It's all a matter of preference really, I rather like the formatting on Kobo's format and the books I read don't usually have too many images in them.
I also checked out the new WiFi model in store today. The speed was very good, response to the button presses was definitely faster than the old Kobo. I couldn't cage the contrast etc so I can't weight in on that (I had an eye exam right before so my vision wasn't so great). I wasn't that fond of the changed menu structure, I had to adjust the font on the demo model and missed the Display button. This probably wouldn't be too big of an issue. Now hearing that the new Kobo doesn't have an "Off" mode explains why I couldn't turn it off
, I tried to see what the start up speed was but it was refusing to turn off. Without using the same books on the old and new Kobo I couldn't gauge the loading time for books.
I'm going to wait for the old Kobo's update to see whether the optimizations improve the page flipping enough (and improve startup, or remove the off state), if they don't then maybe I'll buy a WiFi device. If we had a Pearl display then I would definitely upgrade to a new Kobo, I'm hoping for that as the next upgrade.