[RobertJSawyer]

I've had a chance to compare side-by-side the official Kobo Sleepcover for the Aura HD and the cover commonly sold in a variety of colors on eBay and Amazon (see attached photo of the eBay cover).

The ereader snaps snugly into both covers -- so snugly on the eBay one that I feared I was going to flex the E Ink screen enough to break it when I tried to remove the ereader (I haven't tried removing the ereader from the Kobo cover).

First, you often see pictures of these eBay covers where the clasp is bright blue. That's just the protective plastic shipping film on the silver-colored metal clasp; it comes right off.

The two covers weigh about the same: 105 g for the Kobo and 110 g for the eBay (on my postal scale, which only goes in 5 g increments).

The sleep function works fine on both covers. But the magnet that triggers it is so strong on the eBay cover, I actually had a little trouble prying the cover open each time (and there's no good place to dig in your fingertips to do that). In contrast, the Kobo cover's magnet isn't very strong -- it won't necessarily keep the cover closed in an accident -- but it is easy to open.

The eBay unit has a leather front cover and matching leather on the outside of the black plastic back, and faux suede on the inside of both covers.

The Kobo cover I bought is the black leather one -- but it turns out it's only leather on the front; the back cover is flimsy styrine plastic and exactly duplicates in offbeat shape and texture the back of the Aura HD unit. There's no padding in the back cover; it's just plastic. The inside front cover has faux suede (the inside front cover is the part your hand holds when you fold the cover back behind the unit while reading).

Both covers are good -- say, 4 out of 5 stars. The biggest disadvantage of the eBay one is the too-strong magnet; the biggest disadvantage of the Kobo one is the chintzy plastic back. But, of course, the eBay one is under $10 with shipping; the Kobo one is $49 in stores in Canada (but is just $25, if you'll take black, at the Indigo website in Canada).

I've decided I prefer the genuine Kobo one.

Rob