Recommend an ereader?

Paid 59 for my kindle (not PW)
As gf had an old broke one for trade in.

Will have to be careful as it isn't waterproof.
But it's less than 1/2 price of PW so even if I break it. I can still get another and not be out of pocket.

If the PW is heavier I'm kind of glad I got this one
 
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Richie said:
Been doing a bit more research on this (bit of a rabbit hole TBQFH :o)…. I am kind torn between Kindle PW SE and the Kobo Libra Colour (similarly priced)



TBH, I am swaying more towards the Kobo, not specifically as its colour but mostly to stop me entering the walled garden that is Amazon/Kindle…. It seems like the Kobo is a bit more “open”? The Kobo also has the physical buttons.



Any users of the PW and Libra Colour here?
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You should be able to sideload any books on the kindle using something like Calibre - fairly sure it's been mentioned a couple of times in the thread. Other things to note, the Kindle can have ads in it, there's an option for no ads which adds to the cost. Kindle owners might be able to tell you how intrusive they are, but I believe you can 'upgrade' to no ads afterwards.

That said, something that I thought was kinda interesting is that with Kobo (not sure if it's all) you can set up a Calibre server and (from what I understood) redirect their store to be an interface for your Calibre server. Whether that has any practical use, no idea :p , but I thought it was interesting.

413x said:
Paid 59 for my kindle (not PW)
As gf had an old broke one for trade in.

Will have to be careful as it isn't waterproof.
But it's less than 1/2 price of PW so even if I break it. I can still get another and not be out of pocket.

If the PW is heavier I'm kind of glad I got this one
Click to expand...
Keep an eye on the kids ones if they go cheap at any point, they have accidental damage cover IIRC, i think also no adverts by default. Had one up for £50 the other day (older model) but was gone when i noticed it on HUKD.
 
Had my first evening's reading on my new Kindle Paperwhite last night. Having the back-lit screen really makes a big difference compared to my old Kindle which had no light of any kind. I also like the colour temperature adjustment, and the text is very sharp. Although I was slightly apprehensive about the touch-screen, it's actually fine :)

The only slight criticism I'd make is that the contrast between the text and the background is a little too low for me, but I'll play with the settings and see if I can improve that.
 
Anyone got recommendations for covers for the Kobo Libra Colour?

So many out there its a bit of a minefield :(
 
loftie said:
You should be able to sideload any books on the kindle using something like Calibre - fairly sure it's been mentioned a couple of times in the thread. Other things to note, the Kindle can have ads in it, there's an option for no ads which adds to the cost. Kindle owners might be able to tell you how intrusive they are, but I believe you can 'upgrade' to no ads afterwards.

That said, something that I thought was kinda interesting is that with Kobo (not sure if it's all) you can set up a Calibre server and (from what I understood) redirect their store to be an interface for your Calibre server. Whether that has any practical use, no idea :p , but I thought it was interesting.


Keep an eye on the kids ones if they go cheap at any point, they have accidental damage cover IIRC, i think also no adverts by default. Had one up for £50 the other day (older model) but was gone when i noticed it on HUKD.
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I think Amazon have locked down the new generation of Kindles so sideloading is a problem.
I have no doubt that sharper minds than mine will find a way around it, but for now I would take that into consideration when choosing.

I've been agonising between a Book Go Colour 7, a Kobo Libra Colour and a Kindle Coloursoft lately.
All have their strengths and weaknesses, none cover off everything that I really want.
I keep losing track of the pros and cons too, I should really get a list jotted down.

My Oasis is creaking of late and I think the battery is on it's way out, so I figured I'd consolidate that and my Pocketbook Inkpad Colour into a single device.
 
Quick update

So I'm glad I got the cheap one. The paper white is a bit heavy I have to say vs mine. And it does make a difference! I can see why the cheaper one is so popular!
 
Update here as well.

Got the Kobo Libra colour and I love it. I was worried I wouldn't get on with an e-reader as I prefer physical books but it really is very nice. I also love the fact that, if I forget my reader (or I am at work for instance), I can go onto the Kobo app on my phone and it syncs upto where I left off on the reader and vice versa.

Main things I like:
  • Being able to read in low light places e.g. bed and its all very legible unlike books where I need to turn the light up a bit.
  • The page turn buttons are definitely worth it. It makes it easier to hold it in 1 hand and read and turn the pages as my thumb rests on the forward button (bottom one). When I switch hands, I also rotate the device. Not only does the screen rotate, but the buttons also rotate so its ALWAYS the bottom button for forward for me
  • The dark mode is just immense and makes reading so much better than black text on white background
  • Sideloading - as easy as taking PDFs or e-Pubs and putting them in the Kobo folder in my Google Drive then just go to the "My Google Drive" part of the reader to download it (does it for DropBox too) - just needs you GDrive or DB account added on the device settings (all native)
  • Battery Life - I have done 4.5 hours of reading (from "Activity" tab) and its went to 75% charge so seems to be good for 16-18 hours of reading (only charged it the once)
  • Weight - comes in at 199.5g so feels like you're holding nothing.

