Kindle Oasis owner looking for a change – Pocketbook, Kobo, or ____?

[hobnail]

Originally Posted by El Macho

1. Vendor lock in.

To me there's no vendor lock in when you use the Apprentice Alf plugin. I have the Forma and buy all of my books from Amazon and convert them to epub in Calibre.

[ps67]

Originally Posted by El Macho

Hi,

EDIT – hit submit and realized that I wrote "Paperwhite" rather than "Pocketbook in the title. Oops!

I have a Kindle Oasis, but want to get out of Amazon's ecosystem. (Thanks to Apprentice Alf I can bring my hundreds of Kindle books with me, I think.) I like the screen size of the Oasis – I find the Paperwhite to be a little too small, but a 10" screen is too big. I have a Boox Note 2 for reading pdfs etc, this ereader will be used on the go (once we're out of quarantine…) and in bed.

I've been thinking about the Kobo Aura or the Inkpad 3 Pro, but am open to other suggestions. I might even go down to a cheaper 6" reader just to try it out, if there's one that's super great to read on. (I've seen some folks on here say that the Pocketbook Touch HD has better contrast than the Inkpad?)

Here are my main use cases/wants:

1. Great screen quality/contrast. I read on the thing, so that's most important.
2. Hooked up with Overdrive so I can get books from the library all on the device.
3. It'd be great to be able to get to Project Gutenberg or StandardEbooks to dl books directly
4. Ability to read RSS feeds and/or my Pocket saved articles – I saw that the Inkpad has an RSS reader?
5. Developer friendly a plus.
6. Ability to filter blue light/adjust lighting based on time of day would be huge.
7. Nice UI. The kindle is bad, and the Boox is worse. I know this is very subjective, but I'm interested to hear what you think.

Thank you!
Any suggestions?

I own the ereaders stated in my profile so I can say something:

1. The Kaleido level of PB633 Color makes impossible to compare it with any other ereader (except other ereaders that has it), Kobo Aura One has a good screen.

2. Here there isn't overdrive, I know that Kobo handle it, I think that with Pocketbook You can use the ACSM file directly on the device just like libraries without overdrive or bookshop.

3. I don't know, both have a browser but I never tried to do it.

4. Kobo has Pocket and I find it very useful, wile Pocketbook can read RSS (mine can do) but I didn't try to use that feature, I currently don't use it neither with my PC.

5. With Kobo there are a lot of possibilities: patching, Nickel Menu, KOReader, Plato, KFMON and so on. You can install KOReader also in Pocketbook (I did), and there are some hacking thread in the developer forum but are all over my skill level.

6. Inkpad 3 Pro has smart light, check it which other Pocketbook device has it. Also all recent Kobo device except Nia (Forma, Libra, Clara, Aura One) has it and You can set the automatic working of it based on time. I find smart light very useful to rest my eyes.

7. About UI: very personal matter, it is not so easy to advice but I like both. The thing for which Kobo is better is that You have more choices in margins, fonts (with a patch You enable sharpness setting also for custom fonts), line height ecc. On the other hand with Pocketbook You can see the real directory structure of the device if You are interested on it. With both You can order Your library in various mode (Author, recently read, insert date, title...)

Other things: You want only read or You are interested also in something different like Text to Speech or Audiobooks (or even music)? Because only with Pocketbook You can have that feature. I use my color device to hear audio-books

It is not clear which size of screen You prefer: 7" or 7.8"-8"? Because there is a trade off between readability and portability and, of course, price.

[ps67]

Originally Posted by El Macho

Thanks for all the replies! I'm leaning towards the Kobo at this point, but am wondering about two things:

1. Vendor lock in.
This is probably the biggest plus for the Pocketbook vs the Kobo, my understanding is that PocketBook doesn't have any book vendor lock in, while the Kobo is locked in to its own store. Is that right? I'm becoming more and more of a data privacy hardliner, so openness/ability to buy books from anywhere and read them without having data sent back to the vendor is a big deal to me.

2. Developing hacks/apps
I've looked some at the Kobo developers forums vs the PocketBook forum. It looks like Kobo supports Python programs natively, but PocketBook is C++. I'm fastest working in Python, so that's a big plus for me.

I'm with you – simple is good! The Kindle's UI is not very intuitive, at least for me. It seems like I have to do way too many taps for some settings.

Thanks again for your responses, everyone. I really appreciate it!

With Kobo You can buy everywhere, You have to use ADE on Your PC and then put the file on Your Kobo with it (apart Apprentice Alf tricks).

About privacy: Kobo requires a sign the first time You use it, You can do it regularly, do it with a fake email that Kobo doesn't check or use some hack with a program that handles the sqlite DB of the Kobo. In the second and the third cases of course if You buy a book from Kobo it won't appear directly on You device.

With Pocketbook You can skip the signing procedure. Another thing that You can do with Pocketbook is send to Pocketbook, it works like sending to Amazon Your personal files (they will appear like normal books, not like in Kindle where are marked as "personal documents"). But if privacy is so important may be You are not interested in this feature.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by El Macho

1. Vendor lock in.
This is probably the biggest plus for the Pocketbook vs the Kobo, my understanding is that PocketBook doesn't have any book vendor lock in, while the Kobo is locked in to its own store. Is that right? I'm becoming more and more of a data privacy hardliner, so openness/ability to buy books from anywhere and read them without having data sent back to the vendor is a big deal to me.

I wouldn't put too much worry about vendor lock in. With Calibre and Apprentice Alf, you can buy from wherever you want and sideload those books to any reader.

Originally Posted by hobnail

To me there's no vendor lock in when you use the Apprentice Alf plugin. I have the Forma and buy all of my books from Amazon and convert them to epub in Calibre.

Yes, I do the same. I buy from Amazon and read on a Kobo and a Nook.