Been using Kobo for years but...

[MGlitch]

I'm just wondering if there's actually anything Kindle offers in their hardware/software that isn't represented in Kobo for just reading, not listening to audiobooks*.

I don't mind if you have to jailbreak to get the feature, I patch my Kobo which I view as essentially the same thing. Yes obviously jailbreaking is trickier and Amazon doesn't exactly make it easy to do. I'm not looking for a debate on the difficulty, just features gained and lost since as I understand it the current Kindle firmware can't be jailbroken (though I'm not sure on this).

Ideally it'd be features that apply to every book, both from Amazon and sideloaded.

*I'm not trying to say text is better than audio, lets please not have a pointless debate between text based and audio based books. I don't use audiobooks, thus I don't care about audiobook features.

[salamanderjuice]

Panel view in comics? Word wise? X-ray? Does the Kobo dictionary find root words correctly? I found Kindle was better at Japanese dictionary lookups at least but can't remember exactly why...

Also global search of course.

[Sirtel]

For me, only global search, and fewer bugs.

I don't use my Oasis much anymore. It's fast, smooth and bug-free, but the screen isn't as good as the latest Kobos and it's hard to get the text to look exactly like I want, not enough options.

I'm not particularly interested in jailbreaking, as it seems somewhat more difficult than patching (I might be wrong, of course).

That said, if Amazon released a 8'' Oasis with a Carta 1200 screen and the contrast comparable to that of the latest Kobos, I would probably buy it.

[MGlitch]

Originally Posted by salamanderjuice

Panel view in comics? Word wise? X-ray? Does the Kobo dictionary find root words correctly? I found Kindle was better at Japanese dictionary lookups at least but can't remember exactly why...

Also global search of course.

I’ve not had an issue with the stock dictionary especially after it was changed awhile back. Can’t speak on the Japanese dictionary as I don’t read Japanese.

Word wise is basically a dictionary that saves you a tap, and IMHO, impairs reading comprehension through context.

Xray I’ve heard mixed things on just how useful it is, and of course it’s only available on some books from Amazon.

I’ve also heard mixed things about global search, aside from it requiring every book to be indexed.

Do you actually find these features useful?

[Uncle Robin]

Salamanderjuice's reply definitely answered your question, listing features Kindle has that Kobo doesn't. You didn't ask for views on their worth, just for confirmation of their existence.

For myself, the only one I would like is Global Search - very handy with a series. That said, I probably would not use it enough to justify the performance hit of indexing. All my Kindles, up to PW3, used to lock up while indexing.

[kattz]

If you are Canadian, you lose the ability to borrow library books if you switch to Kindle (which is why I stick with Kobo).

On the other hand, if you are American you will GAIN the ability to borrow library books. That saves a lot of money and might pay for the switch.

Unless something has changed... Haven't been around here for a couple years.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by MGlitch

Word wise is basically a dictionary that saves you a tap, and IMHO, impairs reading comprehension through context.

Xray I’ve heard mixed things on just how useful it is, and of course it’s only available on some books from Amazon.

I’ve also heard mixed things about global search, aside from it requiring every book to be indexed.

Do you actually find these features useful?

I've never used either Word wise or X-ray, but I did use global search with some longer series and found it pretty useful. I do wish Kobo had it.

[salamanderjuice]

Originally Posted by MGlitch

I’ve not had an issue with the stock dictionary especially after it was changed awhile back. Can’t speak on the Japanese dictionary as I don’t read Japanese.

Word wise is basically a dictionary that saves you a tap, and IMHO, impairs reading comprehension through context.

Xray I’ve heard mixed things on just how useful it is, and of course it’s only available on some books from Amazon.

I’ve also heard mixed things about global search, aside from it requiring every book to be indexed.

Do you actually find these features useful?

I would have liked Word wise if they supported Japanese. When you have to tap on every fifth word it gets pretty tiring. For English which is my first language, no I don't care and rarely ever bother to look up any words. If I was learning English (or I guess Chinese) I think it'd be very useful.

There was at least a Calibre plugin to add X-ray to your own books.

Personally I've moved to Boox devices because the better PDF support, access to apps etc. are more valuable to me anyways. I was merely pointing out what features Amazon has over Kobo.

