Quote:
Originally Posted by GoodCompany
The 350 is my first and till now only and it is a terrific reader. When you mention the solidity of the Kindle's software, is it your impression that other brands have more issues with software or just that in your experience the Kindle has consistently performed well?
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Both. Kobo's firmware means the device has lots more options for tweaking things to get it to look exactly how you want, but its therefore more prone to freezing & small glitches. The Kindle firmware gives you far less options, and perhaps consequently, is far more stable. I'm in no way saying any Kobo is a bug-ridden mess, I don't fiddle much with the settings on mine, and it's only frozen a handful of times (albeit its used the least of any of my ereaders).
In regards to the squeaky casing, I'm not sure there is a great deal of difference in the quality or robustness of the devices on offer, at least bewteen the same price points. There is a difference with the more expensive options, as I'd say the H2O is a little more robust than the Glo HD, just as the Voyage feels slightly more solid than the PW. The desire for lightweight ereaders means there is nothing to compare with the solidity in your hand of those 356/650 Sony readers!
The page flip feature of the Kindle is nice (screen within a screen), but things like this and all the other software related issues, as others have mentioned, is mainly just down to user-preference. You might find that how Kobo works with Calibre for collections a better feature, whereas I prefer to use plugboards on Calibre to organise my books on my ereader and not use collections at all. If the Kindle worked better with collections though, I might never have even tried plugboards in the first place (and you can use these with Kobo too).
Only other thing to add, any chat of devices being locked down or tied to a company are a bit of a nonsense IMHO. Apart from Nook previously only giving a small portion of space to non-Nook books, you aren't tied to anything, because you've said you already use Calibre to format switch. So like me, you can read whichever book on whichever device you want. And there is nothing convoluted about it. With one exception, and that is library books if you are outside the US, which is why I bought a Sony reader (and then my Kobo) to complement my Kindle.
It sounds like you could just be keeping your Glo HD now anyway, so all of this is probably immaterial. But never mind. I'm sure the more you learn about it and discover how to set it up exactly as you like, you'll be happy with it. You might end up with a Kindle one day and then find you prefer the Kobo anyway, the grass isn't always greener.....
