[GERGE]

No, there really couldn't be any difference unless Kindle is worse. It is not scientifically possible to be better because there is no better. Hyphenation and ligatures are all as old as dirt. Sumerian cuneiform had ligatures. Latin script always had ligatures. Kerning emerged with digital type to emulate written script. It was always something that naturally existed in writing, inherent ever since any form of writing was invented.

Amazon can't make better ligatures. Can't make better kerning. These things are all type depended anyway, they are made with the typeface. Device just renders it. And as long as the device renders it as is (which Kobo does) there could be no better or worse between devices. Amazon can't even claim that they have the best kerning and the ligatures with Bookerly. There could be no such claim, ask any typographer you like. There is bad kerning and then there is kerning. This is all. Same thing with the ligatures.

When you take Kindle typefaces from a Kindle and put them to a Kobo, they should render exactly the same. Right now Kobo is way better because it also renders kerning and ligatures Kindle typefaces like Palatino and Baskerville have. And Kobo has hyphenation, of course.

Only difference there could be is hyphenation dictionaries. And Kobo's dictionary belongs to Adobe which is the best one used in professional publishing. It is hard to imagine any better.

PS. Kobo's kepub rendering is like Kindle's are now; no ligatures, no kerning and hyphenation is broken. You need to read epubs with Kobo to see proper typography.