[twowheels]

I remember seeing the original Kobo and thinking that it looked like cheap crap. That really colored my opinion of the Kobo from then out. Today I was in Border's (one that isn't closing) and played with their display model of the new black wi-fi Kobo and I have to say that I'm VERY impressed. I'm actually very upset that I bought my daughter a cheaper LCD based reader shortly before the price drop -- had I known I wouldn't have bought her a Christmas present and made her wait. :-)

The device feels good in the hand... I did miss the left and right big page turn buttons, but using the pad wasn't too bad. The side navigation buttons felt a little bit out of place for getting to menus and whatnot, but I could learn to get used to that quickly. The fonts looked very nice, much better than I expected, and at least in the store's lighting I couldn't say that the screen was much worse than the Pearl screen on my K3, although I didn't have mine with me to compare side by side. Overall, for $99 it's a very tempting little device. I really liked the header & footer display -- it felt cleaner than the Kindle's and I liked how they displayed progress, though it was lacking overall progress. The book covers in the navigation page were a nice touch, which the K3 is missing, and it's neat how the screensaver image is the cover of the book that you last read.

If I didn't already have my K3 the decision would be very difficult for me (I like saving money), and I'm still kicking myself for that LCD based reader I bought my daughter that she's not very happy with. I almost just bought it on the spot to give to her. :-) If it were $< 70 like some of the closing stores are selling them for I probably would have bought it.