Kobo Aura One VS Tolino Vision 4 HD

[Matthew.H]

Greetings everyone,

I am torn between which to choose for my very first E-Reader.
The Tolino Vision 4 HD or the Kobo Aura One.

They both feature Carta E Ink touchscreens at 300 DPI as well as having 8 GB of storage.
They are also both waterproof.

I believe the Kobo Aura One is able to read more file formats than the Tolino Vision 4 HD like (EPUB3, MOBI, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, TIFF, HTML, RTF, CBZ, CBR)

I love that they both allow for color temperature adjustments.

Tolino's website says the Tolino Vision 4 HD is not available in my country (USA) which worries me a bit...

If you own one of or both (or something better than both) of these devices please let me know what you like or dislike (or any odd facts) about them to help persuade me on the decision. I need all the information I can get.

Thank you for your time,
Matthew.H

[church mouse]

I have owned several Kobos and still have a Kobo H2O. I own a Tolino Vision 3HD.

My opinion is that the Tolino reading software is rather basic but the Tolino has proved a nice, lightweight, reliable reader. Battery life is slightly down against my Kobo experience. If you use Calibre, it is possible to get some management of Collections on the Tolino.

I like the added features of reading Kepubs on Kobo (though I know many hate the "wasted" screen space), but I found the H2O too big for me and I got fed up of persistent database corruption issues (my Macbook became increasingly temperamental when talking to my several Kobos resulting in sudden, faulty ejection of the Kobos, but I don't think this is a common problem). Calibre's management of Collections on the Kobo is better.

I must qualify my comments by saying that my day to day reader remains my Energy Sistem ProHD. Even though its 212dpi screen is not a patch on the lovely Tolino 300dpi, I find the combination of ProHD + Calibre Companion + AlReader my most complete reading experience.

[JSWolf]

Only you can decide if you want a screen larger than 6". Personally, I like my H2O's larger screen. I would also like the Aura One's screen as well.

[PeterT]

While the Kobo can read a range of formats, I'd convert wherever possible to either ePub or Kobo ePub.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by Matthew.H

If you own one of or both (or something better than both) of these devices please let me know what you like or dislike (or any odd facts) about them to help persuade me on the decision. I need all the information I can get.

There's one big difference between the two: the size. After using the H2O for a while and now the One, I don't think I want to go back to a 6" screen.

I'd say grab a ruler, two pieces of paper, a pen and some scissors. Draw the outlines of both readers (including screensize) on them and cut them out. Then compare. And then make a choice: large or small. And when size really doesn't matter (but we all know it does!), then you can start comparing other elements.

[Poppaea]

I never had a Tolino so I can't say anything about the reading experience, but a friend of mine had one and he liked it very much.

Where do you plan to read? Do you need a reader for your commute that fits into your jacket pocket easily? Then grab a 6" reader.

Do you have any access to an iPadMini? It's the same screen size so you could better decide which size you like.

When I was commuting I loved the small Aura 6", but now I'm reading mostly at home and the bigger size makes a wonderful reading experience for me. It is more like reading a paperback and I love the bookpaged size of the One. As it is very lightweight and comfortable to hold for me, it is one of my most beloved readers.

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

There's one big difference between the two: the size. After using the H2O for a while and now the One, I don't think I want to go back to a 6" screen.

I'd say grab a ruler, two pieces of paper, a pen and some scissors. Draw the outlines of both readers (including screensize) on them and cut them out. Then compare. And then make a choice: large or small. And when size really doesn't matter (but we all know it does!), then you can start comparing other elements.

You can easily get the dimensions at screen sizes in our wiki.

Dale

[Dino84]

I found out about the Tolino after purchasing the Kobo Aura One.

What interests me about the Tolino is the comfort light feature, which is also present on the Kobo. However, Im growing very fond of my Kobo so I can only recommend that. I also noticed the Tolino seemed mostly available in Germany.

It might be good however, but the Kobo is a safe bet imo.

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by Dino84

I found out about the Tolino after purchasing the Kobo Aura One.

What interests me about the Tolino is the comfort light feature, which is also present on the Kobo. However, Im growing very fond of my Kobo so I can only recommend that. I also noticed the Tolino seemed mostly available in Germany.

It might be good however, but the Kobo is a safe bet imo.

I also only found out about it after your question I still would have gone for the Kobo though, simply because I've been spoiled by the size of the H2O, I don't think I could back to a mere 6" screen as main reader!

[maddz]

Originally Posted by church mouse

I like the added features of reading Kepubs on Kobo (though I know many hate the "wasted" screen space), but I found the H2O too big for me and I got fed up of persistent database corruption issues (my Macbook became increasingly temperamental when talking to my several Kobos resulting in sudden, faulty ejection of the Kobos, but I don't think this is a common problem). Calibre's management of Collections on the Kobo is better.

You're not the only one with this problem. Ever since adding a SD card to my Touch, I've been getting this. I suspect it's because the Mac treats the Kobo and the card as separate devices and ejecting one causes faulty ejection of the other (and it doesn't seem to matter which is ejected first). Given the number of ebooks I buy or otherwise obtain, I'm now looking for a replacement ereader.

