Kindle vs. Kobo: a Long-Term, In-Depth Comparative Review

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by meeera

I read fast, so I was basically constantly scrolling. Very little text on a screen compared to what most web articles manage. Each to their own, I'm sure others like it.

I totally agree: too much scrolling and overly large images. (At least clean off the lint and dust when taking a photo - please!)

[MariusMasalar]

Hey Jon,

The line length is actually exactly at the recommended settings for optimum web readability (about 90 characters). The footnotes also have handy return links at the end of each of them—you'll notice the "↩" character is a link that takes you right back to where you were in the article. Those work on the browsers I've tested with...are they broken for you?

I'm not sure if you had a look since I adjusted the text sizing/spacing earlier today, so maybe take a second peek to see if you consider this a more comfortable setting for larger screens.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

@MariusMasalar,
I, too, enjoyed your article Although your assessment of what features are 'most important' for you don't match my own, I thought you presented a fair comparison of the pros and cons of the 2 brands.

I agree with this.


I went with the H2O for a few reasons.

1. The larger screen (6.8" vs. 6"). The 6.8" screen feel larger, but not too much larger
2. The ability to use my own choice of fonts. I like being able to modify most fonts (if needed) so they look better on screen and I like being able to install fonts that I want to use.
3. Typography is better on the H2O. It supports Kerning (if the font does) and it support hyphenation to help get rid of the wide gaps
4. More control over margins, line-height, and font size. The Kindle is very limited in these aspects.
5. The front light. The front light of the H2O is (overall) might more even. It doesn't have color shifts like a lot of Kindles do. It's was really bad with the PW1 and it's better with the PW2, but not better enough. And even the Voyage has color shifting issues.
6. Collections. With a Kobo, I can have Calibre create collections for me as needed when side loading eBooks. That cannot do that on the Kindle as Amazon has removed that functionality.
7. card slot. I like that the Kobo has a card slot. I have not used it, but if I ever wanted to use it, it would be there. The card slot is another feature Amazon has removed from the Kindle line.

As far as Calibre goes, I don't think it is hideous. In fact, Calibre helps make it easy to find books and to manage them on a Kobo or Kindle. There is a learning curve to using Calibre, but it's not all that difficult. And if you have any questions, come to MR and you can get help here.

[MariusMasalar]

Man, the H2O's light is in a totally different league from the PW2 that's for sure. I was surprised at how much better it is.

I don't use collections or folders myself (I don't keep that much stuff on my reader at any given time), but that definitely seems to be a popular use case and a good reason to have a card slot.

I wasn't calling Calibre bad or difficult, just ugly. It's easy to use, does a great job at what it's supposed to do, I was just commenting about the fact that its interface is a bit of an eyesore.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by MariusMasalar

Hey Jon,

The line length is actually exactly at the recommended settings for optimum web readability (about 90 characters). The footnotes also have handy return links at the end of each of them—you'll notice the "↩" character is a link that takes you right back to where you were in the article. Those work on the browsers I've tested with...are they broken for you?

I'm not sure if you had a look since I adjusted the text sizing/spacing earlier today, so maybe take a second peek to see if you consider this a more comfortable setting for larger screens.[/QUOTE]

I'm not sure where you got that 90 characters is optimum, but it really isn't. What works better is having 25% space on each side and the rest is the column for the article. This is for a wide screen monitor be it a desktop, laptop or tablet. What you have now works well for a cell phone, but not for a monitor that's HD or higher resolution.

I didn't actually notice the "↩" as being a link to go back. It's not obvious. What would work is recoding all the footnotes so the web browser recognizes the click as a proper link so going back works. No need to remove "↩". when fixing the footnote links.

What I feel you need is a mobile site and a non-mobile site. And for the mobile site, it should have a link at the top to switch to the non-mobile site.

[MariusMasalar]

Butterick's and a study that indicated 95cpl as providing the fastest reading experience on the web were what informed the measure decision.

I can't turn the entire footnote into a link to go back because I have distinct hyperlinks to things in the footnotes themselves. So far you're the first to tell me that the symbol isn't distinctive enough (it's styled in bright blue, like the rest of the hyperlinks) or that the footnotes are difficult to navigate so I'm inclined to leave that as it is.

Again though, thank you all for the feedback. Didn't realize there were so many design-minded folks around here :P

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by MariusMasalar

I wasn't calling Calibre bad or difficult, just ugly. It's easy to use, does a great job at what it's supposed to do, I was just commenting about the fact that its interface is a bit of an eyesore.

