Looking for a new reader. Need input from others please

[dillsandwitch]

Howdy All,

I currently have a Sony PRS-T1 and although there is absolutely nothing wrong with it and I love it I am looking for a new reader. I was going to get the PRS-T3 but I cant find them in Australia anymore. (There are the Japanese ones on Ebay but I dont want one of them)

I'm Kinda leaning towards the Kobo Aura HD but I just wanted some opinions on this one before spending the $$$ on it. The reason being this is back in the day before I got the Sony I got a kobo of some kind. I dont even remember what model it was but I do remember how much I HATED it. It went back to the store in a mater of days.

The main features Im looking for is epub and pdf ( I have 500+ books in pdf from my first generic brand reader and I really dont want to convert them all), cbr and thats pretty much it I think.

Does the Aura have a "sleep" screen like the sony does and when Its powered off does it have a completely blank screen?

How does the front light rate on peoples lists? I read alot at night in bed so does it work well or is an external light still needed?

Also does it have a "recently read" option on the main page like the sony had recently added but I changed the books.db to display recently read instead.

Also can you use Calibre to add/remove books to it?


Thats all the questions I have for now. If I think of any more I will come back and ask.

Thanks in Advance guys and gals
Dill

[howyoudoin]

Aura H2O here.

Yes to all questions.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by dillsandwitch

Does the Aura have a "sleep" screen like the sony does and when Its powered off does it have a completely blank screen?

How does the front light rate on peoples lists? I read alot at night in bed so does it work well or is an external light still needed?

I own the Glo, not the Aura, but at least I can answer these two questions. You can set the Kobos to display the book's cover but I don't think they ever go to a blank screen like the Sony does -- maybe when the battery completely dies?

As for the light ... no, you won't need another external light.

My opinion, for what it's worth, is that the Sony Reader is more "polished," but the Kobos have many more features -- and a lot of ways to customize the page. Sometimes, I think, too many ways. I find myself constantly "tweaking" the Kobo. But I think I'm beginning to "zero in" on what's comfortable for me.

[robko]

Originally Posted by dillsandwitch

( I have 500+ books in pdf from my first generic brand reader and I really dont want to convert them all)

That part is where you may have a problem with a Kobo. There is no pdf reflow so it's not going to handle pdf as well as a Sony apparently does (I don't have one to speak from experience). There are a couple of alternative readers you can install (no rooting required) onto Kobo that might help you overcome this, but I have no experience with them.

Originally Posted by dillsandwitch

Does the Aura have a "sleep" screen like the sony does and when Its powered off does it have a completely blank screen?

The Kobo will show the cover of your last read book, or you can have it set to show a blank screen with "sleeping" (or I assume "powered off") in the bottom corner.

Originally Posted by dillsandwitch

How does the front light rate on peoples lists? I read alot at night in bed so does it work well or is an external light still needed?

It is excellent.

Originally Posted by dillsandwitch

Also can you use Calibre to add/remove books to it?

Yes you can.

[khalleron]

.pdf just is not a good format for an ereader - it's not designed for that, so no ereader is going to perform well with pdfs.

Unless you really need eink for some reason, you might want to get a tablet. If I have to read pdfs (all my knitting patterns are pdf, for example) I use my Nexus 7 for those. I also use it for comics.

That said, I also own an Aura H2O and I can attest that it's an excellent ereader - I also moved from a T1. The screen is everything you dream about, the only downside is that it's much heavier than a T1, so that takes some getting used to.

[ottdmk]

If you take a look on the Kobo forum you can find directions on how to install alternative readers on a Kobo. If PDF reflow is important to you (due to a large number of PDF novels) one of those readers will probably suit your needs quite well.

I own an Aura HD, and absolutely love it. I find it comfortable to hold, and excellent to read on. Kobo's defaults seem to work very well for me, but if you like to tweak your reading settings, the e-reader will accommodate you.

I would recommend the Aura HD's successor, the Aura H2O. For $10 more you get a newer Carta screen along with water- & dust-proofing.

[dillsandwitch]

Originally Posted by khalleron

.
Unless you really need eink for some reason, you might want to get a tablet. If I have to read pdfs (all my knitting patterns are pdf, for example) I use my Nexus 7 for those. I also use it for comics.

