Switching From Sony

[Moloko]

I have a PRST1 that's a few years old and I would like to upgrade to an e-ink device with front light. I find it hard to decide on which e-reader to go with so I would need a bit of help, ideally from people that switched from Sony but all opinions are welcomed.

A few notes: I started collecting e-books a while ago and I'm using Calibre, so I already have a few thousands books saved and file format is not an issue for me as I don't mind converting. I would ideally like an e-reader with SD card, however I find that by clogging up the reader with thousands of books the performance decreases, so I'm willing to change my mind about that. If there is an e-book reader that can handle thousands of books without any issue please let me know though. Since I'm not changing my e-readers very often I want something that is a flagship so I won't feel the need to change it after a short while.

I am mainly looking at Kobo H2O and Kindle Voyage and I have been browsing the forums and checked comparisons. I like them both though so it is very hard to decide, which is why I'm asking for help on it. I like Amazon's CS and knowing that if something happens to the reader they will try to solve it, I like the look of the reader and its portability; I like Kobo's ability to customize fonts and the openness of the reader as well as the large screen. If there is any other e-reader that would be a good option I'm open to suggestions. I am looking for something that's fast, reliable, with great screen (Carta), ideally hassle free, that I can read on for many years to come.

I can't see the products physically for a comparison as it looks like nobody's carrying the Kobo in my country anymore and the Kindle will not be available locally for a while. I bought my PRST1 without seeing it in person either, so I am willing to take the chance.

In short (sorry for the long post): have PRST1; want to upgrade; please help.
Is there anyone that used Sony and switched to something else that is willing to share the decision and experience with a new brand?

Thank you!

[soulfuldog]

Sounds to me like you just need to decide which is more important to you. Either its the Amazon CS, and general reliability of Kindle software, or the bigger screen and better customisation options you'll get with the Kobo?

The Voyage is a little more expensive, is that extra cost worth considering, which'll maybe edge you in favour of the H2O? Also worth thinking about is if you are buying online, while the Voyage seems to have a lot more issues than the H2O with quality control (i.e. there are a few with yellow tinged screens - see this post showing an image of a 'bad' and 'good' version). If you have any need to return one, it'll be a far easier experience doing so with Amazon than with Kobo.

Both look very good and you'd probably be happy with either of them. In saying that, if you are struggling to decide between them, although you've said you are happy to convert, as someone coming from an epub ereader, just for pure convenience, you'd probably be as well to go with the H2O.

[Rizla]

Personally, I'd get the Kobo H20. Nice big screen with a good front-light. I don't think having a lot of books on SD-Card will slow it down. They fixed that, I think.

I wouldn't bother with the Voyage. If I was going to get a Kindle, it would be the PW2. It's cheaper and the front-light is better.

In any case, both are nice, but the H20 would be my choice.

[induna]

I made the switch from Sony to Amazon a couple of years ago. I started with the PRS-500 and ended with a T1. The primary reason I switched was for foreign language dictionary support (I know, weird) and because the writing was clearly on the wall that Sony was done with readers. A shame. I converted all my books with Calibre and emailed them to Amazon and they now sit in the cloud.

I've had the PW 1 and 2 and have a Voyage on order. They are fine readers and do everything I need them to do without any problems at all. Battery life is great. The light is great. The interface is fine. I spend a lot more time reading than fiddling about, so I have never really found any need for a bunch of customizations, and I'm not very picky about fonts.

You might want to consider the PW 2 instead of the Voyage. The software is pretty much identical and it is much cheaper. The screen is much better than the T1.

Good luck.

[Moloko]

Thank you all very much for your input.

I forgot to mention that the price is not an issue: I'm not changing e-readers that often and I don't mind paying a bit more for something with newer technology and back when I bought the PRS T1 it was the most expensive option for me. Basically I'd pay as much as needed for something that's fast, reliable and works sorta out of the box.

I haven't made up my mind towards any of them yet, so your experiences and suggestions are very helpful. I am aware of the issues with the Kindle's screen, apparently the battery life isn't that great either. On the other hand reading the Kobo forums and seeing all the issues with the software makes me want to run for the hills. I know not everyone has the same problems and most don't need all the tweaks, but it would bother me having to do go through all the hoops to get the reader to behave as it should. I'm not in a hurry to get one ASAP, so I'm still checking things out.

Something that matters though: how easy is to set up collections/shelves on both these?

Please keep the suggestions coming as they are really helping me out here

[eschwartz]

Shelves/collections are very easy on the Kobo, it is built into calibre's device driver. (It edits the Kobo database.)

For the Kindle it is a little harder. You need to jailbreak, and install the Kindle Collections plugin to calibre, export the collections file to the Kindle, and use Collections Manager kindlet or LibrarianSync to add them to the Kindle. Not THAT difficult, but still, something to think about.
One interesting thing to note is that the kindlet allows you to create nested, hierarchical collections on the Kindle. (WARNING: This was broken as of firmware >= 5.4.2 -- but you can downgrade if that is important.)

There is also a fonts hack for the Kindle, so you don't have to give the Kindle up just because you want fonts. Of course, you may still prefer the Kobo. But I figured it is worth mentioning.

One last thing. In order to do any of this with the Kindle, you of course need to jailbreak. Currently this is impossible with the Kindle Voyage. It is a new device and our old jailbreak mechanism was "fixed". We hope a new method will be discovered, but in the meantime, hacks are limited to the PW2 and earlier models.

---

I happen to be a big fan of the Kindle interface for its clarity, simplicity of use, and lack of clutter.

