Kindle Voyage vs Kobo Aura H2O

[Josieb1]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I must respectfully disagree, and I, unlike you, actually have and use a Voyage. The glass screen does not reflect noticeable amounts of light: certainly no more than the H2O or any other eInk device that I've used.

I love my Voyage and I still have a Kobo Aura H20. I use both regularly.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by uppon2

@eschwartz Wow. Thank you for such a detailed response. I think I like to tinker, hack and customize and I'm wondering if the Kindle will offer me enough. I actually build custom themes for Android devices, so I really like to have root access and software flexibility. They both sound like they offer that to some point, though, the Kobo might have greater depth but lack the stability overall.

Something tells me to get a Kindle, I think it might be the whole social/ecosystem. I know I can still get books from there either way but it is not the same.

I think I will be like to customize the Kobo a lot more but feel more involved with the Kindle. It is still 85% Kobo, though.

Well, I believe there ARE some straight-up Android images for the Kobo, the Glo at least (dunno about the others, I think debian is available for the HD though)... running Android will give you plenty of room to do things in a standard manner -- but if you are going to boot Android, you might want to consider getting the Onyx Boox T68 or similar E-Ink tablet.

Although once you are rooted on the Kindle you can of course run anything you want, assuming you built it right. I think some people are actually running ArchLinuxArm or debian in a chroot...
There are several active devs in the Kindle forums who can help you get started cross-compiling for the Kindle, I know that much.

At the end of the day, you will probably want to get down to reading don't forget to factor that in too.

[aceflor]

Originally Posted by howyoudoin

I have not seen a Voyage IRL, so I cannot state it out of personal experience. However there does seem to be a definite difference if that comparison video is anything to go by. Both devices were tilted towards the same light source (window?) more than once and the Voyage is seen to reflect more of the glare. Perhaps in practice the glare on the Voyage is indeed not significant enough to hinder comfortable reading, but the Aura does seem to reflect less of the glare, and that was a factor in my decision.

I own both, there is not more glare in the one than in the other. At all. Under any light. And I have compared both extensively, you can believe me.

So the video you saw may have given you that impression, but it is untrue to say that one glares more than the other.

[uppon2]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Well, I believe there ARE some straight-up Android images for the Kobo, the Glo at least (dunno about the others, I think debian is available for the HD though)... running Android will give you plenty of room to do things in a standard manner -- but if you are going to boot Android, you might want to consider getting the Onyx Boox T68 or similar E-Ink tablet.

Although once you are rooted on the Kindle you can of course run anything you want, assuming you built it right. I think some people are actually running ArchLinuxArm or debian in a chroot...
There are several active devs in the Kindle forums who can help you get started cross-compiling for the Kindle, I know that much.

At the end of the day, you will probably want to get down to reading don't forget to factor that in too.

I don't think I will actually change the software entirely as I know that the stock firmware of Kindle/Kobo devices are specifically optimised for e-ink and seem to do a better job with that in itself. My Android developing skills are still extremely immature, at best. It has taken me far too long to learn! Thank you once again for your advice

[uppon2]

The one thing I am noticing more and more after watching more Kindle vs Kobo videos, is that Kindle seems to run three times faster. If it was a negligible response time, I would not have said anything, but it is completely distracting. Have there been any updates that increase the speed of the Kobo?

I am almost back to 60/40 (Kobo) due to the larger screen and waterproof.

The latest video I watched is this one
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZqBes016yY

[meeera]

Originally Posted by uppon2

The one thing I am noticing more and more after watching more Kindle vs Kobo videos, is that Kindle seems to run three times faster. If it was a negligible response time, I would not have said anything, but it is completely distracting. Have there been any updates that increase the speed of the Kobo?

I am almost back to 60/40 (Kobo) due to the larger screen and waterproof.

The latest video I watched is this one
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZqBes016yY

How you can tell anything from a video made by those geese is beyond me, I'm afraid.

Why did I listen to the commentary? "Line spacing, margins, it's all the same". Most of what they spend time on in that video is niche use case - PDFs, translation of long passages, etc. None of which is relevant to the much more usual use case of simply reading a novel in a language you know. Depends what's important to you as an individual. They don't even look at the lighting, and when they show the plain books they're showing different books in different fonts with different spacings... it's not a comparison video.

[uppon2]

Originally Posted by meeera

How you can tell anything from a video made by those geese is beyond me, I'm afraid.