[MGlitch]

Originally Posted by Uncle Robin

Salamanderjuice's reply definitely answered your question, listing features Kindle has that Kobo doesn't. You didn't ask for views on their worth, just for confirmation of their existence.

For myself, the only one I would like is Global Search - very handy with a series. That said, I probably would not use it enough to justify the performance hit of indexing. All my Kindles, up to PW3, used to lock up while indexing.

Yes, I just wanted to elaborate. Their initial response did answer my question, I felt it was implied that I also wanted some value in the features. I should have specified in my OP.

Originally Posted by kattz

If you are Canadian, you lose the ability to borrow library books if you switch to Kindle (which is why I stick with Kobo).

On the other hand, if you are American you will GAIN the ability to borrow library books. That saves a lot of money and might pay for the switch.

Unless something has changed... Haven't been around here for a couple years.

Rakuten bought Overdrive, added Overdrive support to Kobo ereaders (maybe some other things I only know about this though), and then sold it to KKR in 2020. The upshot being that (I think) most if not all currently sold Kobo's can borrow from public libraries in the US directly from the device. Though multiple library support is not ideal it does work.

Originally Posted by Sirtel

I've never used either Word wise or X-ray, but I did use global search with some longer series and found it pretty useful. I do wish Kobo had it.

Originally Posted by salamanderjuice

I would have liked Word wise if they supported Japanese. When you have to tap on every fifth word it gets pretty tiring. For English which is my first language, no I don't care and rarely ever bother to look up any words. If I was learning English (or I guess Chinese) I think it'd be very useful.

There was at least a Calibre plugin to add X-ray to your own books.

Personally I've moved to Boox devices because the better PDF support, access to apps etc. are more valuable to me anyways. I was merely pointing out what features Amazon has over Kobo.

Yes, I can see the value for learning another language, I didn't know about the calibre xray plugin.

Also thank you for your answers. I'm not likely to switch to Kindle, but it's good to be informed. I spent too long as a Nook user ignoring other devices, I don't want to make that mistake again.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by kattz

On the other hand, if you are American you will GAIN the ability to borrow library books. That saves a lot of money and might pay for the switch.

Not so. Kobo in the U.S. has OverDrive built in to all their readers. You can borrow books from the library directly on the device.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by kattz

If you are Canadian, you lose the ability to borrow library books if you switch to Kindle (which is why I stick with Kobo).

On the other hand, if you are American you will GAIN the ability to borrow library books. That saves a lot of money and might pay for the switch.

Unless something has changed... Haven't been around here for a couple years.

Considering the backend officially supported by Amazon for ebook lending is Overdrive, it's hard to see how switching to Kindle format ebook loans is going to allow access to more libraries so I would disagree with your statement that "you will GAIN the ability to borrow library books". In point, you may lose the ability to borrow from your current library.

For more information, you can check the Borrowing Kindle Books from your library's OverDrive website or the OverDrive app item on Overdrive's site or the Check Out a Public Library Book on Amazon's site.

[John F]

If you sideload on Kindle using email, don't the ebooks sync across devices?

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by John F

If you sideload on Kindle using email, don't the ebooks sync across devices?

Yes, they do.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by John F

If you sideload on Kindle using email, don't the ebooks sync across devices?

But wrecks formatting. Sync is overated. Slower to connect two devices to WiFi & sync than type three words into search. Also why the need to sync? Also privacy issues.

I've bought various Kindles & so has wife. We read on Kobo now only and only use the kindle serial numbers.

[BookCat]

One big advantage of kindle over kobo, is the ability to click on an image and have it explode much larger with sideloaded books.

With Kobo, this seems to be possible only with kepubs bought from Kobo.
With Kindle, I can download, for example, the illustrated Dickens from mobileread, convert the epub to azw3, send it to a kindle, then when I come across an image, just touch it: expands allowing details to be seen.

The same epub on my Libra 2: tap an image, nothing happens. I have tried with an illustrated book bought from kobo, and the images do expand with a double tap, and can be enlarged further using finger motions on the touch screen.

Haven't been using a kobo for long; there may be a way round this which I don't yet know. For the moment, I'm reading illustrated books on my kindles.

And, of course, there are better freebies on Amazon than on Kobo. I was looking for some chiclit to lighten an afternoon but found only smut in the Free Romance section of Kobo.