[NiLuJe]

Originally Posted by murraypaul

I'm looking for a new eInk reader, and want a colour-adjustable frontlight, so that has brought me to Kobos. I've been able to have a hands-on try of a Clara HD and a H2O2, but not a One.

I had a couple of questions that I think I mostly know the answers for, but would appreciate confirmation, in case the information I have is out of date.

The one thing I preferred of the Kindle display over the Kobo was that there was less wasted screenspace becuase of the big header and footer on the Kobo.
I understand that a simple config file change can remove these, without having to patch or jailbreak the device. Is this still possible, and does it cause any other issues with the reader?

Yes, although it only applies to Kobo's own brand of ePub, kePub (which you can losslessly create via Calibre, either on the fly during transfer to the device or as a stored output format).

Patching is also pretty much fire'n forget with minimal impact/risks, once you get the hang of it, FWIW.

Originally Posted by murraypaul

It is possible to install applications, including an alternative reader, on Kobos. There are two ways, either KSM or KFMon. KSM does not work on the Clara HD, but KFMon works on all current models?

Yes, KFMon is device-agnostic.

Originally Posted by murraypaul

I can use calibre to sync not just files, but also collection information to the device?

Yes (as well as series metadata, which might be of interest to you, given one of your following question ).

Originally Posted by murraypaul

The three devices (One, H2O2 and Clara) are all listed by Kobo as having ComfortLight Pro, but when I tested the H2O2 and Clara, there was a clear difference in the colour of the light at maximum shift, the H2O2 was orange while the Clara was yellow. And from what I've read, the One is almost red.
Does this match what others have seen? FWIW, I preferred the orange of the H2O2.

There are two hardware revisions of the H2O², so that may be a factor here, although I've never actually seen *any* ComfortLight devices in person.
But as usual, I guess that the technology evolved between models, and that there are device-by-device variances, even across a single model line.

Originally Posted by murraypaul

None of the current eReaders seem very good at navigating large numbers of files, so (assuming I stick with the stock reader rather than koReader), I would plan to sync combined eBooks, with entire series combined into a single book. That brings the number down to hundreds rather than thousands, but does mean that some of the books get very big, in the 10-30MB size and 20k-30k page count range. My old PRS-505 can handle these, so I can't imagine a modern reader would have a problem, but does anyone have experience with using very large books with Kobo readers?

Yeaaaah, I personally wouldn't. It's ePub, the format is already hard enough to deal with in an efficient manner, don't hobble yourself .

I guess it's going to be a case of which is the lesser of evils for you: slower Library nav (lots of books), or potentially slower in-book nav (humongous book) .

And possibly a game of diminishing returns: hundreds of books might already be enough to affect navigation, so a couple hundreds more might not make enough of a difference to care about at that point .

You'll probably be moving around via the Search more than the Library at that point anyway, and that works pretty well even on large libraries, so, meh .

Originally Posted by murraypaul

Other than screen sizes, waterproofiness and possible screen colour shifts, are there any other differences I should be aware of between the three models I'm considering? (One, H2O2 and Clara HD).

Can anyone suggest a retailer in the UK that might have a One on display? I've tried John Lewis and a couple of PC Worlds.

Age? (One -> H2O² -> Clara HD).
Rumours that the next device will be an updated One?