Why did I listen to the commentary? "Line spacing, margins, it's all the same". Most of what they spend time on in that video is niche use case - PDFs, translation of long passages, etc. None of which is relevant to the much more usual use case of simply reading a novel in a language you know. Depends what's important to you as an individual. They don't even look at the lighting, and when they show the plain books they're showing different books in different fonts with different spacings... it's not a comparison video.

I try not to take the videos too seriously. I was only highlighting the snappiness of the Kindle software, compared to Kobo.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by uppon2

I try not to take the videos too seriously. I was only highlighting the snappiness of the Kindle software, compared to Kobo.

Having owned and used both, they seem pretty similar to me; the Kindle doesn't seem noticeably faster. And both are way, way faster than the horribly time-consuming act of turning the page of a paper book.

There are certainly other reasons to prefer one over the other: you may prefer the larger screen of the H2O, or the better dictionaries of the Kindle, but speed? No.

[aceflor]

Originally Posted by uppon2

I try not to take the videos too seriously. I was only highlighting the snappiness of the Kindle software, compared to Kobo.

The Voyage is a tad faster and snappier than the H2O (personal experience), but the difference is not extreme.

[khalleron]

The Kobo processes kepubs much faster than it does epubs, but then you have that header taking up a large chunk of space on the screen.

Switching back to epubs, I do notice the slower speed, but it's still faster than my old Sony T1, so it doesn't really bother me. The kepubs turned pages faster than my eyes could travel back to the top of the screen. Nothing needs to be any faster than that.

[uppon2]

Once again; I would like to thank everybody for their comments.
I am still tossing up between these two devices. If these readers were in my country, I would have already made a decision. My questions remaining are as follows.

1. Is the dictionary on the Kobo Aura H20 good enough for single word English definitions, or does it fail to find a large percentage of words?

2. Is the screen on the Kindle Voyage distracting due to the new technology; does it make it seem more like an LCD? For some reason, when I watch reviews, that is all I can think about. Remembering I have never seen one in person but I would hate it if it reminded me of LCD, especially while the light was on!

3. eschwartz mentioned that the PW2 and Kindle Touch are very hackable.. Excuse my ignorance, but at this point I can't seem to find a lot going on for the Voyage. If this is the case, what would be lacking as a "must have" Kindle device hack?

[HarryT]

The Kobo's dictionaries are extremely poor. They're probably OK for a child, or someone learning English as a foreign language, but for an adult with a good vocabulary who wants to know the meaning of obscure words, they're pretty much a waste of time.

[mbovenka]

Originally Posted by HarryT

The Kobo's dictionaries are extremely poor. They're probably OK for a child, or someone learning English as a foreign language, but for an adult with a good vocabulary who wants to know the meaning of obscure words, they're pretty much a waste of time.

I can't judge the bilingual dictionaries, as I don't use them, but the monolingual English dictionary isn't *that* bad, surely?

English is my second language, but after reading 300-odd English books a year for almost 40 years, a word needs to be obscure indeed to be new to me. And yes, the Oxford dictionary Amazon uses for the Kindle is better than the Kobo dictionary, and the Chambers I used is better still, but the Kobo one does the job reasonably well.

I wouldn't call it 'a waste of time'.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by mbovenka

I can't judge the bilingual dictionaries, as I don't use them, but the monolingual English dictionary isn't *that* bad, surely?

English is my second language, but after reading 300-odd English books a year for almost 40 years, a word needs to be obscure indeed to be new to me. And yes, the Oxford dictionary Amazon uses for the Kindle is better than the Kobo dictionary, and the Chambers I used is better still, but the Kobo one does the job reasonably well.

I wouldn't call it 'a waste of time'.

When I had my H2O, I had a very poor rate of success in looking up the meaning of words, whereas the Kindle gives good results virtually 100% of the time, so for me personally, I'm afraid the Kobo's dictionary was rather a waste of time.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by uppon2

The one thing I am noticing more and more after watching more Kindle vs Kobo videos, is that Kindle seems to run three times faster. If it was a negligible response time, I would not have said anything, but it is completely distracting. Have there been any updates that increase the speed of the Kobo?

I am almost back to 60/40 (Kobo) due to the larger screen and waterproof.

The latest video I watched is this one
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZqBes016yY

One thing to note in that video is that they have stupid settings on the Kobo. And when they show off the settings options, they only make it more stupid. Don't set the Kobo to emulate the Kindle, set the Kobo for best reading.

Besides, to do a proper comparison, set the options properly and use the same eBooks for both devices.