Kobo WiFi ereader, one man’s opinion of this ereader:
Ben Crawford, a Brisbane based IT Developer after having used it for some time, has written this review of his Kobo ereader for this blog so it it is a well considered and experience based assessment of this popular ereader, and thus, I hope will be of use to anyone out there who is trying to make up their mind as to which ereader they should buy themselves.
So, the word is now with Ben….. Read on……
My kobo review:
After using the kobo for a few months now, it is probably easier for me to say what I don’t like about it than what I love about it.
Although it comes loaded with 100 books (and I have read some), there is no way of getting them off the kobo except to delete them in Calibre.
The pc software that comes with the kobo sucks, there is no library management, and all you can do is search the Borders online store. I found it so hard to use this software that after a few days of failed attempts, I removed it from the pc and installed Calibre.
It takes a little while to load when you power it up each time. While this is not a real problem, it would be good to have a faster load time.
It always attempts to load any new content from the SD card, even when there is none. And when there is it takes a little longer than expected to load the new books.
The data entry is a pain as there is only the D-pad for entering data (during setup, online, etc). Due to this (and that I don’t need to) I have not used the online features to purchase any new books.
I find that the screen size is a little too small for the different text sizes that are available. If they increased the screen by 0.5cm each way the text would fit a little better, but now I’m getting picky…
Other than that, the kobo is great.
It’s easy to use.
Easy to load books on (with Calibre).
Easy to charge.
I love it. I think that I have read more books since xmas than I did all last year.
With thanks to Ben for this pithy review:
Ben makes a number of good points about the Kobo I feel, which I hope the good people at Kobo will take note of in future Firmware updates and ereaders they produce. but I note that he also mentions something that many people are finding once they have their own ereaders, and that is that they read many more books now than they ever did before owning one.
This doesn’t seem to be a temporary effect either, I know people who have owned ereaders now for several years, and they all agree, they read much more now, and watch less TV, which has to be a good side effect of ereaders in my view, and one that encourages me me a lot.
Price:
Around USD 140
Specifications:
- Colors: Porcelain, Black
- Device Size: 7.2” x 4.7” x 0.40” (184 x 120 x 10 mm)
- Weight: 200g (7.05 oz)
- display size: 6” E Ink 800×600 pixels 8 level grayscale for original Kobo, 16 levels for WiFi version.
- Memory: 1 GB (No. of Books): 1000
- Memory Expansion: SD card (32GB max)
- Font sizes: 5
- Choice of Font Styles: Serif and SansSerif
- Pre-loaded content: 100 FREE, complete eBooks
- File Formats: ePub, PDF, Adobe DRM
- Connectivity: USB, Wi-Fi
- Battery: up to 8,000 page turns
- 4 way navigation buttons: Home, Menu, Back, Display, center select.
Share with us:
Any thoughts on Ben’s various points? Do drop a comment here to share them with everyone else.
