Hi everyone,
Choosing between Kindle and Kobo seems to be a pretty difficult choice. I'm looking to use an ereader for two purposes - reading books (sometimes or rarely PDFs) and also reading news.
For reading books, Kindle has the new typesetting engine and bookerly font, but it sounds like the new typesetting engine only benefits me if the book is delivered in the new KFX font. Ligatures are cool, but the more important thing is hyphenation support. I'm someone who values the quality of the output of a device.
On the Kobos, it sounds like the advantage here is a lot of typesetting features are better to begin with with ePubs. Hyphenation, ligatures, font choice, etc. And if I don't like the formatting I can reformat spacing and margins with Calibre (perhaps I can do this as well for Kindle books on the Kindle?). Then, there's also Koreader that I can install (improves PDF support). Can this be installed on the Voyage these days also?
On the news front, it's pretty cool that the Kindles allow you to subscribe to things like the New York Times, etc. But maybe not things like The Economist?
That's all cool for subscriptions, but honestly on the Kobo if Pocket support works as well as I can imagine, then I can visit NYT or Economist articles in a Chrome incognito window and just save them to Pocket. Then I don't really need actual subscriptions on the ereader. At least you have the syncing ability of Pocket, but no real browsing on the Kobo (let's ignore the web browser on the Kobo...). And of course, all the other things from my Pocket list will just be there. That seems huge.
Send to Kindle is cool sounding, and it sounds like Instapaper has support for this as well. Any comments on different experiences between the two devices in this regard? Clearly, you'll only get syncing support in any form on the Kobos.
The last major thing on my mind is the whiteness of the screen when un-illuminated, as well as the color temperature of the frontlight when turned on. I feel like if the one screen is noticeably whiter than the other (Kobo vs Kindle) then I'll have the feeling that one is nicer. If Kindles are darker simply so that they can have capacitive screens, that seems like a poor compromise. This is my first ereader - I've watched the technology for a long time, but the early ereaders had rather dark screens. So it seems partly silly to not get the one with the whiter screen. If ... tequila...
In various YouTube videos, it looks like the Kobo devices are whiter than the Kindle devices when the frontlight is completely off. Would you agree with this? Is it as noticeable in person as I'm seeing in videos? And is there any difference in (un-illuminated) screen whiteness between the Kobo Glo HD and the Aura H2O? GoodEReader said the Glo HD had a capacitive screen while the Aura H2O had an IR screen. I could imagine the capacitive screen could make it appear less white (I think this is the case with the Paperwhite and Voyage). But at the same time, the GoodEReader guys don't quite seem to understand that PPI and screen resolution + screen dimensions are all linked quantities - I get the impression that they think PPI can vary independently from resolution and screen dimensions :/ (It's one equation...
ugh...). So I tend to take what they say with a grain of salt. Is the Aura H2O screen really capacitive? I'm a bit skeptical. The larger screen could be interesting for PDFs.
As for front lights, I would tend to go with something as white as possible, but preferably probably slightly on the warmer side than cooler side. Too cool color temperature and it will start to feel like a computer screen rather than an illuminated book. I've compared Voyages to Paperwhites in Best Buy and some Voyages are very blue - to the point that I couldn't bring myself to buy one. Others are very red compared to Paperwhites. So I don't know what to think. I'm in the U.S., so there's no way for me to see a Kobo in person. Very sad. I feel like Kindles are the only ereader Americans can see in person these days. Quite a shame. Well, let's ignore Nooks :/
DRM:
Looks like KFX has not been cracked, but I'll still get AZW3 via Kindle Desktop? If I get a Kobo, I'll likely still be buying some books from Amazon, and I need to know that I won't be trapped by DRM. And from all impressions, it sounds like converting Kobos works just as easily these days with Calibre? Any up to date news that I should be aware of on this front? I've done an absolute ton of research, but it would be great to here from current users whether something has changed.
As for Calibre usage, I certainly don't mind converting books there first before sending to my ereader. I've used it a tiny bit already, but of course I don't want to spend a lifetime converting tricky books that don't want to play nicely. From my short experience with it, seems like I shouldn't have much to worry about?
The Aura H2O seems to collect fingerprints on the front while the Glo HD just on the back (OK). The back of the Glo HD seems really nice actually compared to the Aura H2O's hard (er?) plastic. Both Kindle devices have a very pleasant feel in person.
The Voyage is so sleek and professional, while the Kobos seem so powerful in comparison. And the homescreen makes you feel like it's personal and you own the device, whereas the Kindle homescreen feels like the Amazon storefront homepage... Kindles look like they're faster than Kobos... maybe more durable... how is an engineer supposed to handle deciding between the two?!
Please let me know if you have any feedback on my ramblings and research!