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

El Macho · 08-31-2020, 03:24 PM

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:

Great screen quality/contrast. I read on the thing, so that's most important.
Hooked up with Overdrive so I can get books from the library all on the device.
It'd be great to be able to get to Project Gutenberg or StandardEbooks to dl books directly
Ability to read RSS feeds and/or my Pocket saved articles – I saw that the Inkpad has an RSS reader?
Developer friendly a plus.
Ability to filter blue light/adjust lighting based on time of day would be huge.
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?

ZodWallop · 08-31-2020, 05:32 PM

I'm only familiar with Kobo. Haven't used a Pocketbook. So I can't tell you which I would recommend.

Except for the Nia (no blue light filter) all the rest of the Kobos would fulfill 2, 4, 5 and 6. In my opinion, 7 as well.

Great screen quality/contrast.
My Clara looks great. There have been complaints about the lighting on the Libra and Forma. I've never seen one in person, so I can't say how nitpicky the complaints are. Someone else can chime in on that.

Hooked up with Overdrive so I can get books from the library all on the device
The same company that owns Kobo also owned Overdrive (they've either sold it or are in the process of doing so, I forget). At any rate, Kobo has great Overdrive access. It's as easy as buying a book from their store. No need for any secondary computer/phone/tablet or anything.

Project Gutenberg or StandardEbooks to dl books directly
Kobo has a built-in browser, but I've not yet tried it. Downloads may or may not be useful.

Ability to read RSS feeds and/or my Pocket saved articles
You can send Pocket articles to your Kobo. There's a shortcut on the homescreen for Pocket articles.

Developer friendly a plus
Just look at all the patches for Kobos

Ability to filter blue light/adjust lighting based on time of day would be huge
As I mentioned, the Clara, Libra and Forma all do that. They don't have the auto brightness-sensor that the Oasis has. But they will turn your screen yellower as the day progresses. And of course, you can change it manually whenever you want.

Nice UI
I really like Kobo's UI. They've just released a couple of updates that tweaked the UI making it better than it was just a few months ago, in my opinion.

Of course, like you said, UI is subjective.

El Macho · 08-31-2020, 06:43 PM

Thanks, ZodWallop, I appreciate the reply.

Yeah, the more I've read about it, the more it seems like the Kobos check the most boxes. I think I'll pull the trigger on a Libra (same size as my Oasis) and see how I like it

twowheels · 08-31-2020, 06:51 PM

I recently switched from Kindle to Kobo, haven't had a chance to try PocketBook as they're harder to get in the US and I didn't want to deal with it.

Great screen quality/contrast. I read on the thing, so that's most important.

I love the Clara HD screen -- way better than my first gen Paperwhite was, but the difference from the Oasis might not be as big.

Hooked up with Overdrive so I can get books from the library all on the device.

The Clara has this, though unfortunately only works with one library, even though I'm signed into my Overdrive account, not the library directly.

It'd be great to be able to get to Project Gutenberg or StandardEbooks to dl books directly

I've downloaded ePub books directly from the browser, and they work just fine. Haven't tried those sites specifically, but I'd be surprised if they didn't work.

Ability to read RSS feeds and/or my Pocket saved articles – I saw that the Inkpad has an RSS reader?

Not sure about RSS, but I've been loving the Pocket integration on my Kobo -- especially for the free short-stories that are posted on Tor.com.

Developer friendly a plus.

Tons of hacks for the Kobo, but I've not tried them.

Ability to filter blue light/adjust lighting based on time of day would be huge.

I've found the time-based automatic adjustment on the Kobo to be perfect, but it's also easy to override, but I think I recall the PocketBook having a gesture to do it w/o having to open a menu if you want to manually override it.

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.

