PW5, Libra 2, Sage or something else?

[Vakke]

Hello everybody!

I've been wondering which ereader to buy and I just cannot decide which device would suit my needs the best, so any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

I'm an international customer, from Finland excatly, therefore I would not be benefitting from any regional pricing/features the North American customers get.

Our library uses Overdrive on English books but Ellibs is the system for native Finnish books. Ellibs books are stated to be on a EPUB + DRM format so I do not know does anything support that, perhaps Pocketbook?

I've noticed that Amazon directs me to US Kindle store on books so they are more expensive for me than any other ebook store for some reason, for example, collection on Wheel of time books is on Kobo store for 60 euros and the same in Kindle US is 130 euros. Kindle on Germany is the exact same price than the Kobo store but I cannot use it in Finland for some reason, maybe there is a workaround?

So at last to the things I've been considering the most! I really like the desing of Libra with page turn buttons as I've quite a large hand. I haven't been able to test out the fit of Paperwhite but I've read and watch multiple reviews where they say that it is quite hard to hold on the site of the device as the bezels are very thin. Is this a real problem or is this exaggerated?

I've seen Paperwhite to be much faster with upgraded processor compared to Kobos and I'm absolute sucker for speed on my devices. Is this a deal breaker on Kobos side or could the Sage/Libra be compared to Paperwhite?

I also find the X-ray feature and vocabulary buidler on Kindles site very intreguing as I'm not a native English speaker and I'm mainly going to use the ereader to read English books and to hopefully learn to be more fluent with the language.

So TLDR:

Kobo
+ Form factor
+ EPUB support
+ Overdrive support
+ Cheaper books
- Slower(?)
- Sage battery life(?)

Kindle
+ Faster
+ X-ray and vocabulary builder
- Form factor
- Price of the books

What should I do? Buy one of these devices or wait? Perhaps some other device entirely? At this point Sage is on the price I'm willing to invest at max for my first ereader so I won't regret if I don't use it too much.

[Pajamaman]

I don't know much about most of your issues, but I can say from personal experience that the Libra 2 is very nice piece of hardware.

It would be my choice because:

1. nice hardware
2. open system. You can add koreader, for example.
3. Very easy to organize sideloaded books using calibre.

I would not touch PW5 because
1. Closed system. You cannot customize it or use alternate software.
2. Impossible to organize sideloaded books using calibre.
3. You become Jeff Bezo's bitch, basically.

I would choose the Libra over the Sage as I've not quite so good things about the Sage. The Libra 2 hardware rocks. I set one up for a friend and she loves it. No troubles.

[John F]

Originally Posted by Vakke

...

Our library uses Overdrive on English books but Ellibs is the system for native Finnish books. Ellibs books are stated to be on a EPUB + DRM format so I do not know does anything support that, perhaps Pocketbook?

...

looking at ellibs website, they use watermarking and epub with Adobe DRM. So You can use Kobos. For Adobe DRM, you will most likely need a computer to download and transfer the ebooks to a Kobo. You should get a second opinion on this.

[Quoth]

The only workaround to use German Kindle store is German, Swiss or Austrian address.
Here in Ireland we use Euro. There is a Brexit Trade barrier with UK, but Amazon expects us to use UK. The German site does have English, but some German products only ship to us from UK Amazon not German Amazon.
On Kindle we have choice of UK or USA for ebooks, but not per Kindle. It applies to all your account. But some UK/Ireland titles (mostly same publishing region) are not on USA.

Amazon treats many smaller countries very badly. Also their search generally on UK, Germany or USA sites is rather broken with missing things that match that the do have and most of the results irrelevant. But worst of all is sometimes on UK you don't know it doesn't ship to Ireland till you go to checkout. Or sometimes it says on page it doesn't ship. But the Search always includes the items that don't ship.

They should have ONE website and filter by location-what-ships. It's a mess for regular stuff and worse for ebooks, partly due to historic publishing area cartels especially for English Language.

[Quoth]

The Sage only if you want 8" rather than 7", or want a separate notebook system which uses more or less the same Nebo as on iOS and Android (paid versions, free version has less features than Sage). The Sage still isn't big enough for most PDFs; we have an Elipsa for that. The Elipsa is too big to read epub novels on.

The Sage is OK on FW 4.32 if you don't take too long to turn a page, a KWmobile sleepcover and "Adrawpen" for MS Surface is nearly 1/2 Kobo pen price and works identical. I have the original Libra, a Sage, and to compare a PW3 and Oasis 32G + 3G gen 9.
The Libra is better than Kindle Oasis gen 9.
Calibre and Kobo Utilities on it to manage Kobo. Amazon messes up collections, strips covers of sideloaded books, and has incorrect or no series data. You can't manage series or collections on Kindle without a jailbreak, not always possible.

