[JonDavid]

I finally received my Paperwhite from the US and had the chance to compare directly next to the Kobo Glo. I may flesh out a review later, but the summary is that in my opinion they are virtually identical. The Kindle is a little bit bigger in the hand, a little bit heavier, but not unpleasantly so and would not sway me either way.

Unlit the Pearl screens looked the same and when the light was turned up to full on both they shone to about the same degree. Neither screen is perfect in the same way a backlit lcd is, but seriously this is very unrealistic. You can see a brighter banding running across the top of the Kobo and a small area of increased brightness in the lower left hand corner. The Kindle shows a similar lower left hand light and some unevenness along the bottom where the leds are as seen in some of the reviews. When the light is turned down to a level you would use it is just not very noticeable in my opinion. I was reading both in a pitch black room last night and only needed the light on about 2/3 brightness. Otherwise I could not see any real difference between the screens. Both are very good.

The speed and contrast are very similar and although I think I preferred the fonts and menu on the Kindle that is just personal taste. I like being able to email books to the Kindle too, but I think the benefits of the epub format and expandability would more than make up for that. All in all I haven’t decided which to keep, but unless you have a large Kindle library it isn’t worth going out of you way to get a Paperwhite if it is unavailable in your country as it is here in the UK.