Paperwhite 5 or Libra 2?

[shalym]

Originally Posted by DNSB

I use the Power Search plugin for calibre for the few times I've wanted to do a global search on my library. Considering the issues that have been mentioned about indexing getting stuck on Kindles—which I've personally run into a couple of time—I prefer to use a more powerful device.

If syncing sideloaded content would allowing KF8 as an output format, I might be happier with it. Even with removing mobi from the permitted input formats, the last test I did converted an epub into a KF7/mobi format to send to my PW4.

When did you do that "last test"? If you email an epub to your Kindle cloud now, you will get a AZW3 (KF8) file, unless your device is so old that it doesn't support that format.

Shari

[Uncle Robin]

I've never understood the "Kindle is better than Kobo for just turn it on and read" argument. Kobo works just as well straight out of the box, no customising, no fiddling, no hassles. It also syncs bought content across devices without issue. Not sideloaded, of course, but anyone who sideloads has automatically moved past the "just turn it on and read" stage anyway.

I'm not saying Kindle is a bad choice, but the argument that the out of box experience is better for total newbies is utterly specious. Turn it on, buy a book, start reading, sync that book across devices - the experience is the same on both.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

I don't use syncing either, and while I'd like global search on a Kobo, the lack of it is not a dealbreaker for me. Still, for many people syncing is a must-have, from the numerous posts in the Kindle forum here I've read over the years.

There have been a lot of complaints about the poor sending to Kindle over the years and it's still ongoing now with the switch to ePub as the source format.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by Uncle Robin

I've never understood the "Kindle is better than Kobo for just turn it on and read" argument. Kobo works just as well straight out of the box, no customising, no fiddling, no hassles. It also sideloads bought content across devices without issue. ot sideloaded, of course, but anyone who sideloads has automatically moved past the "just turn it on and read" stage anyway.

I'm not saying Kindle is a bad choice, but the argument that the out of box experience is better for total newbies is utterly specious. Turn it on, buy a book, start reading, sync that book across devices - the experience is the same on both.

I’ve always found that one a head-scratcher, also, in terms of working out of the box and starting to read. However, I’ll add that I think the UI on Kobos is cleaner and more intuitive than on Kindles. That might mostly be a case of preferring what I know better, admittedly - and many don’t give that factor enough weight when offering their opinions.

Still, I find organizing collections on Kindles Byzantine compared to Kobo and, a tiny change, I wish Kindle had a “Reading” category and not just “Read” and “Unread”; it makes it much faster to navigate back to all your books in progress if you read several at a time.

[BookCat]

Originally Posted by issybird

I’ve always found that one a head-scratcher, also, in terms of working out of the box and starting to read. However, I’ll add that I think the UI on Kobos is cleaner and more intuitive than on Kindles. That might mostly be a case of preferring what I know better, admittedly - and many don’t give that factor enough weight when offering their opinions.

Still, I find organizing collections on Kindles Byzantine compared to Kobo and, a tiny change, I wish Kindle had a “Reading” category and not just “Read” and “Unread”; it makes it much faster to navigate back to all your books in progress if you read several at a time.

I created a collection called Currently Reading on my Kobo and my Kindles.

As for the out of the box issue: I suppose I was mostly refering to the registration. When I bought my PW2 (things may have changed) it was possible to use it, unregistered, for a few years - it was 'logged' as mine on the Amazon site, but I hadn't needed to connect to wifi (which I don't have) to register the actual device.

However a Kobo needs to be registered before it can be used - it's impossible to get passed the registration screen. Because I still don't use wifi the app made it easy to register, with a little help from mobileread.

Maybe, by the time I bought the Libra 2 I'd developed certain tastes about the way I prefer an ereader to look and perform, hence the tinkering - again I needed help with the patches etc.

So it could just be the case that the first ereader one gets is tolerated as is. My old Sony 505 was used as the manufacturer intended, no tinkering at all. But the more experience, the more one is inclined to experiment with appearance and behaviour.

If a Kindle is your first ereader, you'll use it as is. If a Kobo is your first, you'll use that out of the box, though knowing how adaptable it is may eventually lead to customisation.

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by BookCat

I created a collection called Currently Reading on my Kobo and my Kindles.

As for the out of the box issue: I suppose I was mostly refering to the registration.

Which is a little unfair, as VERY few ordinary users of e-devices share your 100% avoidance of WiFi. Using an outlier as a determiner of what is standard is itself not standard. It may also soon be moot if Amazon continues in the direction of locking down its walled garden ever more tightly.
The reality is that for the vast majority of users, the oobe is pretty much identical. The overwhelming majority of Kindle users will almost certainly register their device and download content by WiFi on setup, just as Kobo users do.

