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Old 03-12-2018, 12:19 AM   #1
bagpiper1
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bagpiper1 began at the beginning.
 
Posts: 21
Karma: 10
Join Date: Feb 2018
Location: New York
Device: kobo aura edition 2 and Kobo Aura ONE
Lightbulb Why the Kobo Aura One is the best eReader available

Alright, so I have spent an inordinate amount of time reading about the Kindle Oasis 2 and Kobo the Aura ONE. Why have I done this ? 1.) I am anxious waiting for my KA1 to arrive 2.) I want to remind myself that I probably will not have buyer's remorse when it arrives. After reading a review that compared the Oasis 1 to the H20 (yes I am aware the the H20 is not the KA1) , on Gizmodo, certain things became apparent to me and crystallized more in my thoughts

1.) 7.8 screen size is better than 7 inch. Most eReaders are have six inch screens and they claim this is good because it makes them more portable. Well, I never put my eReader in my back pants pocket because I might sit on it and break it if I forget it is in my back pocket. Also, really this conceals the fact that it is cheaper for companies to make 6 inch eReaders. Also, they claim these eReaders are the size of paperback but in actuality the screen itself is about half the size of the pages in a paperback.So what does the 6 inches have to do with with these eReaders ? As it turns out the KA1 screen happens to be about the size of a paperback page while the kindle Oasis screen is still smaller than one or at least an average like one.

Also, why are books printed in paperback size with paperback size print ? it is not because
it is the best for the person doing the reading but because it is cheaper. To make the text bigger , in a paperback, means more pages which is more expensive to print. Kobo Aura ONE can make the font bigger with the 7.8 screen in a way that is not about saving money for the publisher.

2.) This first point also relates to making the KA1 better at reading non-fiction technical documents than the Oasis 2. Is the KA1 as good at as a sony dpt rp1 at this ? No, but it is a hell of alot more cheaper, portable and can double better as a reader of more textual non-technical books.

3.) The second points leads me to my third point. It is easier to add alternative readers like Koreader to the KA1 with sideloading in specific directories while you have to jailbreak a kindle ( a PITA) to do the same.

4.) The Oasis 2 is meant to be held by the side and unlike the Oasis 1 does not come with a cover with more battery that more levels out the weight of the sides. As far as I can tell this makes the Oasis 2 designed oddly and not in a good way. For instance, holding it from the side means one side is heavier than the other so making highlights, of passages, and possibly even looking up a word, in the dictionary, by pressing on it, with your free hand is likely to put pressure on the lighter side making the reader tilt towards the light side at an awkward angle. This , among another reason, I will come to, makes me think the Kindle Oasis 2 is for low level barely literate elementary readers. While the kindle Oasis 2 has adequate firmware/software support for highlighting, annotating, and dictionary lookup using it with the bad physical design choice , in practice, is more troublesome. This combined with the physical turn buttons on the side mean most people using the kindle probably read non-challenging pop fiction and are barely literate. Not that physical page buttons are bad per se but this means Amazon is prioritizing a reading function that even a 1st grader can utilize. It is not putting higher level reading core functions (analytical and syntopical) on the same playing field. This is no surprise since most Americans only read at the 8th grade level that is why authors like James Patterson are so popular.

5.) Following from the previous point : Amazon kindle Oasis 2 has support for audio books. Audio books are for functional illiterates. Seriously, watching TV , listening to the radio or listening to an ebook is like popping a cassette tape into your head and parroting back ideas without critically thinking about it. Again : the Amazon kindle Oasis is for people who can barely read and cannot even read on the highschool (analytical) and college (syntopical) level but at the elementary James Patterson level.

6.) The kindle UI is getting better at this but Kobo is still better at customizing fonts and the larger screen means more adjustable or customizable margins. Also, you can add more fonts to the Kobo by sideloading it.

7.) The default screen saver on the Kindle sucks at you cannot change it without jailbreaking the kindle (which is a PITA). I am not sure if this is still the case but it probably is. The Kobo shows the book cover of the book you are currently reading. This is not as trivial as it sounds. Seeing the cover of the book you are currently reading is a reminder and kind of inducement to pick it back up.

8.) The Kobo Aura ONE has a comfort light

9.) The KA1 has integrated library checkout with Overdrive directly with the Kobo store and can be accessed from the KA1 UI.

10.) Kobo devices support epub and more formats. Seriously, Kindle does not have epub support and it is 2018 ? I get it , it does not make good business sense for Amazon to do so but that does not make lack of such a feature any more relatively unacceptable in 2018. Even with Amazon's virtual dominance of the US and UK markets AZW3 is not the de facto standard and if there is standard epub is it or closer to it.

I am tired of enumerating reasons so I will stop here.


I see a lot of superficial arguments for the Kindle Oasis 2 over the Kobo Aura ONE. I will address some here :

1.) Amazon has a better ecosystem

Response : That has nothing to do with the technical differences between the hardware itself and only minimally so with the UI. It is also a matter of opinion. Seems to me Amazon caters to the LAZY in this sense. Also, I personally already have a huge library so sitting down and sideloading my eReader in advanced in one computer session, with Calibre, is not really going out of my way. If I am feeling impulsive for another book or reading material, which is probably not a good thing, I preloaded my eReader with wise forethought, then there is the Kobo store, Calibre content server, Overdrive function on the Kobo and pocket etc...

2.) You can export annotations easier to other devices or computer and you can email yourself books.

Response : if you are exporting your annotations wirelessly to use on a computer, tablet or phone you have to grab that other device anyway eventually. In that case I might as well just plug it into my laptop anyway etc.. of course this fits my use case better than maybe yours. Also, again this appeals to the LAZY. Also, I can , by editing a config file, on the Kobo, one time, export notes from any book onto my Kobo itself. Personally , I mostly only need the annotations , on my eReader, unless I want to back it up and I can do that in bulk with a bunch of books at once rather than have to do it for every book.

3.) Amazon has extra cool useful things like X-ray etc...

Response : X-ray in particular probably only works on Amazon books not sideloaded ones. Also, it is not that these sophisticated extras are not useful and when I say the former 2 appeal to the Lazy that does not mean automation and time saving are bad but rather :

All these extras are pointless and extraneous when Amazon cannot even get the core reading experience right. It is putting he proverbial cart before the horse. Kobo gets the core reading experience right. What core experience ? Look again at the points in the former half of this post. I does not take a rocket scientist to see which ones are related to the 'core reading experience.'

Disclaimer : I do not work for Kobo and I am not being paid by Kobo I was motivated to write this post because :

1.) The English speaking portion of the internet, at least, is full of pro-kindle propaganda that focuses on the ecosystem instead the merits of the eReaders themselves. Alot of these idiots rank the Oasis 2 higher than the KA1 based on this mostly.


.) I still waiting for my Kobo Aura ONE to come in the mail and I basically just convincing myself, as I type this post, that made the right choice.


Last edited by bagpiper1; 03-12-2018 at 01:15 AM.
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