[sparklemotion]

I picked up a Kobo H20 today. The verdict is still out on whether I'll keep it as I'm unsure of some things, mainly the way epubs are rendered on the device. Here's my own personal (completely unbiased) thoughts on both devices.

The Kobo is a wonderful reader, I'm very impressed with it. The screen is gorgeous and even. No pinholes or other issues. Seeing the screen in person I was very impressed.

I compared it to the Kindle voyage and my also PW2 right away. The screen on the Kobo H20 is definitely warmer than both kindles I have. Slightly yellow, but a very pleasing, nice warm tone. The voyage is cooler and whiter. My PW2 is warmish, but appears cooler and whiter when directly next to the H20. So this will come down to personal preference, whether one prefers a cooler screen or a warmer one.

My voyage screen is a mess, unfortunately. Uneven two toned screen with a blue bottom, and a yellow tinted top, also some pink up there. I know others have better voyage screens, sadly mine is quite bad. I can only compare it to mine, of course. So comparing it to the voyage, the H20 screen looks lovely and very even.

My Kindle Voyage has a few pinholes and also a tiny hair stuck under the screen, like a small piece of lint.

My Kobo H20 has no pinholes or other imperfections that I have noticed.

Looking at both units, the contrast is a little better on the voyage compared to the H20. You can see much more detail in the book covers and photos in books on the voyage, for instance. Both the H20 and Voyage have better contrast and sharper fonts than my PW2, which of course was to be expected and the biggest reason I considered upgrading in the first place. However, at least in my particular case, my PW2 is still very good to my eyes compared to both the H20 and Voyage I have.

In a book, the fonts look very close in how dark they are between the H20 and voyage. If I had to give the edge to one, I'd have to give it to the voyage for being ever so slightly sharper and crisper. One thing is, you can thicken the fonts on the H20, which makes them look even darker, you cannot do that on the voyage, or on any kindle for that matter.

I will also say that certain fonts tend to look spindly and too thin on the voyage, to my eyes. It's one of my biggest issues with the kindles, not being able to change fonts and font weight to make the reading experience more optimal for different people's eyes and preferences. I really wish Amazon would listen to feedback on this issue. It's a shame that on a premium device, with a premium price tag, it lacks what I consider to be, important, almost basic customizations for an e-reader.

Coming from using kindles, I have to say that I do miss small things about the kindle software, which I didn't expect to be the case. I'll have to spend time reading on the H20 in the next couple of days to decide overall on that front.

My biggest issue with the H20 is the footer at the bottom is visually annoying to me. I know you can remove it by editing the config file, which I did, however doing that then removes page number info. Maybe I'm missing something here? I also don't like how there is literally no extra space at the top when reading epubs. It seems you have to convert everything to kobo's kepub format for there to be any space at the top otherwise the words start exactly at the top of the page with no space. It looks very odd to me and throws off the visual balance of the page, imo. Basically, I don't like the way e-pubs are rendered and converting everything in my library to kepub seems a hassle to me. If someone can advise me on something I'm missing here, I'd love to know if there's an easy workaround for this. I'm new to the Kobo so realize I could be missing something.

For what it's worth, here's my pros and cons and preferences of each device. Please note these are my own personal pros and cons as I see it for myself. Please don't reply to say that's not a pro, or that's not a con. It's just my opinion as to how I see it. Pro and cons will differ for others, I realize.


Kobo H20 pros:

Gorgeous even screen, no color hues or other imperfections
Customization. Font freedom including changing the thickness and weight of fonts; also margin changes
Nicer home screen with more info
Waterproof, nice to be able to use it while at the beach or pool or taking a bath
SD slot
Nicer browser which is much more usable than the kindle browsers
Screensaver is current book you're reading. Just something cool, but certainly not necessary

Kobo H20 cons

A little less contrast compared to the voyage
Epubs not rendered as nicely as kepub
Slightly slower (Not a big deal to me really, you only notice if you compare the devices side by side)
More fussy with things like highlighting
Bezel is a serious fingerprint magnet
Poor, almost non existent, CS

Voyage pros:

Slightly better contrast (especially noticeable on photos in books and book covers)
Slightly faster overall
Smoother and faster with small tasks, like highlighting
I prefer the kindle software while reading a book. Percentage left. etc.
Excellent CS from Amazon

Voyage cons:

Screen issues! Of course, this is a very big con on a reading device. Uneven tone on the screen seems a common issue. Cool bottom, warmer top. Mine also has color hues.
Stuck with limited fonts and margin selections
Home screen is uninspired and lacks info (I prefer the kobo homescreen)
Browser is pretty much useless
Page press buttons and auto light (mine doesn't work consistently at all) no doubt raise the cost of the device and I don't find either useful. Of course you can turn both off, but they are cons for me if they don't work properly for me, yet drive the price of the device up

So those are my thoughts right now. I think it's pretty much in line with what others have said, so probably nothing new really, but I just wanted to add my own impressions having now seen both devices in person and used them. If anyone has anything in particular they want to know or have me compare, please feel free to ask.