Hello.
I’m going to be purchasing an e-ink reader later this week. I’ve read scores of reviews, but having discovered this website, I finally have a means of asking the opinions of average users, so I’m hoping that you can help me out. I’m currently reading on my Samsung Galaxy S6 and on my laptop. I purchase my ebooks from a variety of stores, prioritising epub but I haven’t shied away from Amazon if they’ve been cheaper or had a book exclusively. All of my ebooks have been cleansed and backed up, and I meticulously organise their metadata into a state of uniformity in Calibre, converting them where necessary. It’s where my obsession with sorting my bookshelf and buying the prettiest editions transferred itself…
So: I have access to Kindles and Kobos in-person. I don’t want to buy online, because the stores selling these readers both have excellent returns policies, and I see lots of complaints about faulty screens from both companies. It’ll just be less of a hassle. I want a front-lit reader, which narrows my choice to what is available at said brick-and-mortar stores: Kindle Paperwhite 2, Kindle Paperwhite 3, Kobo Glo HD, Kobo Aura and Kobo Aura H2O. At the moment, I’m tossing up between the Paperwhite 3, Glo HD and Aura H2O.
The Kindle seems to have the lion’s share of the market, and I don’t mind converting my books if I need to. The Glo HD, if I’m not mistaken, is Kobo’s direct competitor to the Paperwhite 3? In any case, they’re the same price as each other in my local stores; unless I receive information to discourage me to from buying the Glo HD, I’ll be leaning more towards that than the Kindle because of the accepted formats. I know that I can convert my books - after all, I convert all of my Amazon purchases - but I’d rather not deal with the potential formatting problems, you know? I have a lot of poetry; poor formatting would
slaughter the readability.
Speaking of poetry, the Aura H2O has two very persuasive features for me: the larger screen, and the waterproofing. I read poetry frequently; I’m studying the Arts, so it’s essential. It’s far easier to read poetry on my laptop than my phone because of screen real estate. The Aura H2O’s larger screen seems like it would aid in reading poetry immensely. It looks, to my uneducated eyes, as though it’s just large enough to make the experience comfortable. Furthermore, the 6-inch screens remind me of mass-market paperbacks. As a former hardcover devotee, MMP size seems slightly on the small end of the spectrum. As for the waterproofing, I read in the tub. At the moment I simply take a paper book with me, but it’d be nice not to have a separate book on the go solely for tub reading!
I’ve played with all five available readers in-store, and to me it all seems like much of a muchness, with the exception of the H2O being comfortably larger. (The only issue there is that the price hike isn’t quite as comfortable.) I’m not experienced enough in this technology to make an educated choice based on the live demo models alone, so I’m hoping that you folks can help me: Should I be splurging for a H2O based on my reading preferences, or are the Paperwhite 3 and Glo HD fine enough on their own? If so, when format isn’t considered, should I choose one over the other for any specific reasons?
