Kindle paperwhite 2 or Kobo Glo HD

[Anthem]

A new Kindle Paperwhite is coming out before too long, so maybe wait for that?

One thing I would like to say... the Kindle platform is easily the best e-book platform that money can buy. Without question, to me. I know that people will complain about this answer and have many scientific facts and rock solid objective reasons for me being violently wrong in my opinion, but I think that the Kindle platform is the best.

Second place might be iBooks, everything else pitifully fights for third.

[meeera]

Originally Posted by Anthem

One thing I would like to say... the Kindle platform is easily the best e-book platform that money can buy. Without question, to me. I know that people will complain about this answer and have many scientific facts and rock solid objective reasons for me being violently wrong in my opinion, but I think that the Kindle platform is the best.

Second place might be iBooks, everything else pitifully fights for third.

The Kindle has the best ecosystem in the USA. Outside of the USA, and on features other than ecosystem, it depends on the particular needs and wants of the user. Kindle is a massive fail here for many readers because there is no library book borrowing, quite aside from other missing features.

iBooks is the worst of all possible worlds, unless you're perfectly happy with the forever-locked-in problem.

[Anthem]

Originally Posted by meeera

The Kindle has the best ecosystem in the USA. Outside of the USA...

Agreed. Regional differences, licensing, etc., will make a big difference in any sort of decision. This is the obvious reality we live in.

Originally Posted by meeera

...and on features other than ecosystem, it depends on the particular needs and wants of the user.

Yep. And as I specified at length (foreseeing a comment such as this), I was talking about my own opinion. So...

Originally Posted by meeera

Kindle is a massive fail here for many readers because there is no library book borrowing, quite aside from other missing features.

Everything is a massive fail to someone in SOME situation. You do realize this, right? This hardly needs to be said, does it!? ALL of the e-book ecosystems suck if you are stationed on Mars... so what? I assume that the OP will have to make some sort of critical decision weighing ALL of the factors that are relevant for them given their situation while factoring in our solicited opinions. Makes sense.

Originally Posted by meeera

iBooks is the worst of all possible worlds, unless you're perfectly happy with the forever-locked-in problem.

Unless you are happy with circumventing protection schemes, then all of the stores are basically useless for the "free as a Unicorn prancing in the fields of green" crowd. Egregiously unfair to single out iBooks. The reality is that we have stores with arguably unfair and prohibitive protection schemes that really only prevent legitimate customers who don't want to steal a book but just want to read it from doing just that (pirates and circumventors can easily get around DRM as it exists right now).

(Also, in the utterly subjective realm of "reading experience" I feel that iBooks is a solid second place behind the Kindle platform... with BN, Kobo, and all the rest being basically non-contenders in the reading pleasure/experience area. But, as I said in my last post, that is just my opinion, and people will disagree with it.)

[Rizla]

If you plan to buy mainly from Amazon and dont want to customize the device or your reading experience, the Kindles are great. Otherwise avoid them which leaves Kobo. Overall the Kobo hardware and software is not as zippy as the Kindles. But you can customize the devices and the reading experience ALOT more.

[Chi Cygni]

Originally Posted by Anthem

Unless you are happy with circumventing protection schemes, then all of the stores are basically useless for the "free as a Unicorn prancing in the fields of green" crowd. Egregiously unfair to single out iBooks. The reality is that we have stores with arguably unfair and prohibitive protection schemes that really only prevent legitimate customers who don't want to steal a book but just want to read it from doing just that (pirates and circumventors can easily get around DRM as it exists right now).

In my corner of Europe I've been buying watermarked books for the past 3 years if not more. I get both formats epub and mobi for the price of one ebook so I can throw it at either my Kindle or Kobo as is and don't even have to open calibre. IF I use calibre these days is to tweak the layout. Been forgetting what DRM actually is. I don't have to circumvent anything, I legally buy and I know that any future reader capable of reading mobi or epub will read my files in the future too. So, in my particular case Kindle ecosystem is as far as could be for the best money can buy. And the stores I buy from are the least prohibitive I could imagine. Just my three eurocents.

[meeera]

Originally Posted by Anthem

Everything is a massive fail to someone in SOME situation. You do realize this, right? This hardly needs to be said, does it!? ALL of the e-book ecosystems suck if you are stationed on Mars... so what?

"All of the world that isn't the USA" isn't exactly Mars.

You initially said "the Kindle platform is easily the best e-book platform that money can buy." It isn't this for everyone. So I added relevant qualifications and information - especially since we don't know where the OP lives. I'm not quite sure why you have your back up about it.

Unless you are happy with circumventing protection schemes, then all of the stores are basically useless for the "free as a Unicorn prancing in the fields of green" crowd. Egregiously unfair to single out iBooks.

iBooks DRM is uncircumventable; Kindle and ADE DRM is trivially easy to strip. That's not me capriciously singling out iBooks - it's the current state of play. I don't care much about unicorns, but I care about whether I'll be able to read my books on my next device, whatever that may be.

[Josieb1]

Originally Posted by Chi Cygni

In my corner of Europe I've been buying watermarked books for the past 3 years if not more. I get both formats epub and mobi for the price of one ebook so I can throw it at either my Kindle or Kobo as is and don't even have to open calibre. IF I use calibre these days is to tweak the layout. Been forgetting what DRM actually is. I don't have to circumvent anything, I legally buy and I know that any future reader capable of reading mobi or epub will read my files in the future too. So, in my particular case Kindle ecosystem is as far as could be for the best money can buy. And the stores I buy from are the least prohibitive I could imagine. Just my three eurocents.

