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Inkblot · 11-03-2014, 02:59 PM

Stingo, thank you for sharing your experiences with the Kobo H20 and the Kindle Voyage. It was an interesting read, especially because I was considering buying the Voyager. This was a couple months ago, however, and I simply couldn't wait so I bought myself a Kobo Aura.

I think both both Kindle and Kobo's devices have excellent build quality, at least when I've seen them in store. The only thing I (sort of) wish my Kobo had was the larger bottom bezel that all Kindle's have because it makes it way easier to hold. I don't like the size of the larger H20, but the Voyage would probably be fine for my uses (I like to carry my ereader in my back pocket everywhere I go so I can slip in a few minutes of reading here and there...). But I think you missed the main point of the H20: it's water-proof. That means reading in the pool, the bathtub, the sauna (twice a week; what can I say, I'm Finnish!), or the beach. With my non-water-proof Aura none of those except the beach are even remote options. (Maybe a Ziploc bag would work? Hmm... has anybody tried that?)

Page-turn buttons would be a major plus for me, and it is this one thing over anything else that would really draw me to the to the Voyage. Especially if there was some gesture to stop screen taps from doing anything. You know, when holding a book, it's not held gingerly by the edges; it's held by firmly grasping the page and the cover, especially with my meaty hands. With touch screens this is simply not possible. Unfortunately, I don't think the Voyage has this option...

Battery life is so good on all e-readers that this is a moot point. I've never had the battery on my Aura go less than 50%.

I don't like to hear that the Voyage's display is too "screen-like". With the new Carta display I thought that this was supposed to be improved, but I suppose it has more to do with the front-light than anything else. My mother has a Paperwhite2 and it's display and light is comparable to my Aura. Does the Voyage's screen have higher contrast than previous-gen displays?

Software and Interface is one area where I disagree. Unless the Voyage came with a software upgrade pw devices didn't get, I don't like the Kindle software very much. It seemed too limited. I didn't like how I was limited to a choice of six fonts that all suck. Perhaps this has something to do with my technical background, but I had a lot of issues with it. By and far the largest issue I had with it was the incompatibility with every library system in Canada. I could get around that with the help of my friend Alf, but I'd rather not. My Kobo "just works" with my library e-lending system. And in retrospect, there are a lot of neat little features like easy back-light changing (two-finger swipe on capacitive screens), showing the cover of the current book on the sleep screen, the neat tiled home screen, and the ability to change the tap locations that I would sorely miss if they were to suddenly disappear. The biggest advantage Kindle has over Kobo (IMO) in the software department is more content. But I don't buy books (neither do I steal them), so this is not important to me.

Finally, I don't care in the slightest about social networking. Except for reading reviews of books on goodReads, I think all social networks are useless. Pocket integration, however, I use all the time (that is, whenever Pocket arbitrarily decides that what I Pocket-ed has text in it and can be considered an "Article". Half the time Pocket decides that the text-only html webpage I Pocket-ed is of type "Other" which won't sync to my Kobo).

Here ends my commentary.

Regards, Inkblot

Postscript: (

)
This last comment is mostly unrelated to the topic at hand, but has anybody noticed the lack of conflict between, for example, Kindle and Kobo owners? In the smartphone, computer, tablet, or any other tech world, the fanboy-ism displayed is simply disgusting. To my delight, I have seen very little of this irrational, angry behaviour in the eReader-verse.

11-03-2014, 02:59 PM	#9
Inkblot Canadian and proud of it! Posts: 13 Karma: 14122 Join Date: Oct 2014 Device: Kobo Aura (N514)	Stingo, thank you for sharing your experiences with the Kobo H20 and the Kindle Voyage. It was an interesting read, especially because I was considering buying the Voyager. This was a couple months ago, however, and I simply couldn't wait so I bought myself a Kobo Aura. I think both both Kindle and Kobo's devices have excellent build quality, at least when I've seen them in store. The only thing I (sort of) wish my Kobo had was the larger bottom bezel that all Kindle's have because it makes it way easier to hold. I don't like the size of the larger H20, but the Voyage would probably be fine for my uses (I like to carry my ereader in my back pocket everywhere I go so I can slip in a few minutes of reading here and there...). But I think you missed the main point of the H20: it's water-proof. That means reading in the pool, the bathtub, the sauna (twice a week; what can I say, I'm Finnish!), or the beach. With my non-water-proof Aura none of those except the beach are even remote options. (Maybe a Ziploc bag would work? Hmm... has anybody tried that?) Page-turn buttons would be a major plus for me, and it is this one thing over anything else that would really draw me to the to the Voyage. Especially if there was some gesture to stop screen taps from doing anything. You know, when holding a book, it's not held gingerly by the edges; it's held by firmly grasping the page and the cover, especially with my meaty hands. With touch screens this is simply not possible. Unfortunately, I don't think the Voyage has this option... Battery life is so good on all e-readers that this is a moot point. I've never had the battery on my Aura go less than 50%. I don't like to hear that the Voyage's display is too "screen-like". With the new Carta display I thought that this was supposed to be improved, but I suppose it has more to do with the front-light than anything else. My mother has a Paperwhite2 and it's display and light is comparable to my Aura. Does the Voyage's screen have higher contrast than previous-gen displays? Software and Interface is one area where I disagree. Unless the Voyage came with a software upgrade pw devices didn't get, I don't like the Kindle software very much. It seemed too limited. I didn't like how I was limited to a choice of six fonts that all suck. Perhaps this has something to do with my technical background, but I had a lot of issues with it. By and far the largest issue I had with it was the incompatibility with every library system in Canada. I could get around that with the help of my friend Alf, but I'd rather not. My Kobo "just works" with my library e-lending system. And in retrospect, there are a lot of neat little features like easy back-light changing (two-finger swipe on capacitive screens), showing the cover of the current book on the sleep screen, the neat tiled home screen, and the ability to change the tap locations that I would sorely miss if they were to suddenly disappear. The biggest advantage Kindle has over Kobo (IMO) in the software department is more content. But I don't buy books (neither do I steal them), so this is not important to me. Finally, I don't care in the slightest about social networking. Except for reading reviews of books on goodReads, I think all social networks are useless. Pocket integration, however, I use all the time (that is, whenever Pocket arbitrarily decides that what I Pocket-ed has text in it and can be considered an "Article". Half the time Pocket decides that the text-only html webpage I Pocket-ed is of type "Other" which won't sync to my Kobo). Here ends my commentary. Regards, Inkblot Postscript: () This last comment is mostly unrelated to the topic at hand, but has anybody noticed the lack of conflict between, for example, Kindle and Kobo owners? In the smartphone, computer, tablet, or any other tech world, the fanboy-ism displayed is simply disgusting. To my delight, I have seen very little of this irrational, angry behaviour in the eReader-verse.