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Old 03-06-2012, 02:48 PM   #1181
mgmueller
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Posts: 3,308
Karma: 13024950
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Augsburg (near Munich), Germany
Device: 26 Readers, 44 Tablets
touch: Kobo vs. Sony vs. Kindle vs. nook

For now, starting with Kobo and Sony.
I'll add nook and Kindle in about 1 week, as soon as I've got them from the US.

Speed for turning pages:
Sony: My gut feeling at first was differently. The OS isn't that responsive, this probably clouds the entire feel about speed. But for turning pages, speed on Sony is spectacular.
Kobo: I have to do some further testing. But so far, for the 5 or so books I've tested in direct comparison, speed for turning pages on Kobo is about 1 second slower than on Sony. It's still okay and you only see it in direct comparison. Then it's pretty obvious.

Layout options (fonts, margins, ...):
Sony: Options on Sony are extremely limited. Font sizes and some fonts.
Kobo: You can define more or less "everything": Margins, line spacings, fonts, ...

Gestures for turning pages:
Sony: So far, I've only found a single option: You can define, whether you want to swipe from left to right or vice versa for turning pages.
Kobo: You've got various options. For example, you can define the width of the area, where you want to tip for turning pages.

Responsiveness of the UI:
Sony: Scrolling through your library and such isn't very fast, close to annoying.
Kobo: Way faster than Sony. My gut feeling says, it's one of my fastest readers.

Display quality:
The display itself (the old discussion) of course should have the same quality.
But choice and boldness of fonts and such of course has its impact.
Sony: Even with Kindle 3, I would say. Probably about the best you can expect from Pearl displays.
Kobo: The text is a bit less dark. I have to play with the fonts. But in the standard settings, Sony display appears a bit more contrast-rich.

Managing the library:
Sony: You can use the famous collections, directly on the reader.
Kobo: You've got the typical sorting options, but that's it.

Book stores:
Sony: It's more or less the original website. Some links have been dead and I actually got the usual browser interface.
I haven't bought a new book yet. In the past I had to use gift cards outside of the US. The German bookstore isn't available at all (yet).
Kobo: It very much reminds of the Kindle bookstore. There's a vast German section and I can use my German credit card without any problems at all.

Scribble function:
Personally, I don't need it. But some of my friends love to scribble notes into their (e)Books.
Sony: So far, I only have ePUBS (originally bought from Sony) on mine. You can scribble easy enough. I guess this can be done for all the other file formats as well.
Kobo: I haven't found any scribble function.

Over all impression:
I've had 5 Sony readers before. In direct comparison, Sony T1 by far looks the "cheapest". Very plasticky, whereas Sony 505 and Sony 900 for example (back then) had been designed on a top quality level. Of course this shifting from metal to plastic means, Sony T1 is extremely light. But it seems way less "valuable".
Kobo isn't much more "exclusive", but still somehow seems a bit more elegant.
The interface of Kobo seems a bit "cleaner" and more consistent within the various menus.
Sony and Kobo both have their own bookstore, which is a huge plus for me. I don't want to buy books via browser and such, I conveniently want to use a well designed store.
I clearly prefer the Kobo over Sony. Sony I mainly bought because of the books I had bought before.


More later on...

Last edited by mgmueller; 03-07-2012 at 01:00 AM.
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