[soulfuldog]

"Not tech savvy" and "no to big gifts" means you'd probably be as well ruling out the upgrade to the Kobo Touch. There might be slight improvements in the interface, but unless you think your Mum would actually prefer to use a touch-screen over physical buttons (and if she's anything like my Mum, I'd imagine the latter would be simplest), the touch-screen is the big improvement.

From what you've said, I reckon you'd be better to stick with either the basic models of the Kindle & Kobo, and at $79 or $89 respectively, neither is that expensive a gamble. As to which one, I don't think there is really a lot of difference between the two.

Sideloading a Kindle will probably be exactly the same as the Kobo, drag your book file into the documents folder on the Kindle and that's all there is to it. If there is a wireless router in the house, that makes things even easier. Set up the wireless connection on the Kindle, show her how to turn the wireless off and on, and it's a one-click job to buy a book from Amazon and get it delivered wirelessly to your Kindle. I'm not sure how this works on the Kobo?

The only other factor could be where she'd prefer to purchase her books from? The main reason for me choosing to buy a Kindle was that I am a regular and happy user of Amazon. And that brings me to the one thing that I *think* the Kindle has over any other e-reader, the high level of customer support Amazon seem to offer for Kindle owners.