Just got a kindle paperwhite in store at Best Buy

[xendula]

NNolan, thank you for the first impressions and comparison.

[aceflor]

I am trying to get a Kobo glo in Spain, because I would love to compare it with the PW, but they are not on order here right now...

[xendula]

Originally Posted by aceflor

I am trying to get a Kobo glo in Spain, because I would love to compare it with the PW, but they are not on order here right now...

Have you tried France? Maybe Amazon.fr or fnac? The kobo is the only reader fnac sells in stores (at least last time I was in fnac) , so you may be able to preorder it there, if they ship to Spain.

Update: fnac glo preorder page ; Fnac shipping to rest of Europe

[aceflor]

Thanks Xendula, but no, the kobo glo is not being sent by Fnac France outside of France, or at least not to Spain (maybe because we have our own Fnac in Spain, that funny enough does not have a "special contract" with kobo but with another brand, a spanish one). It is also not sold by Fnac Spain at all.
It is supposedly sold by Redcoon.es, but it has been on pre-order for ages now, with no sign of anything happening at all.

[sparklemotion]

aceflor - Good luck getting the Kobo. I'd love to see one too. They look really nice from everything I have seen in pics and videos.

[MrDoug]

Originally Posted by sparklemotion

aceflor - Good luck getting the Kobo. I'd love to see one too. They look really nice from everything I have seen in pics and videos.

Hi..why is it so hard to get a Kobo in the U.S.? sorry not very informed here on this subject.
Doug

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by MrDoug

Hi..why is it so hard to get a Kobo in the U.S.? sorry not very informed here on this subject.
Doug

Kobo is a Canadian company. They will eventually show up here but for right now they always release the product in Canada first.

[sparklemotion]

Originally Posted by MrDoug

Hi..why is it so hard to get a Kobo in the U.S.? sorry not very informed here on this subject.
Doug

It might be available somewhere in the states, but I haven't seen it myself. It's made in Canada, so it's available there. Right now places like Best Buy in the states say "coming soon" so it should be out here shortly. I'd just like to have a look at it in person. It looks quite nice.

oops I'm slow, I see Blossom just replied before me.

[robko]

Originally Posted by sparklemotion

It might be available somewhere in the states, but I haven't seen it myself. It's made in Canada, so it's available there. Right now places like Best Buy in the states say "coming soon" so it should be out here shortly. I'd just like to have a look at it in person. It looks quite nice.

oops I'm slow, I see Blossom just replied before me.

Some Independent bookstores that used to be on the Google e-book affiliate program now have them in stock in the U.S. Kobo apparently signed a deal with Independent bookstore association last month some time.

[xendula]

Goodereader have a video comparison between the Glo and the PW right on their home page.

[robko]

Originally Posted by xendula

Goodereader have a video comparison between the Glo and the PW right on their home page.

Use that review for the pictures (although they leave the Kobo cranked to max through most of it which is an unrealistic usage) but ignore the commentators. There were a number of things they talked about regarding the Kobo (i.e. features/usage) that were just completely wrong (can't remember exactly what now, watched it quite a while ago). They did end up doing a 2nd review (after reader complaints) which at least turned down the light but didn't really correct this info mistakes.

[Kolenka]

So, I got my Kobo Glo from Powell's last night, and got some time to play with both. The first impressions I had:

