that the Kindle can read, but why should you need to? Also, Overdrive (the platform that many libraries use for lending e-books) did not support kindle until 2011, so I would not have been able to borrow books. If formats supported is a consideration, which it is for me, the kindle is not an option.
I had high hopes for an e-book reader using the Qualcomm Mirasol display, but alas they did not get enough market share to be profitable.
But to get to the original question, a good place to find out about the differences in e-book readers is the goodereader site. That is where I have gone when evaluating e-book readers as well finding out other things related to electronic books.
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Only for the first Oasis. For the second Oasis, the battery is all in the device.
I have the new Oasis. It’s a fantastic device. Love e-ink readers - love the lack of eye strain, the battery life, being able to read in the sun, and with the new Oasis I don’t have to worry about it raining either. One day I’ll get a cover for it, but it’s ok bare (so far).
Thanks, I guess I installed it so long ago that I forgot that.
Thanks, I was confused, I guess. I have the new oasis, and actually, I was wondering how to tell if the cover had charged. I guess it doesn’t. 
I’m quite happy with this device. When I first got it, the battery discharged very quickly, and I was worried about it. But I guess there are battery-draining things that new Kindles do. Since then, I’ve just been using it to read, mostly in airplane mode, and it seems to go weeks between needing to be charged at the rate I’m using it. (I also turned the light from “auto brightness” to “8”)
I think—correct me if I’m wrong—that nowadays, almost every source for e-books, except for those tied to a specific brand of e-reader (as Amazon is with its Kindle and Barnes & Noble with its Nook), offers them in multiple formats, including both ePub and something like mobi (which the Kindle reads). So this would be a consideration only for someone who already had a collection of e-books that they didn’t want to worry about converting.
Kobo is a major seller of e-books and all of them are ePub, many with DRM which can be imported into the e-book reader of your choice using Adobe Digital Editions. Barnes and Noble e-books technically are ePub and there are ways to download them as well so that you can upload them to your choice of e-book reader (not as easy as it is for items purchased from Kobo). Additionally, there are sellers of e-books in Europe that only use ePub (with or without DRM) and they have content not available on Amazon or other sources.
The bottom line is that ePub is the most widely used format, and has been supported for a long time by a large number of e-book readers except Kindle (with Amazon Fire as an exception). If you want your content to be portable between devices, then you want devices that support the most formats or at least the most widely used format. That might not be consideration for everyone, but it has been a consideration for me.
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Thanks. I guess I have an America-centric perspective.
That was a consideration for me when I bought my first Kobo as I didn’t want to be tied to one seller’s ecosystem. That’s less of an issue now but I still like my Kobo and going into Chapters/Indigo when I’m in the city.
I used to have a Nook. I liked it, but the convenience of the Kindle was too appealing. I like just having stuff delivered straight from the library (well, straight from the library/Amazon connection).
My Kindle really likes to start lagging now, after a few hours of use. It’s about 3.5 years old. I haven’t decided whether to pull the trigger on another e-reader yet.
A little late because I don’t often look at Cafe Society so missed this thread; linked into it from a new thread in IMHO.
I didn’t like Kindle because of the proprietary format. I happily used a Nook for several years until it died. Now it’s Kobo for me; open format, the same quality hardware as Kindle and Nook, and vastly superior software.
I’ll look into the Kobo. Thank you.
I can’t speak to the difference between the Kindle and the Kobo. The Kindle used to have the better e-ink technology but I think Kobo has come a long way. What I will say is this:
I have a Kindle Paperwhite and for a while I wondered why I’d bothered, since I enjoyed reading books on my 7" tablet. It grew on me over time and I gradually realized what a fantastic device it was. It isn’t sexy like a tablet, which is bright and colorful, and continues to be a good device for reading books with a lot of color illustrations, like Isaacson’s latest Da Vinci bio. What the Kindle is, however, is that it’s like a paper book. Ink on paper isn’t flashy or impressive, but it’s the thing that you really want to read on, long term. And the Paperwhite adds to that by letting you do the reading in dim light or even darkness, which is a wonderful plus. For those who may not know, it does that through a clever system of front illumination – it isn’t backlit. Another plus is that it’s lighter and smaller than a tablet, and the battery lasts for weeks. And then the fact that, being explicitly designed for reading, the display and controls are optimized just for that.
That wasn’t a comment on Kindle vs Kobo vs Nook so a bit of a digression, but it was to address the comments about tablets being just another kind of e-reader. They can be, but only for occasional use, IMHO. For a lot of reading I really very much prefer a true e-ink device. BTW, I dislike both of Amazon’s default fonts, the terrible Cecilia on earlier Kindles, and the new Bookerly that they’re so proud of. I just set it to “Baskerville” as the default. It’s a beautiful old classic print font, and its delicate serifs display beautifully on newer hi-res Kindles.
I am bumping this old thread because I am limping along on my very old Kindle Fire and was unwilling to buy another Kindle when my Paperwhite stopped working. (Here is me explaining it, but it’s not interesting.)
Now I am considering a Kobo Clara BW, because I want to have eInk so I can read in bright sunshine. (I can’t on my ancient Fire) and that’s about all I care about. 99% of the time I would use it to read library books.
So basically wanting to hear updates on those with Kobos and any alternatives like other tablets that can be read in bright sunlight. But so far, those I’ve seen are way too expensive. A new Kobo is $140.
I have a Kobo Libre BW that I use and like it.
I think Kindles are generally a bit better, and I would’ve stayed with that ecosystem if not for Amazon.com mistreating their delivery workers. Had various Kindles for a decade and switched to Kobo a few years ago. The Kindle was the thing I missed the most, especially with the keyboard and built in internet.
But for reading, both are very similar, though you do lose your entire library of Kindle books if you switch companies, unless you use Calibre to strip their DRM and transfer them over.
On the Kobo I use Overdrive to search ebooks from my library and read them that way. They also have their own subscription service with a decent selection.
I like that it has physical buttons and is waterproof. I’ll read it in hot tubs while traveling.
Overall I think Kindle has a better selection though. There are ebooks that are only available on Kindle and nowhere else. But I’m still happy with my Kobo.
I also have an iPad mini. But reading on eink is much more comfortable, especially in sunlight. You can get good glare protectors for tablets that make them a bit better, but still not as good as eink.
They have color versions too now (if you care). They’re still eink, just with washed out colors.
Are you saying a Kobo at $140 is too expensive, or that tablets are more expensive so you’d rather get a Kobo?
I don’t think you’ll find many options much lower than $100 unless you go used. But there are also cheap Samsung tablets if you’d rather go that way. I would not recommend them… cheap Android tablets are all sorts of jank. The Kobo is slow (because eink) but relatively user friendly and polished enough.
I’m saying tablets are more expensive - at least if they have the Eink so that one can read in bright sunshine - so I would get a Kobo for $140. At least, that is my current plan.
I will never get a kindle again.