Kindle or Kobo Aura (HD)?

[anton79ru]

Originally Posted by soulfuldog

The best thing you could do is buy a Paperwhite ... and compare it yourself.

Did that and here's what I have to report:
1. My Aura HD was not a bad unit. I was able to compare three of them screen on so statistically, what I have is what Aura HD is.
2. With backlight off, the Paperwhite 2 screen background is not that much whiter, but it is definitely more solid. I have looked at lighter screens and darker screens, but the contrast is superior to that of Aura HD.
3. Paperwhite 2 is smaller and lighter, which is important when traveling. It is common for one's single hand to get tired of holding an Aura HD.
4. The backlight on my Paperwhite 2 is even and gives the right color to the screen. It's not necessarily like that on every unit, but on the average, the Aura HD backlight is plainly worse.

Now the interesting part: I mostly use the e-reader for scanned academic pdf articles these days. Lots of them. Whan I saw how the stock Paperwhite 2 software rendered the scanned characters, I was nothing short of depressed. I was inclined to blame the screen resolution for that.

However, once I jailbroke the device and installed the latest KoReader, I nearly cried out of joy. The same characters got all smoother and appealing to the eye. No exaggeration: there is one file in my library where even the footnotes in the portrait mode look better in KoReader than the main text looks in the landscape mode in the stock software.

Verdict: apart from better screen contrast and backlight, for a person with good eyes like mine, Paperwhite's job is just as good as Aura's, notwithstanding lower resolution, even on scanned pdf's, if you have KoReader on board. So for me, Paperwhite 2 is a better device.

[Gazella]

A Kindle Paperwhite for PDFs? Are you sure?

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by Gazella

A Kindle Paperwhite for PDFs? Are you sure?

But only with KOReader. see our wiki.

Dale

[anton79ru]

Originally Posted by Gazella

A Kindle Paperwhite for PDFs? Are you sure?

It depends on the PDF of course. The ones I deal with are mostly articles in academic journals like this. If you use KOReader to fit content width (not page width) in the landscape mode, it makes perfectly comfortable reading. In case of a lot more text in one page, you can always reflow it, but I rarely do.

[Loknor]

Originally Posted by anton79ru

It is common for one's single hand to get tired of holding an Aura HD.

I must comment here... how did you ever manage to read a book or paper in the old days?

Serious, I doubt it is common that people get tired hands from the 34 grams that the Aura HD weighs more than the PW2. Indeed, the same complaint should go versus the PW2 considering it's a whopping 32 grams heavier than the standard Aura

I'd say that ereaders in general have no weight issue at all, it's a non issue, be it Cybook, Kindle, Kobo, pocketbook or Tolino.