Kobo Aura, Pocketbook Lux, other?

[kgn]

I currently have a slowly dieing Pocketbook 302. I want to get a new reader that is basically my old PB302 with a frontlight plus perhaps a bit more speed. I sideload ALL my books with Calibre, so don't care in the least about online anything. I generally have 1,000 - 2,000 books on the reader at any one time.

A mate just bought a Kobo Aura HD, and that was my first choice as well at one point (until I actually used it). It has some nice hardware, but the problem is that it has very little customization, and the way it handles Collections/Shelves seems too basic. Very much like a upmarket Kindle.

The later models of Pocketbook look ok. ie the Lux 623. It is very like my PB302, but it is still pretty underpowered with a slow CPU and not much RAM. The frontlight has had some average reviews from users. You can customize heaps of things, and it is folder based (not DB driven like the Kindles and Kobos), which is a HUGE advantage.

So while the Pocketbook looks like the way to go, they are pretty hard to buy. I am also not excited by the general hardware specs...so while it might be ok, it does not excite me.

Sony is pulling out of the market, so I guess they are out. Kindles are like iPhones - I don't like them one bit. So they are out.

I need to read one handed (left and right). I need a frontlight. I need around 4gb of memory for books. I like touch, also like hardware buttons. I must be able to get a cover for it (why these things are not sold with covers is a mystery to me). Cost is not really an issue.

Can anyone suggest anything else out there that might suit?

[meeera]

Originally Posted by kgn

A mate just bought a Kobo Aura HD, and that was my first choice as well at one point (until I actually used it). It has some nice hardware, but the problem is that it has very little customization, and the way it handles Collections/Shelves seems too basic. Very much like a upmarket Kindle.
[...]
Can anyone suggest anything else out there that might suit?

Perhaps if you could be clearer on what customisation you want that you couldn't find on the AuraHD, and what you didn't like about Collections handling, and how you'd like Collections to be handled, we could be better placed to help?

There are a pile of hacks and tweaks for the Kobos that may or may not fit your wants and needs.

[kgn]

Originally Posted by meeera

Perhaps if you could be clearer on what customisation you want that you couldn't find on the AuraHD, and what you didn't like about Collections handling, and how you'd like Collections to be handled, we could be better placed to help?

There are a pile of hacks and tweaks for the Kobos that may or may not fit your wants and needs.

No problems. Thanks for the suggestions.

1. I want to be able to use the thing single handed, left or right hand. Very difficult to do in my case. So, I need a tap on the bottom of the left side to go forward, a tap on the bottom of the right side to go forward. Don't care about backwards - I can swipe if I want to do that. Or maybe tap top left of screen for back. Swiping works, but pretty awkward (for me) to do. Also want to remove the huge bottom margin and put in a status bar with book title, page number and clock. Or at the top, but I would like this info somewhere on the screen.

2. Collections. I want to organise my books by author_sort[1]/author_sort/series/ series_no-title.epub. ie I want a list of collections that is basically all the letters A-Z. Then inside those collections I want the authors. ie in 'C', I want all the authors that have a surname starting with 'C'. In each author collection I want each Series to be a collection. Some authors have hundreds of books and a large number of series. There is really no other way to do it if you have a large number of books.

What I am doing at the moment is I have collections on author_sort. Then I get Calibre to rename the title to series - series_no - title.epub. This works after a fashion in that I can get to the next book in a series fairly easily. But some authors can have a hundred books - just imagine the time it takes scrolling through all those screens!

I tried various combinations of collections - 'author_sort,series', for example. Simply too many collections! I don't mind dropping out the A-Z collections, but keeping Authors and Series organised seems difficult.

My current Pocketbook has about 3,000 books on it. My new one I will try to keep a lot cleaner, but it will be around 1,000.

I looked through the developer forum, but to be frank it seemed to relate to older models.


Edit: BTW - the Pocketbook models do every one of these things, which is why I mention them. My current ereader does all that I list above - I want my new one to do at least as much - but better!

[jackie_w]

I don't think there is another brand with the same customisation ability as the Pocketbooks, certainly not in the big name brands who run their own bookstores.

As far as Kobo is concerned, these hacking threads may may be of interest because they do allow organisation by folder rather than the tagging systems favoured by the big names.

Adding alternative readers to Kobo devices
Koreader running on Kobos (all of them, hopefully!)
Cool Reader for Kobo
Android on Kobo: "Tips and Apps"

If you have detailed questions you'd probably be better asking them in those threads where the hack users/creators hang out.