No commentary here... I don't spend much time on the library screens -- I open my book and read, so I couldn't really care less about the main screens as I also only keep a few books on the device at any one time.

jmmcg9 · 08-31-2020, 10:56 PM

I recently made the switch from Kindle Oasis 2 to the Kobo Forma. Larger screen size was my motivation. The ability to sideload my Amazon books through Calibre made the transition pretty seamless. I find the Forma screen as good as the Oasis and my old eyes love the larger screen. I haven’t seen any uneven lighting issues, but I am not a pixel peeper.
I will say the Amazon environment is reliable and in my experience I never had any issues. It simply works. I have run into issues on the Kobo, but nothing I couldn’t resolve (with the help of this community). The other big advantage of Kobo is the tight integration with OverDrive. Finally, this switch forced me to use Calibre. It is an awesome program that gives you true ownership of your books. The support for the app is World Class, plus it has the support of this community.
Thanks,
Joe

rcentros · 09-01-2020, 03:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by El Macho

Here are my main use cases/wants:

Great screen quality/contrast. I read on the thing, so that's most important.
Hooked up with Overdrive so I can get books from the library all on the device.
It'd be great to be able to get to Project Gutenberg or StandardEbooks to dl books directly
Ability to read RSS feeds and/or my Pocket saved articles – I saw that the Inkpad has an RSS reader?
Developer friendly a plus.
Ability to filter blue light/adjust lighting based on time of day would be huge.
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.

I think the PocketBook covers just about everything on your list. (I don't know about RSS feeds, I don't know what they are.) It is, however, bigger and that extra inch makes a lot of difference in "feel" and weight.

I like the UI on the PocketBook. Simple and you can use the whole page. It might be too simple for your taste. You can add your own fonts. If you like the shape and size of the KO3, however, the Libra is probably the better choice for you.

Since PocketBooks have Adobe ADE "built-in" you can buy DRM ePubs (directly on the device) just about anywhere.

Uncle Robin · 09-01-2020, 03:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by El Macho

Hi,

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

Any suggestions?

If you're not in Europe or the US, the Pocketbook may not be a viable option. I live elsewhere, and when I contacted Pocketbook they explicitly said "we don't sell there and have no plans to do so" They then suggested I visit German ebay resellers whose shipping charges added between 40-60% of the already 'premium' price to the overall cost.

Sirtel · 09-01-2020, 06:47 AM

I have both the Oasis and the Kobo Libra. IMHO the Libra is as good or better in some respects and a bit worse in others, but all in all, the experience is not terribly different. I love both of them.

Kobos are easy to customize with the help of detailed instructions here on MR. Mine is rather heavily patched and I know zilch about programming or coding. The screen of my Oasis is perhaps a tiny bit better, but the difference is pretty minor (and I usually notice such things). The Libra screen is also very good. I don't find myself missing my Oasis while reading on my Libra.

El Macho · 09-01-2020, 12:15 PM

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

1. Vendor lock in.

Quote:

Originally Posted by rcentros

Since PocketBooks have Adobe ADE "built-in" you can buy DRM ePubs (directly on the device) just about anywhere.

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.

Quote:

Originally Posted by rcentros

I like the UI on the PocketBook. Simple and you can use the whole page. It might be too simple for your taste. You can add your own fonts. If you like the shape and size of the KO3, however, the Libra is probably the better choice for you.

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!

twowheels · 09-01-2020, 12:39 PM

Quote:

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've not used it because I always remove the protection before copying to device, but I authorized my Kobo with ADE and AFAIK I can buy books from any ADE vendor and open them on the device w/o WiFi.

j.p.s · 09-01-2020, 12:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by twowheels

I recently switched from Kindle to Kobo, haven't had a chance to try PocketBook as they're harder to get in the US and I didn't want to deal with it.

Newegg is hard in the US?

twowheels · 09-01-2020, 01:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by j.p.s

Newegg is hard in the US?

Newegg started carrying them about a week after I bought my Kobo, and I've not yet heard anybody's input on how the experience was (e.g., is it still drop shipping from overseas, and slow?)

rcentros · 09-01-2020, 01:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by twowheels

Newegg started carrying them about a week after I bought my Kobo, and I've not yet heard anybody's input on how the experience was (e.g., is it still drop shipping from overseas, and slow?)

