Kindle Paperwhite or Kobo Glo?

[Herjar]

Hi,
I'm sure this is a common question around here seeing how similar they are. I'm struggling to make up my mind about this. I don't really care about the shop/eco system as I can just buy on the pc and convert formats etc. They don't sell any of them where I live so I can't go and see them in person. My issues with the two devices stopping me from choosing are:

Kindle:
-Screen quality issues. Seems like there are some problems in the factory. If you get a good unit the screen is great, but if not you get different colour hues. Just a launch issue? Is it better now? Amazon has good return policies, but they don't sell them where I live, so sending it back many times would be a pain in the ass. Seems like the quality is more consistent on the Kobo?
-No expandable memory. Not a huge issue and the internal memory is probably sufficient for me, but would be nice to have the option.
-Also read that the power button to turn on the Kindle is small and hard to use?

Kobo Glo:
-Bad dictionary. This is the main issue I have. English is not my mother tongue, but most books I read are in English. A good dictionary which is easily available is one of the main reasons for me to buy an e-book reader so I don't have to flip through my book version any more. I understand the Kindle's Oxford version is far superior, but how bad is the Kobo's? My English is good so I'm not exactly going to look up "cat". If I find a difficult word I haven't seen before I expect the dictionary to show me the definition.
-Bad touch responsiveness? Not sure how bad it is, I just understand that the capacitive screen of the Kindle is better?
-Blue hue from the glowlight. The Kindle light looks better in the videos I have seen, but how much of an issue is this when you see them in person?

So far I'm leaning towards the Kindle, mainly because of the dictionary. Should I just take a chance and hope I get a good unit without any of the screen problems?

[DuckieTigger]

If dictionary support is important, then you should definately go with the Kindle. It won't make a difference when looking up "cat" so much as when it comes to more exotic words. Install Kindle for PC or Mac and check out the dictionaries. Also optionally you can buy add-on dictionaries in the Kindle store - there is a lot of them.

[GeoffR]

Just about the blue light issue: I haven't seen the Kindle Paperwhite in real life so can't compare directly, but I have found that my Kobo Glo frontlight only looks blueish when the brightness settings are turned right up (brigher that you would ever use for reading), or sometimes when used under an external yellowish light source. When used at normal brightness levels, in daylight, or in darkenss the light looks perfectly white. I think the problem with some of the reviews is that they have the Glo light turned up much brighter than the Paperwhite light, and in that situation it looks bad in comparison.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by GeoffR

I think the problem with some of the reviews is that they have the Glo light turned up much brighter than the Paperwhite light, and in that situation it looks bad in comparison.

From reviews I seen, they usually have BOTH the Kobo and the PW turned up all the way. The brightest setting of the Kobo is brighter than the brightest on the PW, but so is the lowest (light turned on). So on the Kobo if the lowest light is too bright, you can only turn it all the way off instead of the PW ability to lower the light to very very low. Drawback for Kindle, light cannot be turned off. This can be an advantage in the dark though, because if the light is off how you going to turn it on with a touch-screen only interface?

[robko]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

So on the Kobo if the lowest light is too bright, you can only turn it all the way off instead of the PW ability to lower the light to very very low. Drawback for Kindle, light cannot be turned off. This can be an advantage in the dark though, because if the light is off how you going to turn it on with a touch-screen only interface?

With the hardware button on the top of the Kobo Glo that turns the light on and off

[silverspear]

For this question, you should be asking me, since I had the same question as you last month, and I managed to snag both a paperwhite and a Glo for myself while holidaying in Japan 2 weeks back. =)

Yes, I bought 1 of each, and planning to sell of the one that I like less after that. Currently i'm actually leaning towards keeping both.. for good reason.

PW: Yes, the PW has quality issues with the screen. I 've seen 5 units of PW while in Japan, and all 5 have hue problems to some degree. I exchanged my set once, cos the first unit's hue was worse than the one on display at the shop. I saw another person on the plane with a PW, and his had hue issues too. Honestly speaking, I think that this is a big problem for those who are not able to make exchanges easily, cos you might not like the set that you bought, and you're stuck with it. Do consider this fact.

The Glo's light is definitely more uniform than the PW. you probably won't have quality issues with the glo. comparing the 2, I actually think that I would prefer the glo's lighting in the long run, cos I actually got distracted by the PW's hue issues while reading for more than 10 mins. Even though what most reviews say about the PW backlight is true, it does look more uniform at first glance, but over time i found the Glo to be less distracting to the eyes.

About the Glo having a blue hue.. it's true that the color temperature of the glo and the PW are not the same. PW does look more white to the eye. But i hardly think it's a big issue if you are not reading from both devices side by side. With nothing to compare, the Glo will look white too.


The dictionary on the glo isn't all that bad. It's not as fancy as the kindle's and probably not as extensive as the oxford, but so far i'm into my 2nd book, and i only had 1 case of unrecognised word. haven't used the glo's dictionary extensively so can't comment as much.

PW button is not hard to press.. just need to get used to it being on the bottom.

About touch responsiveness. Yes, the glo does have problem registering a simple tap to turn page sometimes. I just use a swipe instead, swipes have little or no problems. But I do agree that the PW is more responsive. I will miss that on my Glo..

[Lyn2012]

I had a Kobo Glo for a week before returning it - although there were lots of things I loved about it, the light just didn't work for me as the lowest setting was far too bright. I've had a Paperwhite for two weeks now, my first Kindle, and find it to be the best ereader available at the moment, although there are disadvantages too.

