Kobo for a casual reader
Howdy,
Just this morning I got a wild hair and started thinking about replacing my older Kindle Paperwhite, mostly because something with a a USB-C port would be nice to have. I'm still not sure I'll actually do this, as my Kindle works just fine, occasionally needing a reboot is about the extent of it, as well as the reading time can get janky here and there.
Based on what I'm reading about Kobo, it seems like it offers a bunch of features I'll never use or be interested in. I do not care about customization. I don't borrow from the library. I don't mind buying from Amazon. I rarely read books more than once, so I almost never go back through my collection to see what I have. I don't like ads (I have a PiHole, for example), but the ads on Kindle don't bother me, my brain skips over them, never even noticing. And by casual reader, I mean I read maybe 5-10 books a year, so my Kindle often just sits by my bedside, gathering dust for a spell.
Basically all I do is pick up my Kindle, unlock it and get back to reading whatever I had been, then close the case and set it aside. I like that I can read on the Kindle app on my phone if I've forgotten my Kindle at home. I do read lots of samples on it.
Kobo seems nice and I like an excuse to migrate away from a major corporation, but it's more expensive than a Kindle (I've bought both my Kindles I've owned, used for $40) and seems to offer little that I care about over the Kindle. I'm well aware I can transfer my purchases over, but I'm not sure I care or want to bother with the hassle, so I'm wondering if a Kobo would be at all the right choice and am looking for opinions.
Thanks!
Why would you buy a new device if the one you have is still perfectly serviceable? You're not even using it that much. It reads like you're looking for validation to buy a new toy. I get that, everyone likes shiny new things, but the honest answer is "no, you don't need a Kobo, your Kindle is still more than fine".
Edit: if you want to feel good by not giving money to Amazon, Calibre can help you transfer any ebook to/from your Kindle.
I've used Caliber a couple of times for public domain stuff, so I am familiar with it.
I'm more thinking out loud here. I'm not likely to replace my Kindle soon, as again, it works just fine; I've just been hearing a lot about Kobo and started looking into it and found a lot of stuff that didn't compel me, so I figured I'd ask for when the time does come around that I'd like an upgrade.
More than likely when I do upgrade, I'll simply sell my old Paperwhite, as I did with my previous Kindle.
Agreed here. If OP has money burning in their pocket, donate to a local library (they usually have a Friends of the Library non-profit), or to anything else.
I moved from Kindle to Kobo and am glad I did. It is exactly the same experience, except more open. The things you mentioned are boons to me - I love to be able to borrow from the library straight from the device. But you'd be basically paying a little more to move away from Amazon. That was my primary motivation for the move over to Kobo, and I've been glad to have an equally pleasant experience outside of the Amazon ecosystem. But Kobo doesn't subsidize their hardware with their giant online retail monopoly, so the Kobo itself does cost more.
I also got the Kobo for ability to link to my library card through Libby. Before I had my e-reader I was very much like the original poster here - I would read maybe 5-10 books a year. I got the Kobo in April and I'm on track for 50+ books this year. I love reading, so it's been a quality of life improvement for me. I can also add books I already have through Google Drive, or load it up with a few academic articles before a long car ride. My one criticism is that it's a pain in the ass to add notations, the keyboard types very slowly and doesn't intuitively switch between caps/lowercase, but if you're not a note-taker it's not an inconvenience.
All in all, given the ability to make the choice again I would definitely buy a Kobo, but other peoples' mileage may vary.
Oh, I forgot about that. I love that I can finally transfer things to my e-reader via Google Drive. Some books from indie publishers are just pdfs, and I'm thrilled that I can stop using a cord to transfer stuff.
I mean....sounds like the answer is no? I have a pocketbook era because I despise DRM on purchased products and because I have a lot of audiobooks so having something with a speaker built in was nice.
If you want dirt cheap and don't care about amazon's practices, then yeah Kobo's probably not for you as there's just more paperwhite's out there to pick up used.
