My Kobo Aura One has died, so I’m looking for a replacement.
No larger than the Aura One (7.8" diagonal). My older Glo (6") was fine.
eInk display. (Or I’d just use my phone.)
Ideally, a slightly more responsive touchscreen, or at least one that one can calibrate when it drifts.
I will load on ePub (and other format) files from my own collection. I do not care about network connectivity, OverDrive, shopping interfaces, etc.; the fewer of these are present, the better. (So Kindle is probably out.)
There seem to be quite a few recent Kobo models with no obvious reason to choose one over another. Anyone have experience? Or want to recommend a non-Kobo option?
I don’t think it’s an entirely unbiased news and review site (mainly because they sell e-readers) but it does feature pretty much everything on the market, including various models that use Android as their base. Gives a good idea of what’s available, at least.
My current reader is a Kobo Libra 2. I switched from a Kindle Oasis 2 because I was increasingly irritated with the changes Amazon was making to the Kindle OS UI and the several different technical issues I was routinely experiencing, like certain books (as best as I can tell) breaking the indexing so it would reboot every 10-20 minutes (slowly, of course) and burn through a ton of battery in the process. So far the Libra has hit all the same highs (like blessed physical page turn buttons) for significantly less money. It’s also more stable, has direct on-device integration with the Overdrive system for library books, natively supports epub, etc etc. Unfortunately it does have some of the things I didn’t like about Kindle UI changes, like a home page that advertises the store to you instead of defaulting to My Books, and a vertically scrolling My Books page. But they’re less obtrusive and the Home screen does have the advantage of giving you a quick tap into a collection of other books by whatever author you’ve most recently read. And it doesn’t have a mysterious, annoying gesture I only ever activate unintentionally that resizes the text on me. Though the flip side is that weirdly, Kobo store/library books have a significantly smaller font than the stuff I’m loading from my own collection, so I keep having to swap size settings when I switch between the two types of book.
Also, it has a (sold separately) cover that will fold into a stand for the book, which is great. I honestly don’t know exactly what else is out there, I’ve pretty much only used Kindle and Kobo. But while I still think Kindle is a pretty good experience overall (and a much better store experience, on the web) and wouldn’t tell people not to do Kindle, I do think I’d recommend Kobo more, and certainly more so than Kindle given your particular parameters. I definitely wouldn’t recommend the top end model (I forget what it’s called) to you though as it’s larger than your top end and the big selling point seems to be stylus support for making notes on ebooks. Unless you need to do that, which I don’t (but my girlfriend does, as she edits stuff that way), that’s an easy $100+ saved. I can vouch for the Libra 2 being excellent so far. I personally would not go for any device without page turn buttons as I despise relying on the touchscreen for that, especially in Minnesota’s climate as someone who reads while waiting for a bus outdoors not infrequently. But if you don’t have that particular hangup the new Clara’s probably good too? IDK.
Oh, so much this. I’ve had a kindle for quite some time, and it’s now hard to use. What the fuck, amazon? You had a thing that excellent, and you’ve made it suck enough that I am not buying another. (the actual reading experience is still mostly fine, though they’ve made the controls for font sizes harder to use. But the ‘find a book you know you have’ part sucks. And it changes drastically with no notice. Pick the thing up, and oh, new kindle os version, new UI.
I do not care about network connectivity, OverDrive, shopping interfaces, etc.; the fewer of these are present, the better. (So Kindle is probably out.)
It seems Kindle is also out because you want to use the epub format. Which I understand very well, it is the reason I don’t use a Kindle.
But I have a German brand reader, so that’s not a big help for you.
I have been looking into a new one because my K-Oasis has terrible software and whenever I try to read on it I get a migraine–and I read a lot on other devices that do not give me migraines. So either it is bad luck that I tend to read novels when a migraine is due or something is off with the device (it is not new, I have had it for … years)
Being in Germany, I am currently looking at Pocketbook or Tolino devices. Probably going with Pocketbook as it seems to be a little less bound to any one eco-system.
What are everyone’s current eInk devices? Are you happy with them? How is the software on them?
PS: my partner is looking into eInk tablets for note-taking. Any advice on that would also be welcome.
Extremely happy with the Libra 2, though I load up ePubs down the USB cable rather than using anything with DRM or onboard shops. Excellent form factor, decent screen, and I find the orientation sensor surprisingly useful - you can set it to portrait-mode-only, and then when changing hands flip it over so that the page buttons are under the thumb.
I still have my Tolino vision 5 and I am happy with it.
It is great for reading books and I use it a ton.
But it is just the second ebook reader I own. The first one (a Sony) I bought 2011 and this one like 2 years ago because the Sony was worse and worse to work with… I kept it way too long to be honest.
So I don’t have a lot to compare my experiences with. I think it is fast enough switching pages, I like the software for what I need too. But it could also probably be better.
With software I mostly (mostly) meant the library organization, and how easy it is to configure the display of the page eg I like to see how far I am in the book and my kindle keeps forgetting that I enabled that setting and then I have to go look for it.
Also I find the integrated shop really obnoxious these days. It seems less about me reading and more about me buying more books. I don’t want that anymore. I only used it very occasionally on kindle way back when… these days I use Calibre to push files to my reader so my flow does not need any shop on the device at all.
OK, Kobo seems to work well for these things. I don’t like Calibre so I wrote some code to furkle the series data for me (but the onboard database is SQLite3, so that’s quite easy…)
Main display, I can’t get rid of the “find your next great read” or “discover books” bar at the bottom, but that’s it. (The one on the right changes to push Overdrive, or audiobooks, etc., but I’ve only noticed it when looking now.)
“Collection” display, where I spend most of my non-reading time. Title and author are pulled automatically off the epub, series data (small caps) get installed by nefarious means.
I can second the Libra 2 being very solid and I moved to it specifically because I hate what Amazon is doing with the Kindle onboard UI. I am also appreciating the fairly direct Overdrive integration and e. g. the tab on the front screen where it pulls out other books on your device by the most recent author you read so you can binge a particular author’s works easily if you so choose (and I often want to) and being able to have progress onscreen at all times.
I have a Kindle and it’s been in Aeroplane Mode since the day I got it, so I believe that none of that other stuff is in any way required to use the device.
I can actually answer that, a bit - it’s because the ePub standard doesn’t make any provision for it.
Kobo’s answer is: if you buy from the Kobo store, an extra process will manipulate the database after the file has been imported.
My answer is: put tags into the ePub file (I use the same ones Calibre uses, for convenience), then write a hingmy that will scan the Kobo’s filesystem and database and push in series information where it’s needed. (I haven’t published this because it’s messy and horrible, as anything working with third-party XML tends to be IME, but it seems to work.)
I went with the Pocketbook Inkpad4. And I am quite happy with it after fiddling with the settings. The new darkmode is disappointing. It might improve if I set the page to refresh every time … but darkmode is really more to do with backlit displays… so why bother.
I managed to remove the shop icon and replace it with the pretty decent Sudoku App that is on there
And I have already finished reading 1 book and I am happy to report the strain on my eyes seems far lessened compared to my old kindle.
I got mine on Tuesday. Friday I showed it to a friend (along with my kindle) who had asked for recommendations. She ended up ordering the Pocketbook Era model which has a bit smaller screen more 7“ than 8“ and is a bit cheaper (not that much).