Not according to their website. They specifically say "Ships from the USA" and, supposedly, I could have an HD3 tomorrow if I used "fastest delivery." (I'm guessing that's an expensive option.) When I put one in the cart it says "In Stock." (See attachment for their listing.)

TechInn also seems to be a pretty decent option. They ship from the U.K. and show a delivery date of September 9th or 10th. (No personal experience with TechInn, so I can't vouch for them.)

PeterT · 09-01-2020, 01:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by El Macho

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 not sure I'd say it supports python natively. Yes; some have installed python on the device and done some coding in python but as to complexity of what they've done......

hobnail · 09-01-2020, 01:55 PM

I have the Oasis and Forma and love the Forma. But the Forma does have a few warts but none are show stoppers. A skinny lighter band on the right near the buttons is visible when you have the brightness turned up but it's not visible when it's turned down to more reasonable levels (reasonable to me at least). The power button doesn't click and seems to need an excessive amount of pressure. But in my opinion the Forma's sleep cover is a must so I rarely use the power button. The Kobo user interface is a dream compared to the klunky Kindle's. The PocketBook doesn't seem to handle the series stuff well, if at all. The Kobo does it wonderfully; I set up the series info in Calibre and the Kobo plugin sends it to the ereader.

08-31-2020, 03:24 PM	#1
El Macho Member Posts: 14 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2009 Device: Kindle Oasis, Boox Note 2	Kindle Oasis owner looking for a change – Pocketbook, Kobo, or ____? 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: Great screen quality/contrast. I read on the thing, so that's most important. Hooked up with Overdrive so I can get books from the library all on the device. It'd be great to be able to get to Project Gutenberg or StandardEbooks to dl books directly Ability to read RSS feeds and/or my Pocket saved articles – I saw that the Inkpad has an RSS reader? Developer friendly a plus. Ability to filter blue light/adjust lighting based on time of day would be huge. 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?

08-31-2020, 05:32 PM	#2
ZodWallop Gentleman and scholar Posts: 11,112 Karma: 109515481 Join Date: Jun 2015 Location: Space City, Texas Device: Clara HD; Nook ST w/Glowlight, (2015) Glowlight Plus, Paperwhite 3	I'm only familiar with Kobo. Haven't used a Pocketbook. So I can't tell you which I would recommend. Except for the Nia (no blue light filter) all the rest of the Kobos would fulfill 2, 4, 5 and 6. In my opinion, 7 as well. Great screen quality/contrast. My Clara looks great. There have been complaints about the lighting on the Libra and Forma. I've never seen one in person, so I can't say how nitpicky the complaints are. Someone else can chime in on that. Hooked up with Overdrive so I can get books from the library all on the device The same company that owns Kobo also owned Overdrive (they've either sold it or are in the process of doing so, I forget). At any rate, Kobo has great Overdrive access. It's as easy as buying a book from their store. No need for any secondary computer/phone/tablet or anything. Project Gutenberg or StandardEbooks to dl books directly Kobo has a built-in browser, but I've not yet tried it. Downloads may or may not be useful. Ability to read RSS feeds and/or my Pocket saved articles You can send Pocket articles to your Kobo. There's a shortcut on the homescreen for Pocket articles. Developer friendly a plus Just look at all the patches for Kobos Ability to filter blue light/adjust lighting based on time of day would be huge As I mentioned, the Clara, Libra and Forma all do that. They don't have the auto brightness-sensor that the Oasis has. But they will turn your screen yellower as the day progresses. And of course, you can change it manually whenever you want. Nice UI I really like Kobo's UI. They've just released a couple of updates that tweaked the UI making it better than it was just a few months ago, in my opinion. Of course, like you said, UI is subjective. Last edited by ZodWallop; 08-31-2020 at 05:42 PM.