I had a similar feeling a couple months ago and ordered myself a Kobo Clara (didn't want/need the color screen) and regretted it within days. The UI was clunkier than my 2018 Kindle Paperwhite, it ran way too slow, and the font options/layout customization weren't satisfying. It just wasn't worth it when my Kindle still worked fine. I returned the Kobo; maybe I'll try it again when they release a new one.
Looks like it depends on which model of Clara @ntngps is talking about.
Sauce: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kobo_eReader
I got the Clara 2E and was really disappointed what a drag the UI is. Like 4 times out of 5 it doesn't even register a page turn. Selecting text is a chore, where I sometimes spend several tries highlighting the characters I want. Half the time I just give up. My Kindle from ten years ago was a smoother experience..
I was looking at the Libra as I really would have liked physical buttons, but several reviewers said the buttons weren't that great.
Apparently many people had buttons where you had to press exactly in the center for it to register.
Maybe we have different definition of quick, as the Libra has the same processor and I would not in a million years call this "quick".
Can’t speak for the highlighting since I don’t really do that, but I’ve got a Libra and the physical page turn buttons work great. I’ll never get an ereader without them.
If you're a tinkerer, you can root most Kobos and install an alternate reader app like KOReader or Plato which provide a ton more customization on fonts and layouts and stuff. I've used KOReader on my Kobo Forma before and it works pretty well once you get past the initial rooting/installation stuff, but I've gone back to the stock reader lately because it's good enough for me.
Unfortunately it doesn’t work on the 2E without freezing once in a while :(. Additionally the Asian language support I hear is quite difficult to get working and requires some hacky workarounds.
I am a relatively casual reader and I'm really happy with my Kobo Forma.
I put it into sideloaded mode which means I can leave wifi permanently disabled, and don't have to log in to any accounts. Basically I just plug it into my computer and mount it as a USB storage device, copy over whatever DRM-free ebook I want to read next, unplug it, and then that book stays open on the device until I'm finished with it and want to load up the next one. It's clean and simple and works great for me.
The main catch with sideloaded mode is you're locked out of DRM ecosystems (for example you can't read books from Amazon because they're locked to Kindles, and also can't read DRM-protected books even if you bought them from the Kobo store because you need to be logged in for those). So you're limited to stores and ebooks that offer DRM-free downloads, going through the rigamarole of stripping DRM from purchased books, or setting sail on the high seas.
edited to add--Kobo does have a phone app that syncs your read progress (if you don't use sideloaded mode), but it only works for books purchased from the Kobo store. It doesn't sync progress for any DRM free books you manually copy onto your devices.
I love my Kobo ... for all of the reasons that you've given as features that you don't care about. For me, those features are defining qualities on which it is better than Kindle. It sounds like you don't need the things that make Kobo great. I would suggest sticking with your Kindle.
I mostly use my iPad for reading, with my last reader being a non-paperwhite Kindle with clicky buttons.
Personally, I'd probably go with a Kobo simply because it's owned by Rakuten. I like Japan and would rather support their relatively small software industry than further US hegemony. It's certainly better to strengthen competition than letting Amazon and B&N mostly control book distribution.
Kobo is a Canadian company, they're just owned by Rakuten.
I got a Kobo Clara 2E because my extremely old Kindle Keyboard no longer worked (even after replacing the battery). I also wanted to move away from Amazon.
I found a way to enable a simple "sideload mode" on the 2E, which disables its online functionality and essentially makes it an "offline reader" that you load up with books via USB. It also cleans up the interface a bit. There are also some third-party configuration/firmware things you can use to truly customize things. With sideload mode, it makes it so you can't use DRM-based stuff like books you get from the Kindle or Kobo stores, which is fine with me because I avoid DRM anyway (and passionately hate it)
But in sideload mode it's the perfect reader for me because I want full manual control over loading e-books on the device directly. I'm not picky, and because the last e-reader I used was one from 14 years ago, the Kobo doesn't feel "slow" or clunky or bad at all and I've not had issues with it that others have mentioned.