"Right" or "Good" time to buy a Kobo?

[Jack in NC]

Greetings from NC!

I am a MobileRead newbie. I've been reading ebooks for more than a decade, but just bought my first Ereader, a used Kobo Aura HD, a few months ago.

I love it. I'm hooked. The value of Kobo, for me, is Pocket integration and ability to read non-DRM epubs.

So, I am planning to get a Kobo Aura One for size, water resistance, Overdrive integration, and smart backlighting.

I'm not in a huge rush, and we do have the holiday shopping season/sales coming soon in the US. Is there a particularly good or bad time to buy a Kobo? Will they go on sale around the holidays? Is there new hardware coming that could reduce the price of the Aura One? Is there any other timing considerations that are worth keeping in mind?

Thanks in advance for your feedback!

Jack

[Cinisajoy]

That one is easy.
The best time to buy is always a week after you bought it.
Or in other words, buy when you want it.

[JSWolf]

There is no wrong time to buy a Kobo.

[stewacide]

I doubt they're in a rush to refresh the One since there's nothing from the Amazon side that competes with / tops it.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by stewacide

I doubt they're in a rush to refresh the One since there's nothing from the Amazon side that competes with / tops it.

I would like to see a 300DPI 7" H2O3.

[salamanderjuice]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I would like to see a 300DPI 7" H2O3.

The Aura One is basically just a 7.8" 300DPI H2O...unless you really think the extra .8" makes a huge difference.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by salamanderjuice

The Aura One is basically just a 7.8" 300DPI H2O...unless you really think the extra .8" makes a huge difference.

Battery life of the H2O is better.That's the problem with the KA1. They weakened the battery to make it lighter.

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by stewacide

I doubt they're in a rush to refresh the One since there's nothing from the Amazon side that competes with / tops it.

Whilst I do agree with you about this, I feel that Amazon may have done enough with the new 7" Kindle Oasis to stop many Kindle waverers stepping off the "Path of Righteousness" toward Kobo. This may be disappointing for Kobo's future income prospects. I'd love to be wrong about this

Personally, I'm a bit disappointed there's been no new flagship Kobo this year. I love my KA1 but I'd still like to have had the buzz of a shiny new improved device. I know the Kobo Aura2 and H2O2 are new-ish devices and there's nothing wrong with them, but I didn't see anything to get particularly excited about.

One thing I'd like to see Kobo do to improve their customisability (is that a word?) features is to tidy up and fully bring out into the light some of their "hidden" features , e.g.

• Night mode screen colour inversion
• Full screen book reading (no header, footer)
• Screenshot
• Font bolding for all fonts, not just the built-in ones

All of the above are already possible, for all recent Kobo models, via patch or simple manual editing of the .conf file, so why couldn't they become "official" with relative ease?

[dordale]

For purchases in the US--I suggest buying from the Canadian company-Chapters Indigo. The prices on their website are in Canadian Dollars (of course), and with the exchange rate, it works out to less than buying direct from Kobo--even after adding the cost of shipping in. And from posts I've read here, delivery is usually fairly quick. It took a little longer for mine to get here, but it was a Christmas present, so not unexpected that time of year.

[genoasalami]

Originally Posted by dordale

For purchases in the US--I suggest buying from the Canadian company-Chapters Indigo. The prices on their website are in Canadian Dollars (of course), and with the exchange rate, it works out to less than buying direct from Kobo--even after adding the cost of shipping in. And from posts I've read here, delivery is usually fairly quick. It took a little longer for mine to get here, but it was a Christmas present, so not unexpected that time of year.

What about returns?

[Ksquared]

Originally Posted by Jack in NC

I'm not in a huge rush, and we do have the holiday shopping season/sales coming soon in the US. Is there a particularly good or bad time to buy a Kobo?

Jack

To return to the original question, Black Friday and cyber Monday may have sales or at least free shipping from Kobo. Watch the web site regularly as it is not unusual for free shipping sales to pop up around holidays.

The Chapters/Indigo exchange rate advantage sounds like a good idea, but I have not tried it.

Good Luck!

[mdclanahan]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

I feel that Amazon may have done enough with the new 7" Kindle Oasis to stop many Kindle waverers stepping off the "Path of Righteousness" toward Kobo.

I feel like this is an accurate assessment. As a former Kindle user, though, I'm so glad I made the switch. The Kobo UI and customizability are so much better than Kindle.

[dordale]

Originally Posted by genoasalami

What about returns?

I'm not sure about returns from the U.S. to Chapters Indigo in Canada--as luckily for me, I'm very happy with the my Aura One. I seem to recall a discussion of this issue a while back, but don't remember the details. Maybe a search of prior threads might pull something up.

[GlenRunciter]

Originally Posted by salamanderjuice

...unless you really think the extra .8" makes a huge difference.

Just asked my wife. She says it makes a realy huge difference... *scnr

[salamanderjuice]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Battery life of the H2O is better.That's the problem with the KA1. They weakened the battery to make it lighter.

Shrug.

I’ve been happy with the battery life of my KAO, gets about the same battery life as my PW3 with similar usage.Which for me is about a week. I like the weight too, it’s just about right for holding in one hand.

Kobo also reduced the weight on the H2O Edition 2(and maybe battery?) so who knows if they’d keep the same battery life again for a version 3.