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08-31-2020, 06:43 PM	#3
El Macho Member Posts: 14 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2009 Device: Kindle Oasis, Boox Note 2	Thanks, ZodWallop, I appreciate the reply. Yeah, the more I've read about it, the more it seems like the Kobos check the most boxes. I think I'll pull the trigger on a Libra (same size as my Oasis) and see how I like it

08-31-2020, 06:51 PM	#4
twowheels Wizard Posts: 1,806 Karma: 13416548 Join Date: Nov 2010 Device: Kobo Clara HD, iPad Pro 10", iPhone 15 Pro	I recently switched from Kindle to Kobo, haven't had a chance to try PocketBook as they're harder to get in the US and I didn't want to deal with it. Great screen quality/contrast. I read on the thing, so that's most important. I love the Clara HD screen -- way better than my first gen Paperwhite was, but the difference from the Oasis might not be as big. Hooked up with Overdrive so I can get books from the library all on the device. The Clara has this, though unfortunately only works with one library, even though I'm signed into my Overdrive account, not the library directly. It'd be great to be able to get to Project Gutenberg or StandardEbooks to dl books directly I've downloaded ePub books directly from the browser, and they work just fine. Haven't tried those sites specifically, but I'd be surprised if they didn't work. Ability to read RSS feeds and/or my Pocket saved articles – I saw that the Inkpad has an RSS reader? Not sure about RSS, but I've been loving the Pocket integration on my Kobo -- especially for the free short-stories that are posted on Tor.com. Developer friendly a plus. Tons of hacks for the Kobo, but I've not tried them. Ability to filter blue light/adjust lighting based on time of day would be huge. I've found the time-based automatic adjustment on the Kobo to be perfect, but it's also easy to override, but I think I recall the PocketBook having a gesture to do it w/o having to open a menu if you want to manually override it. 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. No commentary here... I don't spend much time on the library screens -- I open my book and read, so I couldn't really care less about the main screens as I also only keep a few books on the device at any one time.

08-31-2020, 10:56 PM	#5
jmmcg9 Zealot Posts: 123 Karma: 6420516 Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Austin, TX Device: Oasis 2, iPad Pro (12.9”), iPhone 11 Pro Max, iPad Mini 5, Forma	I recently made the switch from Kindle Oasis 2 to the Kobo Forma. Larger screen size was my motivation. The ability to sideload my Amazon books through Calibre made the transition pretty seamless. I find the Forma screen as good as the Oasis and my old eyes love the larger screen. I haven’t seen any uneven lighting issues, but I am not a pixel peeper. I will say the Amazon environment is reliable and in my experience I never had any issues. It simply works. I have run into issues on the Kobo, but nothing I couldn’t resolve (with the help of this community). The other big advantage of Kobo is the tight integration with OverDrive. Finally, this switch forced me to use Calibre. It is an awesome program that gives you true ownership of your books. The support for the app is World Class, plus it has the support of this community. Thanks, Joe

09-01-2020, 06:47 AM	#8
Sirtel Grand Sorcerer Posts: 10,430 Karma: 225537496 Join Date: Jan 2014 Location: Estonia Device: Kobo Sage & Libra 2	I have both the Oasis and the Kobo Libra. IMHO the Libra is as good or better in some respects and a bit worse in others, but all in all, the experience is not terribly different. I love both of them. Kobos are easy to customize with the help of detailed instructions here on MR. Mine is rather heavily patched and I know zilch about programming or coding. The screen of my Oasis is perhaps a tiny bit better, but the difference is pretty minor (and I usually notice such things). The Libra screen is also very good. I don't find myself missing my Oasis while reading on my Libra.

09-01-2020, 01:55 PM	#15
hobnail Running with scissors Posts: 1,552 Karma: 14325282 Join Date: Nov 2019 Device: none	I have the Oasis and Forma and love the Forma. But the Forma does have a few warts but none are show stoppers. A skinny lighter band on the right near the buttons is visible when you have the brightness turned up but it's not visible when it's turned down to more reasonable levels (reasonable to me at least). The power button doesn't click and seems to need an excessive amount of pressure. But in my opinion the Forma's sleep cover is a must so I rarely use the power button. The Kobo user interface is a dream compared to the klunky Kindle's. The PocketBook doesn't seem to handle the series stuff well, if at all. The Kobo does it wonderfully; I set up the series info in Calibre and the Kobo plugin sends it to the ereader.

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