Here are my personal views, although I know that others will have quite different opinions. I haven't commented on the dictionary as I haven't used it, neither on the Amazon/Kobo stores as I don't use them either. All my books are sideloaded via Calibre and I haven't even registered my PW as I keep wifi switched off - just my choice.

Kobo Glo Advantages
Attractive and useful home screen - the latest 5 books accessed
Wide selection of font settings, lots of size for fonts, margins and line height
Lighter than the PW
Custom fonts can be added without jailbreaking
Calibre collections work without jailbreaking - as Shelves
Shelves always show as list view
Public library book access possible

Kobo Glo Disadvantages
Inability to turn light down sufficiently
Touch screen less responsive and less accurate than the capacitive screen of the PW
Fewer options when looking for a nice case than with PW

Kindle PW Advantages
Light can be turned down to virtually off in small increments
Responsive and accurate touch screen
Slightly faster response time - I think
Lovely ultra slim cases available at good prices

Kindle PW Disadvantages
Heavier than Kobo Glo
* Limited font selection
Limited margin choice
Limited number of font sizes often with a large difference between one size and another
Limited line height variability
* Collections don't work with Calibre
* Annoying "Personal" tag on sideloaded books
No public library access possible
Collections and books show as either list or cover view but I would prefer Collections as list view (generic image looks ridiculous) with the Books inside as cover view, something I have been unable work out how to do and that happens automatically on the Glo.

* These can be addressed by jailbreaking which I have done and hopefully more tweaks will be available soon.

I hope this helps you make your decision. I was lucky in that the first PW I was sent is a good one, they do seem to be better now than they were when they were first released.

[soulfuldog]

Nice to get some good reviews of the pros and cons of both. Couple of things from your post though Lyn2012, don't you just need to use plugboards with Calibre for the collections to work with the Kindle (or was that just the Kindle Touch?). And didn't I read somewhere that the latest version of Calibre fix the issue with personal tags showing on sideloaded books?

[Lyn2012]

Originally Posted by l_macd

Nice to get some good reviews of the pros and cons of both. Couple of things from your post though Lyn2012, don't you just need to use plugboards with Calibre for the collections to work with the Kindle (or was that just the Kindle Touch?). And didn't I read somewhere that the latest version of Calibre fix the issue with personal tags showing on sideloaded books?

As I said I am new to Kindle ownership but from my reading, and trial and error, it seemed I needed the Collections Manager by Ixtab loaded on my PW as well as the Calibre plug-in. Then, in order to get this installed, I had to JB and get another couple of downloads as well. Now I create the collections using Calibre and then on my PW, open the Collections Manager and select "Import from Calibre" to actually create the collection on the PW.

Re Personal tags and side-loaded books, there was a lot of confusion around this and I couldn't get it working at first. This was at the same time as I realised I needed to JB anyway so I'm not 100% sure that the JB was the only reason the Personal tag problem finally disappeared or if it was due to something else I did.

[Herjar]

Thanks for all the help. I think I'm going to try a Kindle PW and hope they fixed the screen issues. The dictionaries is really what made my decision. Got some good info from this thread too: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...=198435&page=1

[desert dog]

Herjar, I think you will be happy with the Kindle PW. I ordered one of the first wave of Paperwhites so I've had it for awhile and have become comfortable with it. I got lucky, I guess, because my screen is clean and well lighted with only a few spotlight highlights at the bottom of the screen. The effect is not enough to have any negative effect on the reading experience.

I did buy a Kobo Glo a couple weeks ago and it has some features I really enjoy: being able to manipulate the margins and the weight of the words. Also, I really appreciate that I always have a page number for the specific chapter I am reading at the time.

I am going to keep both ereaders and use them alternately - I have a completely different group of books on each one so that works for me.

If I was forced to choose only one to keep, either the KPW or the K Glo, it would be a tough choice but the KPW would stay..

[HarryT]

Another aspect to consider is customer service. Amazon's is superb; from what I've read, Kobo's is far from good. You hopefully won't need customer service very often, but when you do need it, it's nice to know that it will be good.

[llcj]

While I have only had my Kobo for slightly less than a year and I have never had a major problem, any issues I have had have been dealt with quickly, politely, and to my satisfaction.

[Captain Slocum]

This thread is a little old, but still relevant I think and I thought you might like my views 7 months on having access to Kobo Glo, Kobo Touch and Kindle Paperwhite.

The brightness problem that others have noted, here and elsewhere, with the Glo - the brightness doesn't go low enough - must have been fixed by a software update because I have very sensitive eyes, cannot bear anything too bright, and in a completely dark room the Glo at 1% is very dim. You probably couldn't read it if it was less bright.

The Paperwhite is a bit more responsive to the touch, but not much. It might be that I am more used to this sort of capacitance screen as I have an iPad and iPhone. But the latest Glo is very good in this respect (MUCH better than my older Kobo Touch).

Time will tell over robustness, but my wife, who has been using the Kobo Touch for over a year is notorious for breaking things like this and never uses a case for it and it is still working fine and with no issues or even scratches.

I love that I can download ePub books for the Kobos, there is so much out there, and for everything else there is Calibre, which I don't have to tell you is a phenomenal bit of software, even if it cost a lot of money - but is free!

Both are good readers, it is matter of taste, but don't be put off by the posts that say the Glo is too bright or not so robust or has a rubbish touch screen. That is definitely not my experience of the latest model.

[leo_CR]

And on what version are you? Is it the latest?