You're not the first one saying that and definitely not the last one. I actually know two people who refuse to use Calibre just because "it's ugly and difficult."

Yeah, go right ahead, finding and organizing your books using Adobe Digital Editions. Good luck if you ever run into DRM issues.

"DRM? I don't use that. I just read books."



OK, you won't notice DRM as long as you have no issues, but if something ever goes wrong or you inadvertently buy a Kindle and try to sync your ADE books with it, you'll hit a brick wall. Hard.

Still, they can't be convinced, because Calibre is ugly. And difficult... as if you NEED to use every single feature in there. If the only thing it did was correct metadata and remove DRM, I'd still use it.

[MariusMasalar]

I don't think you were implying that I am one of those people, but just in case—I use and love Calibre. I didn't call it ugly and difficult, just ugly. And I can live with ugly for exactly the reasons you outlined.

I have no complaints about its functionality or ease of use.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by MariusMasalar

I don't think you were implying that I am one of those people...

No, I wasn't, because I don't know you personally I mean, I know two people, for whom I set up their e-reader and Calibre, and they told me to my face they won't use that program because it's ugly and looks difficult with all those buttons.

They haven't even tried

... but just in case—I use and love Calibre. I didn't call it ugly and difficult, just ugly. And I can live with ugly for exactly the reasons you outlined.

I have no complaints about its functionality or ease of use.

Calibre can be very difficult when you are trying to do advanced things. For example, plugboards are not directly obvious for non-tech savvy people. Even for the tech-savvy but non-programmers it can be a daunting feature to get working right.

Still, I consider this to be the case with other programs as well. Excel is not difficult, until you start writing macro's and scripts; then it can become very complex very quickly.

And about the user interface of software: I actually don't really care about looks anymore, as long as the program does what it needs to do, and stays out of the way.

[Ripplinger]

I rather like Calibre's layout given that you have choices which panes to show where.

Have you tested your layout in any Firefox version? The little bio blurb at the right ends mid-sentence with "plays video" and no way to advance it to read the rest of it. Tried it even in default in case one of my plugins or theme was causing it, with version 28 and 35, but it's not. I then tried making the font smaller and if I decrease it 2 levels it will all show then. I haven't made any font size adjustments at all in the browser, so not sure why it's not fully displaying as default. But that leaves the issue that if any reader needs to increase the font size, you decrease the amount of lines visible there and eventually kick that entire little part off the page.

[JSWolf]

One other issue with the site, the image of the Kindle Keyboard/Kindle 3 is too large. Also the header image is too large as well. All the other images are good.

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by MariusMasalar

Thanks, Jackie! Out of curiosity, what would your list of most important aspects contain?

Only 3 things, really:
- screen quality and customisation of text on screen
- close integration with calibre
- I prefer epubs because I know exactly how to customise them so they look good on both eink and Android devices.

I have no interest at all in highlighting/notes, social sharing, X-ray or vocabulary building.

... which is why Kobos suit me and Kindles leave me cold.

[MariusMasalar]

Originally Posted by Ripplinger

Have you tested your layout in any Firefox version? The little bio blurb at the right ends mid-sentence with "plays video" and no way to advance it to read the rest of it. Tried it even in default in case one of my plugins or theme was causing it, with version 28 and 35, but it's not. I then tried making the font smaller and if I decrease it 2 levels it will all show then. I haven't made any font size adjustments at all in the browser, so not sure why it's not fully displaying as default. But that leaves the issue that if any reader needs to increase the font size, you decrease the amount of lines visible there and eventually kick that entire little part off the page.

That's weird...I am looking at it in FF 36 and the developer version right now, totally default, and it displays perfectly. I can only get it to cut off the text in that blurb if I increase size to 133%.

Not sure why that's happening. I will have to test it on more screen sizes and machines to see where the issue lies.

[shalym]

Marius, I think we need to just leave it at you have your ideas of how things should look and I/we have our ideas. Just out of curiosity, though...have you ever actually had a reader tell you that they LIKED the way your site was laid out? I'm sure that you've had designers tell you how optimal it was, but have you ever actually had a READER tell you that?

Shari

[jandrew]

Originally Posted by MariusMasalar

Butterick's and a study that indicated 95cpl as providing the fastest reading experience on the web were what informed the measure decision.

Hmmm. I'd say check out a few more studies ... and you might also consider whether reading speed is something you want to be optimizing over user experience:

http://samnabi.com/blog/line-length-...ser-experience

cheers,
andrew