[edebill]

Do you want to read in full sun? You need e-ink. Do you want to read in the dark? You need backlight or reading light. Want to hold a drink in one hand while you read? Tablets are probably not the thing for you. Super picky about text display? Kobo will let you tweak more than Kindle. They all handle novels competently. You probably want a tablet if you're reading something like programming books that has larger technical illustrations and color. It's a rare programming book that looks good on the e-ink devices or cell phones.


I'll add some specifics:

Kindle Paperwhite 1: nice screen, beautifully put together. Cannot turn off the backlight. You can just set it really dim. It was able to go as dim as I wanted, though. I never have a reading session where I don't have some trouble getting it to register my touch at some point. This can be really frustrating as I try to turn a page over and over.

Kobo Mini: Small. Really small. I love the size. I can palm it and turn forward and back one handed. The screen seems to be slightly lower resolution than the Kindle Paperwhite. Page turns are sort of slow and it doesn't automatically sync new books. I have to manually hit 'sync'. Touch response is about like the PW1. No backlight means you need a reading light. Kobo sells the best I've seen (used to be sold by Octovo), but they're a bit large and heavy on this tiny reader.

Kobo Aura HD: Noticeably larger than the PW1. Thicker, wider, etc, but not much heavier. Screen resolution is great. I don't see jaggies like I have with every other e-ink device I've owned (this is #5 or 6). You can turn the backlight on and off. It will NOT adjust low enough for me to comfortably read in complete darkness - it's just slightly uncomfortable, but not so much as most tablets. Touch response is really really great. I almost never have trouble getting it to register, but DO sometimes have it jump backwards several pages instead of forward one page.

One thing to note: All of the above can be set to have asymmetric touch areas, where most of the screen is forward and only a smaller part is back. I find this much better than a symmetrical one. I have fairly large hands and this tends to let me find some way to read one handed.

In general Kobo devices and software give you more control of how text is displayed - more fonts, more sizes, more line spacings, etc.

None of the e-readers have had battery life issues - I can go a week or two without recharging and never try going longer than that.

Tablets and phones:

Naturally I've tried both the Kobo and Kindle apps. They're roughly equivalent in most ways. The kindle app has slightly nicer page turn controls. For some reason the mobile reading apps don't do the asymmetric touch areas that the dedicated readers do. This really sucks.

Nexus 7 (android 7" tablet) is really awesome for the price. Heavier than all the e-readers and also larger. Great DPI on the screen, but can never be set dim enough for me to be 100% comfortable reading in complete darkness (even when app is set to dark background light foreground). Good battery life. Can almost read comfortably in daylight. I can just barely manage to use this one handed, but you really want a stand of some kind.

Nexus 5: Smaller cousin to the Nexus 7. Can't turn the damn brightness down very far. Can't turn it up very far, either. So... super sharp screen that's hard to read in 2/3 of my use cases. I think on paper it has the same diagonal size as the Kobo Mini, but feels a lot more cramped.

iPhone 5: Tiny by comparison. Better screen - can go dimmer and brighter, but still not great in full sun. I feel like I'm reading through a keyhole or something. Not as bad as the days of palm pilots and the iPhone 4, but still. I can't remember if it went as dim as I'd like.

iPad Air: Ditto on the screen. Better brightness range than Nexus 7, but still not really good in full sun. This is 100% a 2 handed device. You need a stand or 2 hands to read on it. Pages are almost too big unless I'm reading a technical book. Then the larger screen and full color display really make a big difference.

Android devices tend to run out of battery sooner than iOS devices. Neither is going to get you through a weekend without recharging and some android phones won't even make it through a single day.