I don't buy watermarked books but I do buy DRM free so I'm in the same boat as you (and even if I only get one format I can choose which one) and I also choose Amazon over Kobo and I have ereaders from both companies.

[IanD]

I have a PW2 and a Glo HD (recently purchased).

I'd echo most of the points made in the 2nd post, with a bit more detail, and a few points of my own, many of which will be obviously subjective.

- Build quality of the PW2 is slightly better - just feels a little more "solid".
- Screen is better on the Glo HD (higher rez), and nothing to choose with contrast & light. The PW3 has the same rez.
- Overall interface "experience" is better on the Glo HD, though YMMV obviously. You have quite a few more user options available on the Glo HD, which I like, including useful things like being able to adjust the "hot spots" on the screen for page turning & menu access. Being able to adjust the light level by simply running a finger up & down the left side is a nice touch.
- The Kobo firmware has historically been a little more buggy than the Kindle. I haven't experienced any particular issues with it yet, though time will tell - I've only had it a short time.
- Fonts is a big win on the Glo HD, though having said that you get used to what you have on the PW2, and they're perfectly fine. Ability to add extra fonts on the Glo HD is cool, as is fine control over line spacing, weight, and borders.
- Reponsiveness is very slightly better on the Kindle. Page turns are more consistently quicker. Though, I have noticed that using kepubs rather than epubs seems to help (there's a calibre plugin to generate these, so no worries there).
- The Glo HD is obviously physically smaller, with smaller bezels, and slightly lighter, though not so you'd notice.
- Amazon store is much larger than the Kobo equivalent, so a clear win for the Kindle there. More than that I can't comment, as I don't use it.
- Collection management is different. On the PW2, collections are integrated into the main book list, which I like because putting a book in a collection means that the overall list is reduced. On the Glo HD, collections are in a separate list, and the "main" book list never gets any shorter. For me that makes the book list largely useless. I've got round this by dumping all non-assigned books into a "Miscellaneous" collection, then using the collections view exclusively.
- The PW2 has an incredibly irritating "feature" that makes managing collections very tedious. Basically adding and removing books into collections necessitates a lot of warning messages regarding my disconnected wifi, and un-synced collections. This may go away if I was to actually use the Amazon cloud... In contrast managing collections on the Glo HD is way more streamlined.
- Achievements! on! the! Glo! HD! Pfft.
- No epubs on the Kindle, though as people have said, DRM is easy to strip should you wish, and Calibre takes care of format-switching.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by IanD

I have a PW2 and a Glo HD (recently purchased).

I'd echo most of the points made in the 2nd post, with a bit more detail, and a few points of my own, many of which will be obviously subjective.

- Build quality of the PW2 is slightly better - just feels a little more "solid".
- Screen is better on the Glo HD (higher rez, and nothing to choose with contrast & light).
- Overall interface "experience" is better on the Glo HD, though YMMV obviously. You have quite a few more user options available on the Glo HD, which I like, including useful things like being able to adjust the "hot spots" on the screen for page turning & menu access. Being able to adjust the light level by simply running a finger up & down the left side is a nice touch.
- The Kobo firmware has historically been a little more buggy than the Kindle. I haven't experienced any particular issues with it yet, though time will tell - I've only had it a short time.
- Fonts is a big win on the Glo HD, though having said that you get used to what you have on the PW2, and they're perfectly fine. Ability to add extra fonts on the Glo HD is cool, as is fine control over line spacing, and borders.
- Reponsiveness is very slightly better on the Kindle. Page turns are more consistently quicker. Though, I have noticed that using kepubs rather than epubs seems to help (there's a calibre plugin to generate these, so no worries there).
- The Glo HD is obviously physically smaller, with smaller bezels, and slightly lighter, though not so you'd notice.
- The Glo HD has 4Gb against 2Gb in the PW2. 2Gb is enough for ~1000 books though so it probably doesn't matter.
- Amazon store is much larger than the Kobo equivalent, so a clear win for the Kindle there. More than that I can't comment, as I don't use it.
- Collection management is different. On the PW2, collections are integrated into the main book list, which I like because putting a book in a collection means that the overall list is reduced. On the Glo HD, collections are in a separate list, and the "main" book list never gets any shorter. For me that makes the book list largely useless. I've got round this by dumping all non-assigned books into a "Miscellaneous" collection, then using the collections view exclusively.
- The PW2 has an incredibly irritating "feature" that makes managing collections very tedious. Basically adding and removing books into collections necessitates a lot of warning messages regarding my disconnected wifi, and un-synced collections. This may go away if I was to actually use the Amazon cloud... In contrast managing collections on the Glo HD is way more streamlined.
- Achievements! on! the! Glo! HD! Pfft.
- No epubs on the Kindle, though as people have said, DRM is easy to strip should you wish, and Calibre takes care of format-switching.

Ian,

Perhaps worth nothing that the PW2 now does have 4GB storage; the storage was doubled from 2GB about 6 months ago. The new PW3, as I'm sure you know, has the same 300dpi screen as the Glo HD.

[IanD]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Ian,

Perhaps worth nothing that the PW2 now does have 4GB storage; the storage was doubled from 2GB about 6 months ago. The new PW3, as I'm sure you know, has the same 300dpi screen as the Glo HD.

Thanks very much. I'll update.