Having second thoughts about buying Kobo Glo

[ashan]

It's not that I don't like it, it's just that I have forgot to consider a factor which is quite important for me as a non native English speaker: the dictionary.
One of the main reasons I want an e-reader is the ability to access the dictionary and strengthen my language skills in a context. I used a Kobo touch and I was a bit disappointed about the dictionary, missing words and pretty concise; Took the decision to buy a Glo and now I remembered about the dictionary, the best thing about Kindle is the OED which is great for learning; so I am thinking again, if it's not too late, although I already have most of the amount for the Kobo in WhSmith vouchers, if I should give Kindle my final vote.

I am lost here so I could use a bit of input from your opinion, experience.
Red somewhere that you can add additional dictionaries to Kobo, will that make it acceptable?
Or on the other hand the kobo's dictionary MWD with its 80k words will be enough for someone with an intermediate level of English and make me more proactive in learning the hard way for that matter?
On my android decice I use Dictionary.com app which is quite good wiht over 2 millions definitions synonyms and antonyms, maybe I could use that in case kobo fails...
I don't understand really why Kindle has the Oxford and Kobo has Merriem.
I know KPW could give me more reasons not to buy it, unless amazon team fixed the screen issues, so for me Kindle has only the dictionary going for it.

You can't have them all in life they say, but they all want our money, not just a fraction, isn't it?
I would pay to have Oxford patched to the firmware even if I'd ended up spending more on Kobo than Kindle.

Should I stick with my decision and not worry too much?
p.s. I want to be able to just read, not stumble upon words, but for that I should enrich my dictionary so it will take a while, of course on contemporary books I find an unknown word each 3 pages or even more on average, but the classics would be a bit more hit and miss, and also living and will be living in UK I hope I could cope with it.

[robko]

Originally Posted by ashan

Red somewhere that you can add additional dictionaries to Kobo, will that make it acceptable?

That isn't really the case. It's possible what you read was about downloading the stock dictionaries in different languages. The Kobo has a bunch including translation dictionaries, but doesn't automatically download them (you have to choose what ones you want).

Can't really comment on the rest since I don't use the dictionary a lot.

[HarryT]

The Kindle has the best dictionaries of any reader, and the Kindle Store sells hundreds of additional dictionaries that you can add to it.

[ashan]

Yes indeed, it took me 2 minutes only and I could see how comprehensive the dictionary is.

[iwanbou]

I'm trying to decide between the standard Kindle and the Kobo Touch. In my country both of them are quite expensive, so I must be careful.

I decided to reply to this topic as it already adresses a key point for me, the Kobo dictionary. I read an old thread where people said that the dictionary and highlighting wouldn't work with non-Kobo books. Is this still true?

And what about the web browsers? My primary use for them would be to fetch a Google image for a word absent from the dictionary or one I couldn't grasp the meaning from the dictionary entry (btw, I did this a lot while reading A Song of Ice and Fire on my iPad, great way to learn clothing, food and castle vocabulary).

Testing the Kobo Touch at the store I found it page turning and the dictionary lookup quite slow (although I'm used to the iPad, that must bias me). Is the Kindle slower or faster?

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by iwanbou

I decided to reply to this topic as it already adresses a key point for me, the Kobo dictionary. I read an old thread where people said that the dictionary and highlighting wouldn't work with non-Kobo books. Is this still true?

That changed in a firmware release over a year ago. The dictionary works fine with sideloaded epubs.

And what about the web browsers? My primary use for them would be to fetch a Google image for a word absent from the dictionary or one I couldn't grasp the meaning from the dictionary entry (btw, I did this a lot while reading A Song of Ice and Fire on my iPad, great way to learn clothing, food and castle vocabulary).

For the Kobo, there isn't a connection to the browser from the book or dictionary. You need to leave the book, open the browser and do search. The browser works fairly well for sites without flash and the like. Google search is good and sites like Wikipedia display well.

Testing the Kobo Touch at the store I found it page turning and the dictionary lookup quite slow (although I'm used to the iPad, that must bias me). Is the Kindle slower or faster?

I think it is a comparison with the iPad. But, there has been a firmware version where the page turning was very slow. That is fixed now.

Looking up a word has a delay at the start to allow the device to differentiate between tapping to change pages and pressing to select a word. After that, it doesn't seem to be slow.

[ashan]

Originally Posted by iwanbou

I'm trying to decide between the standard Kindle and the Kobo Touch. In my country both of them are quite expensive, so I must be careful.

I decided to reply to this topic as it already adresses a key point for me, the Kobo dictionary. I read an old thread where people said that the dictionary and highlighting wouldn't work with non-Kobo books. Is this still true?

And what about the web browsers? My primary use for them would be to fetch a Google image for a word absent from the dictionary or one I couldn't grasp the meaning from the dictionary entry (btw, I did this a lot while reading A Song of Ice and Fire on my iPad, great way to learn clothing, food and castle vocabulary).

Testing the Kobo Touch at the store I found it page turning and the dictionary lookup quite slow (although I'm used to the iPad, that must bias me). Is the Kindle slower or faster?

Hi there, thanks for bumping the thread!
I think I left Kobo behind, I am sorry though, I absolutely love it, but that Webster dictionary is really not on par with Kindle's
Well you can't lookup a word from the book directly on google search images, but you can do wikipedia with Kindle, that's 3 touches- word,more,wikipedia without having to exit to main menu.
Kobo has implemented the wikipedia and google search on their android application thogh, so maybe in the future their readers will have it too.
For me, for now, Kindle is the one (just because of the dictionary).