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Kobo or Kindle- Which eBook Suits your Style

Kamal Kaur

Kobo
Are you fond of reading? Reading gives knowledge and broadens our outlook for life. It generates the power to your mind. From print media gradually electronics media took hold of reading and the readership too. Coming of the internet changed the entire concept and method of reading. Reading on the website still not considered secure and soothing to mind with so many online pop ups, ads and other devices that connects to us online poses a struggle to the reader for consistent and mind free reading. Thus arose the need for e-reader. Though in the line of eBooks are many but Amazon has been the main player for bookstores and devices for eBooks.  With Kobo too now on its lead with Amazon there are but few other publishers who sell direct downloads and devices for eBooks.
Let us compare both Kindle and Kobo and see which one sounds better to a ebook reader.

  • Amazon is bigger market wise. It’s been in the game longer and has considerable advantage with publishers. That means the availability of books sooner and cheaper than Kobo. Thus helping the reader to save money and have the latest books too.

Kobo-1

  • Both devices let you buy and download books via Wi-Fi.
  • Kindle offers a platform for useful services like Kindle Unlimited which costs £7.99 and gives you unlimited access to 700,000 titles. Kobo doesn’t have anything like that.
  • Kobo can give you access to your local library.
  • Nor can the Kobo reader access the magazines available through the Kobo store, while the Kindle offers not just magazines but also newspapers.

Kobo 2

  • Kindle offers better formatting, color and photos that look good on your mobile devices and iPads.
  • Kindle also gets an email address so that documents can be sent to it in a variety of formats, and it’s even possible to have PDFs converted on the fly to the Kindle’s own format.
  • If you want to borrow from public libraries in the UK, most of them use Overdrive’s system for electronic loans, which requires an ePUB-capable reader, like the Kobo.
  • The Kobo supports Adobe Digital Editions, which means that you can authorise it to read books bought from any source that sells titles using that system.
  • Kobo and Kindle software support swift typing.
  • The Kobo also has a wider range of fonts to select from: eleven, compared to the eight of the Kindle. One of those is Open Dyslexic, which may be an important consideration. You can change line spacing and font weight as well as size, and turn justification off too. Kindle offers just three settings each for line spacing and margins, with no fine control.

Kobo 3

  • Cases are available for both devices
  • There is full black flash refresh of e-ink screens. On the Kobo, you can set the refresh to occur after between one and six page transitions.
  • The Kindle has a simple on/off setting. Turned on, you get the black flash for every page. Turn it off, and you’ll notice page updates seem a little more organic than on the Kobo, as if the letters are dissolving from one to another. This is the Regal waveform technology from e-Ink at work, which allows the Kindle to maintain a crisp display with far fewer refreshes. It’s configured to do one either every sixty pages or at the start of each new chapter, whichever comes first.
  • Both Kindle and Kobo can be connected to PC. Plug them in via USB and they’ll appear as a disk drive. You can drag and drop files such as PDFs, and then read them on device, pinching and zooming.
  • The settings screens on the Kindle are bolder and less minimalist than those of the Kobo. On the Kobo, you can tap anywhere in the middle of the screen to bring up the menus. On the Kindle, you have to tap at the top and when you do the various bits of on-screen furniture take up about twice as much space as on the Kobo.
  • Both have based on e-Ink’s six inch 300dpi Carta screen compact, touch-controlled device that will slip into your pocket, with built in Wi-Fi to provide instant access to their respective stores.
  • To manage books with other tools, such as Calibre available for both Kobo and Kindle. It allows you to organise titles into collections using the touch screen, so the main reason for using Calibre will be format conversion and managing large libraries.
  • In terms of format support, the Kindle is, as you would expect, largely reliant on Amazon’s ecosystem, though it will also handle text, HTML and RTF, along with the proprietary AZW3 plus PRC and MOBI files. Kobo supports EPUB and EPUB3, along with text, HTML, RTF and MOBI, as well as CBZ and CBR comic formats.
  • You can also link your Kobo to a Pocket account as well, which is a useful alternative to the way in which documents can be emailed to the Kindle. You can drag and drop files to both via USB.
  • Both the new Kobo and the Amazon Kindle costs  for £110 – though in the case of the Kindle, the version with Wi-Fi only and special offers on the lock screen.
  • The special offers costs an extra £10. Adding 3G for sync (and shopping) everywhere takes the Kindle to £170, or £180 without offers. That £60 is, presumably, what pays for your global “free” syncing. There’s only the one version of the Kobo, and it has Wi-Fi but no 3G.
  • There’s about 5mm more bezel above and below the screen on the Kindle than on the Kobo, and while the latter’s power button is on the top, the former has it on the bottom. Neither has any other controls as they’re both entirely touch screen driven.
  • The Kindle weighs 205g for the Wi-Fi-only version, compared to 180g for the Kobo. Both are light but feel comfortable to hold, with a textured surface on the back panel.

Should Buy Kobo If

  • Looking for larger screen than the 6″ industry standard
  • Care about typographic fidelity and customization
  • Are an avid Pocket user
  • Want to read on rainy weather conditions
  • You want the best front-lit display
  • Tolerate slow syncing
  • Willing to pay more- retails for $180
  • Don’t mind the limited highlighting functionality
  • You don’t want to borrow, lend, or otherwise share books
  • Do not want to have features like Vocabulary Builder, Word Wise, FreeTime, GoodReads integration, or X-Ray

Should Buy Kindle If

  • Prefer a smaller comfortable e-reader
  • Take chance for the sub-par typography in exchange for a stronger ecosystem
  • You use highlights a lot and want to have them accessible anywhere
  • You enjoy sharing, lending, and borrowing books
  • Prefer enhancements that help deepen the reading experience (X-Ray, Vocabulary Builder, etc.)
  • Wish to translate passages into different languages, or look things up on Wikipedia
  • You want to take advantage of kid-friendly functionality like FreeTime and Word Wise.
  • Want to look for Amazon’s reviews to make purchasing decisions, and you like paying the lowest prices for books or having the option to read unlimited books for a monthly fee.
  • Tolerate less even screen lighting
  • Understand limited customization of the interface .