[JSWolf]

Even if you don't use WiFi, I believe that with a Windows computer that has WiFi, can be setup as a hotspot so you can use the WiFi to register your Reader. After registration, you can turn off the hotspot.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by BookCat

I created a collection called Currently Reading on my Kobo and my Kindles.

You don’t need to on a Kobo; the current reads are automatically put into a “Reading” category. As for Kindle, not only is it an extra step, but the collection drifts down the actives as others are accessed and appears in alphabetical order when accessing the collection list, so it can require several taps. My own solution also was to create a collection, but I named it “0pen” so at least it heads the alphabetical list. Unlike Kobo, an asterisk doesn’t work.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by BookCat

So it could just be the case that the first ereader one gets is tolerated as is. My old Sony 505 was used as the manufacturer intended, no tinkering at all. But the more experience, the more one is inclined to experiment with appearance and behaviour.

That's true for me as well. My first ereaders were basic, nontouch Kindles. I just used them as they were, no tinkering whatsoever (I did use Calibre, but only as a backup solution). Several years later I started to edit my books, installed custom fonts, the FONT_RAMP hack and so on. And when I got my first Kobo in 2019, I let my inner tinkerer fully out without looking back.

[John F]

Originally Posted by issybird

You don’t need to on a Kobo; the current reads are automatically put into a “Reading” category. As for Kindle, not only is it an extra step, but the collection drifts down the actives as others are accessed and appears in alphabetical order when accessing the collection list, so it can require several taps. My own solution also was to create a collection, but I named it “0pen” so at least it heads the alphabetical list. Unlike Kobo, an asterisk doesn’t work.

I currently have ~30 books on my kobo, and they are all marked as "Reading". I only read one book at a time.

[BookCat]

Originally Posted by issybird

You don’t need to on a Kobo; the current reads are automatically put into a “Reading” category. As for Kindle, not only is it an extra step, but the collection drifts down the actives as others are accessed and appears in alphabetical order when accessing the collection list, so it can require several taps. My own solution also was to create a collection, but I named it “0pen” so at least it heads the alphabetical list. Unlike Kobo, an asterisk doesn’t work.

As Currently Reading starts with a C, it remains at the top of the alphabetically organised Collections. "Open" on the other hand, would be further down the list.

I can't see any Reading category on my Kobo. Where is it? I'd like to find it.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by shalym

When did you do that "last test"? If you email an epub to your Kindle cloud now, you will get a AZW3 (KF8) file, unless your device is so old that it doesn't support that format.

That was about 4-5 weeks ago. I just repeated the test and the epub arrived as a KF8 while a mobi arrived as a mobi along with an email telling me that mobi support was being dropped.

Basically, emailing is of little interest to me since if I want to send an ebook over the network from calibre, I do a save to disk to my Kobo dropbox directory.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by BookCat

As Currently Reading starts with a C, it remains at the top of the alphabetically organised Collections. "Open" on the other hand, would be further down the list.

I can't see any Reading category on my Kobo. Where is it? I'd like to find it.

It’s not Open, it’s 0pen, which bumps it to the head of the list. Starting with “C”, a collection would be way, way, down for me. I have a lot of collections.

Click on Filter to the left after choosing Books, and the choices are All, Unread, Reading, Finished, Purchased, Imported, Downloaded. Very useful distinctions.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by BookCat

As for the out of the box issue: I suppose I was mostly refering to the registration. When I bought my PW2 (things may have changed) it was possible to use it, unregistered, for a few years - it was 'logged' as mine on the Amazon site, but I hadn't needed to connect to wifi (which I don't have) to register the actual device.

However a Kobo needs to be registered before it can be used - it's impossible to get passed the registration screen. Because I still don't use wifi the app made it easy to register, with a little help from mobileread.

That has changed in recent firmware. Kobo has a sideloaded mode that can be used as part of the setup if you cannot connect to the Kobo servers. If that happens, it asks you if you want to continue and do the setup later (from memory). Once you get through it, there are no later prompts. And it can be turned on after setup by adding an entry to the config file. The overall function is reduced, but, only in ways that are related to having the store and Kobo servers available. You can sideload, use the browser, get firmware updates over WiFi. But, you can't use the store, overdrive borrowing, sync purchased books etc.

[leifan89]

I have both and prefer the Libra 2. Better screen, love the buttons (I was a long time Oasis user), and love the OverDrive integration. That said, I don't side load much.

Speed-wise, yes, PW5 is noticeably faster, but for most things that you do on the device (flipping pages), it didn't matter. The only annoyingly slow thing on the Libra 2 from my perspective is changing fonts (maybe I have too many custom fonts...).

Sent from my HLTE556N using Tapatalk