I looked at the Tolino and discounted it on the grounds of price, the fact that it appears to be a walled garden and it doesn't have page turn buttons.

[Poppaea]

Originally Posted by maddz

I looked at the Tolino and discounted it on the grounds of price, the fact that it appears to be a walled garden and it doesn't have page turn buttons.

It is not. As with any other epub device you can buy wherever you want to.

They come with a store preference depending on which store you bought it at, but this is a) not binding or ASFAIK can be even be changed and b) not important anyway as books cost the same everywhere in Germany as we have bookprice binding.

Personally I like the store preference apporach. It enables people to buy a Tolino at their favourite little bookstore and keep buying their ebooks with them, thus helping them stay alive and running. If Kobo hadn't come out with the big screen Aura I might have bought a Tolino for this very reason.

[maddz]

As we don't have this in the UK, I can't register it with a bookseller. Having to register with a bookseller smacks of walled garden to me. Besides, when I looked on the Tolino website, I got told it's not available to me as I live in the UK (although it seems freely available to me on Amazon).

Either way, the lack of page turn buttons and the cost put me off. I want something that's reasonably priced, has at least double the amount of onboard storage I need right now (I'm slowly replacing my physical books with ebooks), has page turn buttons and works correctly with my Mac if I've added a SD card.

[Poppaea]

Originally Posted by maddz

Having to register with a bookseller smacks of walled garden to me.

You do have to register a Kobo too. And just as a Tolino, they let you buy your books whereever, as long as it is a format the reader is able to read, in this case epub.

I really don't understand why you complain about a reader not being able to register to your local bookstore that was developped by GERMAN bookstores and is sold in GERMANY. I really can't.

When I look at their UK website it says: "This product is not available in your country." So if someone buys it anyway, they might not be able to buy books vía their preferred store but they shouldn't be surprised by this as they'd have bought the reader knowing this regardless.

Also the FAQ's state clearly:

When buying your eBooks you are not committed to one book seller only. You may buy eBooks from different tolino partners and will have them at your disposal in your tolino eBook library afterwards. The condition is that you have connected the eBook libraries beforehand. For doing so open up the menu on the starting page of your tolino eBook reader and select the element “my accounts”. Afterwards go to “library link”.

As soon as you have startet the tolino library link, you will be shown a list of all tolino partners. You may connect one account per book seller. With each link the new book seller and tolino eReader distributor will be informed. You will get a confirmation email from both regarding the connection. After the link procedure all of your books will be displayed in the linked eBook library.

And of course you can sideload to your hearts content.

As for the onboard storage and the buttons, they are personal preference and have nothing to do with your wrongly perceived notion of being walled in.

[maddz]

Well, it's the "You may buy eBooks from different tolino partners" bit that puts me off. Either way, it seems I would be paying for functionality I cannot use in my country, so that's not going to be an option for me. Yes, I know I had to register my Kobo device with Kobo; and I do on occasion purchase content from Kobo.

The point is that here it's a matter of personal preference whether I choose to buy from Kobo or not (I usually don't unless there is a significant price advantage or because the title is not available elsewhere because of their DRM policy); whereas the with the tolino it looks like I cannot purchase content from them even if I wanted to because of geographic restrictions. And frankly I really can't be bothered to 'travel' to obtain content.

I am not complaining about this fact: this is one reason why the tolino is not on my shortlist of replacement devices. 99% of my 'purchases' are made via the iPad (from Amazon) or via the Mac (for Kobo and other sources). I have never used my Kobo Touch to purchase content, and would never use any dedicated ereader to do so as everything is consolidated with Calibre.

So, the tolino is not for me. Rightly or wrongly, my perception is that the tolino is a walled garden in the geographic sense if not in other senses, and it looks like it will require fiddling to jump over the wall (and may not work correctly if I do so), whereas other devices that fit my requirements better in other terms don't. I also suspect that devices purchased from content suppliers like Kobo, Kindle or tolino are going to become more and more restricted in what you can do with your purchased content so that is why I am looking for a replacement that is not supplied by a content vendor.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by maddz

As we don't have this in the UK, I can't register it with a bookseller. Having to register with a bookseller smacks of walled garden to me. Besides, when I looked on the Tolino website, I got told it's not available to me as I live in the UK (although it seems freely available to me on Amazon).

Either way, the lack of page turn buttons and the cost put me off. I want something that's reasonably priced, has at least double the amount of onboard storage I need right now (I'm slowly replacing my physical books with ebooks), has page turn buttons and works correctly with my Mac if I've added a SD card.

I have an H2O and it is NOT a walled garden at all. I can buy ePub from the shop of my choice and I can even read ePub from Overdrive. I'm not limited to buying from Kobo. Also,I do like the larger screen size. It just feels nicer than a 6" screen.

Don't buy another brand Reader because OS X isn't handling your Kobo correctly. Given what you've said, it sounds like any Reader with card slot will have the very same issue.