Yeah I do only want eink. I have a tablet somewhere around here and I absolutely hate it for reading on. It just doesn't look right. I only reason I wanted PDF as an option is if I convert all my pds to epub it would take forever to do it but I could do it.



Thanks to everyone elses replys. I will look into the H2O. Hopefully its available in Australia

[dillsandwitch]

I Have a couple extra questions about the H2O.

On the page navigation bit does it have the ability to type in the page number to skip to or is it just the slider thingy?

Also in the library does it have a view to sort into collections? So If I set a series in calibre will it show as the same in the library?

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by dillsandwitch

Yeah I do only want eink. I have a tablet somewhere around here and I absolutely hate it for reading on. It just doesn't look right.

I somehow left the house this morning without my Kobo Glo. So I used my iPad Air for an extended reading session for the first. Far to much glare standing on the platform and still to much in the train.

I only reason I wanted PDF as an option is if I convert all my pds to epub it would take forever to do it but I could do it.

The conversion won't take to long, but fixing any problems will be a pain.

Thanks to everyone elses replys. I will look into the H2O. Hopefully its available in Australia

It's supposed to be released next week or the week after. JB HiFi have it listed on-line for $229 with "awaiting stock".

Originally Posted by dillsandwitch

I Have a couple extra questions about the H2O.

On the page navigation bit does it have the ability to type in the page number to skip to or is it just the slider thingy?

No. Tap or drag the slider, tap the buttons at the end to go to the next page or chapter.

Also in the library does it have a view to sort into collections? So If I set a series in calibre will it show as the same in the library?

The collections are in their own list. And you can create them from one or more columns in calibre. The drive creates the collection when the device is connected.

[sunshinebuns]

Hi Dillsandwitch,

If you are still looking for the Sony, you might want to check out Myers: http://www.myer.com.au/shop/mystore/...-wht-257166730

This is still cheaper than the Kobo Aura or Glo. I just bought an Aura from JB HiFi for $130, and you can get the Glo for $130 as well, I just asked the sales rep for the best price they could do.

I think the H20 will be available soon, it might already be at some of the JB HiFis, it's worth just calling around to your local stores to find out.

[meeera]

Originally Posted by sunshinebuns

I think the H20 will be available soon, it might already be at some of the JB HiFis, it's worth just calling around to your local stores to find out.

I can confirm that it is at some JBs, mine is already in my hot little hands

[crossi]

You already have Calibre. I believe it can do bulk conversions so you could tell it to do so while you sleep or something. You could also have it convert each book one at a time as you load the book you want to read. That takes seconds. No real need to convert all of them at once. Just pick the reader that has the best screen and user interface for you and don't worry about conversion. IF you have some books that display best as PDF (lots of pictures or charts) a tablet really works better for those, especially a tablet with a larger screen. Can you afford both?

[JimMcLaren]

I'm a little late to this party but here's my $0.02.

I have an Aura HD and also have a lot of PDFs (~150). I need to read the whole screen and don't like tablets either. But the Aura HD out of the box is an atrocious PDF reader. Koreader, which you can get on this forum, makes it tolerable but not perfect. Reading PDF in landscape on this screen works quite well. I've since bought an Onyx Boox T68 and love it. I'm not going back to the Kobo.

• The screen is identical to the Kobo Aura HD.
• Out of the box the reading software works as good as koreader. I really like being able to search my book sometimes which koreader wouldn't do.
• It's an Android device and the Onyx folks have done a good job on the default launcher. The home page is a list of your current book and recent reads (or newly added books if you prefer).
• A lot people are installing alternate launcher and readers but I didn't think I could improve on what was included. It is nice to be able to install other apps. I've got most of my magazines on this reader too.
• I don't think I've seen better text reflow in an app. There are two areas where it's deficient. Tabular data is included and you can tell it's tabular but it could be improved. And figures are usually (maybe always) missing. But I reflowed this PDF and the Boox handled two columns well but fell down with three columns.

Now for the bad

• Touch accuracy can be a problem. Mine's good but there are a lot of complaints on the forum.
• Some complain that when the battery power drops below 50% they start having boot loops until they charge it.
• For some (including me) the current firmware indexes files every time you start. It got bad enough I switched to the Booxtor firmware.