They don't have SD cards, but my outspoken opinion on the matter is that you don't need one:

Originally Posted by eschwartz

And since the 3.5GB in the Kindle Touch can hold about 3,000 average-sized books, you don't need expandable memory. If you read 100 books A DAY you will still have one month of reading on your Kindle. At a more reasonable but still exorbitant 3 books a day, you will have nearly 3 YEARS worth. I'm sure somewhere along the way you can get to a computer and swap them for new ones.
(Same logic applies to every other eReader, including the Kindle Paperwhite which has (shudder) a measly 1.5 GB and about a year's worth of books.)

That even leaves room for storing a thousand or so favorites for quick reference.

The Kindle will not slow down under the load, except, understandably, when doing a global inside-the-book search.

[PRS-T2]

First: You should know that I'm still on a PRS-T2 but crawling the web and the stores for the next system to move on to, since Sony left the reader market here in Germany, so...

Something that matters though: how easy is to set up collections/shelves on both these?

Are calibre tags important and do you use them to let the reader build collections based on those? Do you want to have multiple tags (e.g. Scifi, Action, Horror) per book and have the reader sort a book with more than one tags in several corresponding collections while plugged in to calibre? Then the Kobo would be better suited out of the box than the Kindle. Kindle doesn't "listen" to Calibre like Sony or Kobo does.

It would be cool to hear more about which specific functions the Sony has you use rather frequently while managing and reading your books.

For example, I love the fine dictionaries on my Sony - an aspect in which Kobo purely sucks. Kindle or PocketBook would be better here.
I love to tap a word here and there and push it over to Wikipedia, just to see what weird weapon, aircraft or other technical invention it is, that's going to determine the action to unfold next in the book. So I need a Wikipedia link next to the marked word, a WiFi connection that establishes fast and a fast and simple browser to load Wikipedia and it's images in a snap. Sony does that and brings me back to the book very quickly also.
How does a Kobo, Kindle or Pocketbook handle such a use-case?

The more I learn about other systems, the more I see just HOW perfect Sony did it back then. Haven't found a match I would swop the T2 for, but I think Pocketbook will come close one day. Since I like a warm light for reading, all the built-in frontlights are just shabby for my taste. The first display that came almost close to my T2 was Paperwhite 2, it was almost as bright and contrasty with it's light turned off and became annoying with the light turned on. The slight step in resolution was barely noticable from more than 20cm viewing distance. Kobo H2O makes a difference because the screen is slightly larger - I always hoped for Sony to go that route, but ...

Good luck with finding the best system for you. At least, your T1 has a darker screen than the T2, which is a bit brighter and warmer, not the old cold grey. Current readers should be at least on par, rather better, to make for an upgrade as far as the screen goes. Other than that it depends on how you use your Sony. I'm still hoping to find something that's not a step back for me...

[eschwartz]

I don't know about Kobo.

The Kindle opens a popup when you click and hold on a word; the popup displays the dictionary definition and offers the option to see the Wiki entry, which is also in the popup. It includes a button to launch the wiki entry in the browser, and you just hit the back button to return to your place in the book.

[robko]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

I don't know about Kobo.

The Kindle opens a popup when you click and hold on a word; the popup displays the dictionary definition and offers the option to see the Wiki entry, which is also in the popup. It includes a button to launch the wiki entry in the browser, and you just hit the back button to return to your place in the book.

Very similar in Kobo. When you press and hold on a word it brings up the dictionary definition and gives you a search option for Wiki or Google.

@ Moloko - the H2O has a much warmer light than the older Kobo's (IMO). And in my experience, most people don't need to tweak firmware to get it the way they want. Some do if they have specific needs or preferences.

[dr. ego]

I've switched from a Sony T1 recently to a Kobo H2o. I get my ebooks from all kind of sources so I don't really care about the kobo or amazon stores. While the Voyage has some software features that I would like on my H2o (stuff like dictionary features, search options), the big price difference for me being in the Netherlands made me get the H2o. Since they are so close, I would have probably gone for the Voyage if it was the cheaper one.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Rizla

Personally, I'd get the Kobo H20. Nice big screen with a good front-light. I don't think having a lot of books on SD-Card will slow it down. They fixed that, I think.

The only downside of the Kobo is the lengthy (VERY lengthy, sometimes) delay after adding books. Eg, when I added 700 books to my H2O, it took about 2h to "process" them. However, that's a one-time process; when I add half a dozen new books now, it processes them in a few seconds.

Overall, the H2O is excellent. The Kindle, though, has much, much better dictionaries (important to me personally) and I think its library management is superior.

[meeera]

I actually prefer Kobo's processing procedure over the Kindle method of going on a go-slow campaign because it's indexing silently for hours (days?) in the background. At least this way you know that when you pick up your Kobo to read, it's going to work.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by meeera

I actually prefer Kobo's processing procedure over the Kindle method of going on a go-slow campaign because it's indexing silently for hours (days?) in the background. At least this way you know that when you pick up your Kobo to read, it's going to work.

There are pros and cons to both methods, certainly, but at least you can use the Kindle immediately after adding books, and I haven't personally noticed any slowdown in normal use while it's indexing - it just drains the battery a lot faster while it's indexing.

No big deal, either way.

[Josieb1]

Originally Posted by meeera

I actually prefer Kobo's processing procedure over the Kindle method of going on a go-slow campaign because it's indexing silently for hours (days?) in the background. At least this way you know that when you pick up your Kobo to read, it's going to work.

Me too. I can immediately search in a book I've just added to my Kobo rather than wait for Amazon to finish indexing.

[shalym]

Originally Posted by Josieb1

Me too. I can immediately search in a book I've just added to my Kobo rather than wait for Amazon to finish indexing.

The only time I've had an issue with indexing was when an individual book had problems. The longest I've had indexing take was when I got my PW 1 and added over 200 books--it took about 10 minutes. During that 10 minutes I could still read with no issues.

Shari