[Vakke]

Originally Posted by Pajamaman

I don't know much about most of your issues, but I can say from personal experience that the Libra 2 is very nice piece of hardware.

It would be my choice because:

1. nice hardware
2. open system. You can add koreader, for example.
3. Very easy to organize sideloaded books using calibre.

I would not touch PW5 because
1. Closed system. You cannot customize it or use alternate software.
2. Impossible to organize sideloaded books using calibre.
3. You become Jeff Bezo's bitch, basically.

I would choose the Libra over the Sage as I've not quite so good things about the Sage. The Libra 2 hardware rocks. I set one up for a friend and she loves it. No troubles.

I'm just comparing what I saw from the reviews and from those it seems Libra is slower than the PW5. I have no previous experience on ereaders or neither of the devices so that is my only reflection point at this time.

But it's good to hear that the hardware seems to be good. Do you think the single core processor will hold on till the future? It actually seems that the Kobo will be using the single core processor on also the new Clara 2E.

[Vakke]

Originally Posted by John F

looking at ellibs website, they use watermarking and epub with Adobe DRM. So You can use Kobos. For Adobe DRM, you will most likely need a computer to download and transfer the ebooks to a Kobo. You should get a second opinion on this.

Thank you for this, this might be the last straw just to jump in for the Kobos then!

[Sirtel]

You can put Kobo and Google Play books on a Kindle, if you strip the DRM and convert. You won't be chained to Amazon then. You can also put Kindle books on a Kobo.

Personally I prefer Kobos, because of their software. The Sage and especially Libra 2 also have excellent screens. The downside of Kobos is that they tend to be buggier than Kindles. The Sage has button issues (nothing major, but slightly annoying) and some people have freezing/rebooting issues with the Libra 2 (I haven't had them since the 4.32 firmware).

The Libra 2 is noticeably slower than the Sage and the Paperwhite, because it has an older processor. The Sage has poor battery life. It still lasts several days, though.

I've never used X-ray or Vocabulary builder, so can't comment on those. Both Kobos are my preferred readers at the moment, while my Oasis is sitting on a shelf, speed and absence of bugs nothwithstanding. The Kindle software is just too limiting for me. When I happen to buy a book from Amazon, I read it on my Kobos.

That's my two cents.

[Vakke]

Originally Posted by Quoth

The only workaround to use German Kindle store is German, Swiss or Austrian address.
Here in Ireland we use Euro. There is a Brexit Trade barrier with UK, but Amazon expects us to use UK. The German site does have English, but some German products only ship to us from UK Amazon not German Amazon.
On Kindle we have choice of UK or USA for ebooks, but not per Kindle. It applies to all your account. But some UK/Ireland titles (mostly same publishing region) are not on USA.

Amazon treats many smaller countries very badly. Also their search generally on UK, Germany or USA sites is rather broken with missing things that match that the do have and most of the results irrelevant. But worst of all is sometimes on UK you don't know it doesn't ship to Ireland till you go to checkout. Or sometimes it says on page it doesn't ship. But the Search always includes the items that don't ship.

They should have ONE website and filter by location-what-ships. It's a mess for regular stuff and worse for ebooks, partly due to historic publishing area cartels especially for English Language.

The Sage only if you want 8" rather than 7", or want a separate notebook system which uses more or less the same Nebo as on iOS and Android (paid versions, free version has less features than Sage). The Sage still isn't big enough for most PDFs; we have an Elipsa for that. The Elipsa is too big to read epub novels on.

The Sage is OK on FW 4.32 if you don't take too long to turn a page, a KWmobile sleepcover and "Adrawpen" for MS Surface is nearly 1/2 Kobo pen price and works identical. I have the original Libra, a Sage, and to compare a PW3 and Oasis 32G + 3G gen 9.
The Libra is better than Kindle Oasis gen 9.
Calibre and Kobo Utilities on it to manage Kobo. Amazon messes up collections, strips covers of sideloaded books, and has incorrect or no series data. You can't manage series or collections on Kindle without a jailbreak, not always possible.

I contacted the Amazon Germany customer service regarding on this situation at it seems like you said that I will not be able to access the Kindle Germany store with better euro pricing as I don't live in the Germany or have an address there.

Otherwise the German store is the one we use in Finland as Swedish Amazon doesn't delivere here and they recommend using German store. Very weird situation in my honest opinion but well, it is what it is.

Your comparison is extremely helpful and valuable for me, thanks! I think I do not need the 8" display as I have no comparison point at this time and as many have recommend to stay at the 7" screen. Also I will never use the hand writing option as I prefer to use pen and paper or a normal tablet with Apple stuff etc.

I'll download the Calibre and learn how to use it before the Kobo so I can jump righ into it then!

[Vakke]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

You can put Kobo and Google Play books on a Kindle, if you strip the DRM and convert. You won't be chained to Amazon then. You can also put Kindle books on a Kobo.

