Kobo Touch e-reader

Hamster

Hamster

Hamster

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Anyone have or tested one of these or e-readers and if so what is your opinion? They're on sale at WHSmith for £90 and I was thinking of getting one. Originally I was going to buy a Kindle but this one seems to have better pdf handling ability and also plays more book formats. I'm not really fussed about not being able to buy books from the Amazon library.
 
Thanks for the replies. I'll have a look at more reviews but from what I've read so far it seems pretty decent. I'm intending to use the reader mainly for books but also mainly monochrome technical pdf documents. I quite like the e-ink as I've used a Kindle but not had a look at the Kobo yet. I think I'll pop into WHSmith and see what it looks like. Also I'm not getting an ipad as an ebook reader!! If I wanted to read on a tablet I've got a Touchpad for that.
 
Tomsk said:
Any eink ereader with 6" (or 5") display will not be very good with technical pdfs due to lack of screen resolution.
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Ah you've got a good point there :) I'll put a couple of pdfs onto a microsd card and take it with me to Smiths and see what they look like. The kobo does zoom in but I'm not sure to what extent.
I'll also try and find a Kindle keyboard and have a go on that. Anyone know where there may be a demo version on display?
 
Tomsk said:
How about the blurring when you move your eyes or turn your head? :p




The slow refresh of eink means that zooming in and scrolling around is a pain.

I used to have a kindle DX (9.7" screen, 1200x825 res). That could display pdfs one page at a time, but the software wasn't very good.
I now have a kindle (non-touch) and pdfs display better on it, but it has a low screen res and associated problems - zooming, scrolling.
I now use a tablet (Archos 80G9 1024x768 {IMO minimum res required for full page pdf display}) for pdfs.
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Thanks. I do know now that it will probably look even worse instore as there has been recent firmware to improve refresh rates amongst other things and the likelihood of Smiths updating the firmware regularly is probably quite small.
 
dcsarge said:
I have bought one for my mum's birthday after looking at them in WHSmiths the other day. My wife has a Kindle and we were going to get one of the new models but the Kobo swayed me.

It is very well made and the screen is on par with the Kindle. The page turns on the Kobo demo model had a slight lag initially but then it was quite quick to swipe page after page. It was still slightly slower to re-draw than a Kindle but not enough to ruin the experience.

There are two things that sold it to me as a better option though. The ability to change the font size is very useful and the fact it uses the ePub format. Bristol Libraries are just starting a year long trial of lending ebooks in this format and there is no way to use a Kindle, which makes it a much better gift in my mind (although this may not be a killer feature for other buyers).

You don't get a mains charger in the box, only a USB lead, but most phones use the same connector now anyway. Also, I wasn't impressed by the limited selection of cases and the one with built in light isn't as sleek as the Kindle equivalent but again that is my impression and not something my mum will use at home.

I wouldn't mind one myself as I tend to go to the library rather than by books these days (my wife spends enough on Amazon for both of us).
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How did I miss your post :D Thanks for that review. Libraries around here are a bit behind technologically and when I asked last time I popped in they said that it probably won't be in the very near future. The facility to borrow books may prove handy then.

Did you update the firmware and notice much of a positive change with the refreshing issue?
 
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Had a look at the Kobo Touch at Smiths today and took a Kindle keyboard with me to compare. No real issues with the refresh times, it was quick enough with pdf files and not too bad at zooming into diagrams. It's also a nice compact device and the touchscreen works very well. The thing that put me off though was the contrast. Compared to the Kindle, the background was a little brighter and the text didn't stand out as well on the page even after trying all the different fonts and sizes. To look at the Kindle was far easier on the eye and seemed a lot more comfortable to read.
 
A 'free' Kindle 4 should be on the way to me soon.
There was an offer of one as an incentive to open a 12month cash ISA with better interest than my current one so I readily took it up! Quite a few (thousand) books to choose from at Project Gutenberg :)
 
Tomsk said:
There's quite a few free (and 99p) books on Amozon as well.
I've had an ereader for about two and half years now and probably spent less than £50 on ebooks, because of the free and cheap book offers I've found.
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Thanks, I'll have a look. Do I need to have the Kindle before downloading books from Amazon?
 
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