[gribley]

hey folks,

I just bought a couple more old Kindles from Woot (thanks to rcentros for the tip!), including a K3 / Kindle Keyboard ($15!). I had a K3 (now long dead) a few years ago; since then I've had a Paperwhite (great), a Koko HD (dead), and a few others. I recently bought a Kobo H2O (1st gen) in an attempt to break out of the Kindle ecosystem and try a larger screen (6.8").

The K3 arrived last night, and WOW -- I had forgotten how amazingly cool is. It is a beautiful and well-designed piece of tech. Playing with it, comparing it with my new-to-me Kobo H2O, the screen of the K3 is definitely murkier and less contrasty -- but I think I like it much more. I've finally identified a couple of possible reasons.

1. The frontlighting of the H2O is fantastic, but it makes me feel like I am looking at a lit screen (which I am) instead of a passively reflective surface. I really have to turn the brightness down to a few percent before it doesn't feel like a tablet screen.

2. The H2O screen feels further away. The K3 e-ink looks like it's just about on the surface (as in a book) and it's just sitting there. I'm thinking that the combination of the touch and light layers in the H2O means that the e-ink really is further from the top of the screen, and I am somehow seeing this.

3. The recessed bezel, ugh! The K3 has a bezel but it's recessed very little. The H2O bezel is significantly further down. It feels much more like a tablet than a flat page.

The combination of factors makes me feel like the H2O reading experience is more like a tablet and feels less like a book. The K3 screen is more murky but feels simpler and more bookish.

So now I have several questions. First, am I crazy? Do others have this experience? Is the solution a flush screen? I hadn't thought that was important before, but now it feels to me that that would really change the experience. Does it?

So now I'm eager to try some possible alternatives. A used Kobo Aura (1st ed) with a flush screen is ~$50 on ebay. I missed the chance at a refurb Voyage for $119 from Amazon over Black Friday, because it's a bit out of my price range, but I would like the "physical" page keys as well. However, I think it would be insane (for me) to spend more than $100 on another e-readers, so the Oasis and Aura One are out.

I'd be interested in hearing from others about the reading experience, especially with respect to a flush screen, fewer layers, and a more paperlike feel.

thanks!