Personally I prefer Kobos, because of their software. The Sage and especially Libra 2 also have excellent screens. The downside of Kobos is that they tend to be buggier than Kindles. The Sage has button issues (nothing major, but slightly annoying) and some people have freezing/rebooting issues with the Libra 2 (I haven't had them since the 4.32 firmware).

The Libra 2 is noticeably slower than the Sage and the Paperwhite, because it has an older processor. The Sage has poor battery life. It still lasts several days, though.

I've never used X-ray or Vocabulary builder, so can't comment on those. Both Kobos are my preferred readers at the moment, while my Oasis is sitting on a shelf, speed and absence of bugs nothwithstanding. The Kindle software is just too limiting for me. When I happen to buy a book from Amazon, I read it on my Kobos.

That's my two cents.

Do you have both the Libra 2 and Sage?

If so, how would you compare just the two of them as of speed and battery life?

Do you prefer the Sage's speed over the Libra's screen and battery life? And is the battery life on Sage significantly less compared to Libra in standard reading usage?

I really do prefer speed and snappinest on my devices but I would also love it to last quite a while as I'm constatly charging up my other devices.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Vakke

Do you have both the Libra 2 and Sage?

If so, how would you compare just the two of them as of speed and battery life?

Do you prefer the Sage's speed over the Libra's screen and battery life? And is the battery life on Sage significantly less compared to Libra in standard reading usage?

I really do prefer speed and snappinest on my devices but I would also love it to last quite a while as I'm constatly charging up my other devices.

It's a trade-off, basically. The Sage is snappier, but the Libra has a better screen and battery life. All those differences aren't huge, but they're still noticeable. Generally I prefer the speed and the 8‘‘ screen of the Sage, but sometimes I want the fabulous screen and the lesser weight of the Libra, so I switch (I have the same books on both of them). Battery life is not that important to me, as I only read at home.

If I could only have one of them, it would be very hard to decide which. I still haven't made up my mind. Perhaps the Libra, as my Sage has an uneven frontlight. If its light was a bit more even, I'd prefer the Sage, hands down.

[Vakke]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

It's a trade-off, basically. The Sage is snappier, but the Libra has a better screen and battery life. All those differences aren't huge, but they're still noticeable. Generally I prefer the speed and the 8‘‘ screen of the Sage, but sometimes I want the fabulous screen and the lesser weight of the Libra, so I switch (I have the same books on both of them). Battery life is not that important to me, as I only read at home.

If I could only have one of them, it would be very hard to decide which. I still haven't made up my mind. Perhaps the Libra, as my Sage has an uneven frontlight. If its light was a bit more even, I'd prefer the Sage, hands down.

Oh this is though

If I'm reasonable and follow logic I'll buy the Libra 2 even though I want the Sage as this is going to be my first ereader and I will not be able to tell how much use and love the devide is going to get. BUUUT.. Well we'll see what's going to happen!

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Vakke

Oh this is though

If I'm reasonable and follow logic I'll buy the Libra 2 even though I want the Sage as this is going to be my first ereader and I will not be able to tell how much use and love the devide is going to get. BUUUT.. Well we'll see what's going to happen!

Yeah. MR is a very, very bad place where to practise frugality in ereaders.

I was perfectly content with only one ereader, a cheap Kindle Basic, before I joined MobileRead. Since that fateful day I've had about 10 from various brands.

[Vakke]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Yeah. MR is a very, very bad place where to practise frugality in ereaders.

I was perfectly content with only one ereader, a cheap Kindle Basic, before I joined MobileRead. Since that fateful day I've had about 10 from various brands.

So here does the ride begin. I hope its upward and not downward spiraling

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Vakke

Do you have both the Libra 2 and Sage?

If so, how would you compare just the two of them as of speed and battery life?

Do you prefer the Sage's speed over the Libra's screen and battery life? And is the battery life on Sage significantly less compared to Libra in standard reading usage?

I really do prefer speed and snappinest on my devices but I would also love it to last quite a while as I'm constatly charging up my other devices.

I have the original Libra and current Sage. I can't imagine the Libra2 is inferior to the original Libra.
It's excellent speed and battery life compared to Kindle PW3 (I have DXG, KK3, PW3 and gen 9 Oasis 32g +3G. I don't find it slower to read epubs on than my Sage. I use the Libra for recording narration and I use "refresh every page" on the Kobos and all devices that support it.

The original Libra has excellent battery life, much more than a Sage, which is OK compared to a Tablet, phone and the Boyue LikeBook Mars (Android eink which I have) might be similar battery life to a Sage in use and poorer in sleep. I have to power down the Mars when not in use.

The only reason I got a Sage was I liked the notes on the Elipsa (bought for PDFs), but after use I decided the 8" vs 7" screen was an advantage at the larger text size I use. I never found the original Libra too slow and it's still used for my narration on a book stand.