- The brightness range in the Glo is really weird. It can get a lot brighter than the Kindle, but the minimum brightness is about the same as the Kindle's "11" setting. I read at night with the Kindle set at 0-2, which is a shame.
- The Glo's light is somewhere in between the Nook and the Paperwhite, ignoring defective light guides on Paperwhites. It's obvious that the page is being lit with a light, versus the Paperwhite's look of it simply being lit. But it is nice and consistent minus shadows at the bottom.
- Kobo's fonts try to replicate print books, and do it pretty well. The higher resolution helps, but it still has some aliasing. The Paperwhite's fonts try to make for a book-like experience while looking good on a computer-like display. It seems like a matter of taste.
- The Glo still has some interesting kepub rendering issues of simple stuff like centering paragraphs, not using line breaks to split paragraphs and white space. At least with the books I tried. These same books in ePub worked fine on my T2, and were even slightly better on the Paperwhite in KF8 since it supports drop-caps. I need to test a side-loaded version of the ePub to see if there are rendering differences between the two engines.
- The Glo has a deeper bezel and is thicker. I like the Kindle's thinner form factor and shallow bezel. But this is pretty subjective.
- The Glo eats up more screen space with header and footer stuff than the Kindle does. But some folks do like having page numbers and the book/chapter title always on display.
- With the Glo's light on minimum, and the Kindle on 11, the text on the Kindle was darker. There was more of a washout effect on the Glo than the Kindle.

I actually have to exchange my Glo since there appears to be a dead IR emitter which is creating a dead spot on the bottom part of the display. It's preventing me from really playing around since it means I can't enter my wifi password.

So far though, other than the rendering issues, I wouldn't have too much trouble recommending it. Things have gotten polished enough there that the device itself does the job. Although I do find the weird rendering quirks bothersome enough that I wouldn't make it my own personal primary device.

I still need to get word back from Powell's CS folks to setup the exchange.

[Shopaholic]

Originally Posted by sparklemotion

It might be available somewhere in the states, but I haven't seen it myself. It's made in Canada, so it's available there.

It is NOT made in Canada. Like almost all things it's made in China or Japan but it is most certainly not made here. And it was a Canadian company but they sold it to a Japanese company.

[xendula]

Originally Posted by Kolenka

So, I got my Kobo Glo from Powell's last night, and got some time to play with both. The first impressions I had:

- The brightness range in the Glo is really weird. It can get a lot brighter than the Kindle, but the minimum brightness is about the same as the Kindle's "11" setting. I read at night with the Kindle set at 0-2, which is a shame.
- The Glo's light is somewhere in between the Nook and the Paperwhite, ignoring defective light guides on Paperwhites. It's obvious that the page is being lit with a light, versus the Paperwhite's look of it simply being lit. But it is nice and consistent minus shadows at the bottom.
- Kobo's fonts try to replicate print books, and do it pretty well. The higher resolution helps, but it still has some aliasing. The Paperwhite's fonts try to make for a book-like experience while looking good on a computer-like display. It seems like a matter of taste.
- The Glo still has some interesting kepub rendering issues of simple stuff like centering paragraphs, not using line breaks to split paragraphs and white space. At least with the books I tried. These same books in ePub worked fine on my T2, and were even slightly better on the Paperwhite in KF8 since it supports drop-caps. I need to test a side-loaded version of the ePub to see if there are rendering differences between the two engines.
- The Glo has a deeper bezel and is thicker. I like the Kindle's thinner form factor and shallow bezel. But this is pretty subjective.
- The Glo eats up more screen space with header and footer stuff than the Kindle does. But some folks do like having page numbers and the book/chapter title always on display.
- With the Glo's light on minimum, and the Kindle on 11, the text on the Kindle was darker. There was more of a washout effect on the Glo than the Kindle.

I actually have to exchange my Glo since there appears to be a dead IR emitter which is creating a dead spot on the bottom part of the display. It's preventing me from really playing around since it means I can't enter my wifi password.

So far though, other than the rendering issues, I wouldn't have too much trouble recommending it. Things have gotten polished enough there that the device itself does the job. Although I do find the weird rendering quirks bothersome enough that I wouldn't make it my own personal primary device.

I still need to get word back from Powell's CS folks to setup the exchange.

Are you keeping a Paperwhite and a Glo? For youself? That's what I call splurging!!

[NNolan]

With the Glo's light on minimum, and the Kindle on 11, the text on the Kindle was darker. There was more of a washout effect on the Glo than the Kindle.

Kolenka - have you fiddled with the font adjustments on the Glo yet? I managed to get text to look as good on the Glo as on my now-returned 2nd PW by increasing some of the font parameters. I think it might have been thickness and sharpness.