The first image I took just before it dims the display into Sleep Mode (wanted to show the colour screen off a bit) so it's not normally that bright in Sleep Mode (about 2-3 secs after pressing power button)

PXL-20250106-200824872-MP-2.jpg
PXL-20250106-200923588-MP-2.jpg


PXL-20250106-200805839-MP-2.jpg



I'll still buy the physical books of the ones I really like but I will do all my reading on the Kobo now. Should have moved earlier :D
 
AndyCr15 said:
That's interesting, I don't think my Kobo does this. Do these books then also sync through the Kobo app to your phone?
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I am not sure... I am at work so only have my phone and, although I can access my GDrive files on the Kobo app (under Account then Import Items (under Sync heading)), it wont let me download from there (possible DRM protected?).... I know it will work on the Kobo device itself as I tried it out with the same files and they downloaded and opened

Once I get home, I will download a couple of books from my Google Drive onto the device and then see if it syncs to my phone app from there.

Note that the reader seems to only access the "Rakuten Kobo" folder within your Google Drive so all books need to be stored there on your Google Drive.
Also, only the Kobo Forma, Kobo Sage, Kobo Elipsa, Kobo Elipsa 2E, Kobo Libra Colour devices have the GDrive import feature - https://help.kobo.com/hc/en-us/articles/15335985512983-Add-books-to-your-eReader-using-Google-Drive


EDIT: From what I have read just now, only books purchased on the Kobo store will sync between the reader and the app (as in keep your progress). It wont do this for sideloaded books. I'll check tonight if I can access the books from the Android App that I have imported from my GDrive onto the reader.
 
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AndyCr15 said:
That's interesting, I don't think my Kobo does this. Do these books then also sync through the Kobo app to your phone?
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So it looks like it's a no. I downloaded a pdf book from my Google Drive via the Kobo Libra but it doesn't even show on my android app. I thought this might be a DRM problem so I installed Adobe Digital Editions on my android device and the Kobo and then authorised both devices. It still wont allow me to download form my GDrive to the phone and anything I download from GDrive via the Kobo wont show on my Android.

Not really sure what the point of allowing GDrive access on the Android app is for if you cant get anything :confused:
 
It looks like you might be able to sync progress on a Kobo if you use KOReader on it, but I'm not sure what is required for you to install KOReader on your Kobo or what you need to do to set up sync.

https://github.com/koreader/koreader/wiki

Progress Sync is the plugin for it, but there's not much info. I've got KOReader on my android tablet, it's ok, but I do prefer Librera so I use that.

I've also seen people mention that Calibre is able to handle the sync, but it'd require you hosting a calibre server. And, unfortunately, I can't remember what was needed on the Kobo, if anything. It might be to do with redirecting the Kobo store to look at a Calibre hosted library (done by editting a web address in a file on the kobo).

Setup Kobo Sync in Calibre-Web

Setup Kobo Sync in Calibre-Web Calibre-Web This guide assumes you’ve already setup Calibre-Web on a server of your choice.
brandonjkessler.com

So there may be solutions, albeit with some work, that work for syncing it all up if you're interested.
 
Yeah, in an ideal world I would like to manage ePubs in the cloud and have everything sync outwards from there, but I don't think that's possible. I looked at a server, but it was rather complex. If Cailbre sync'd through a cloud, that would be great, but as it stands I have to use my main PC for managing books on my Kobo and so can't add them from my phone or laptop.
 
So I tested out KoReader on my tablet and phone and once setup with a cloud storage, and then registering with KoServer in the app, i does appear to sync progress across my tablet and phone.

So what I did was, placed epub in cloud
Setup webdav on both phone and tablet
Download epub via cloud on tablet and then phone
Set sync up on both using the same login details

However, it's not perfect as while it does sync it, the page layouts are different so it's not like it lines up correctly. What may be at the top on my tablet, might be in the middle on my phone and after playing with it for a bit I've not found a way to get it to be the same. :(

For note - I created a Koofr cloud storage account for it, after failing to understand how to get dropbox to work and I saw people mention Koofr, and connected it via webdav. Threw a random epub on there and began testing.

As for Calibre - you could always run your own server for it (unless this is what you meant), I think it'd run on something like a Raspberry Pi. Not sure how the progress syncing works on that. And if you don't have a static IP you'd need a DDNS, which you can get from DuckDNS.

Though this is getting a bit off topic. If the Calibre server thing is a bit daunting, you could always ask on here, there's bound to be someone who has set something similar up. Though not sure which forum would be best.
 
Got my lad the basic kindle for christmas, i mean what more do you need it to do other than supply the book and light up? got good battery life so highly recommended.
 
loftie said:
However, it's not perfect as while it does sync it, the page layouts are different so it's not like it lines up correctly. What may be at the top on my tablet, might be in the middle on my phone and after playing with it for a bit I've not found a way to get it to be the same. :(
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Its the same for my e-reader, phone and browser experience. I think this will be mainly down to the screen size and font size used. I mean, if I change the font size on my e-reader, the "x of xx" changes too - so, if it says "1 of 20" and then I shrink the font, it will say "1 of 16" as it can fit that chapter into less "pages" (screens)

I doubt you can fix this TBH
 
AndyCr15 said:
When you say tablet, do you mean eReader? For tablet and phone sync I would just use Google Play Books, no?
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No, android tablet. I don't read on my phone as I just don't find the experience enjoyable, i was just testing out the cloud storage/sync on KoReader :)

Though I've not touched Google Play books in ages (literally years) so I've know nothing about it TBH. I use Librera on my tablet, which I don't think has a sync function, but can connect to a Calibre Library server (if I had one!).
 
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