Kobo

I’ve been using Kindle e-readers since sometime before 2010, but my latest one, a Kindle Oasis, just wasn’t doing it for me.

It was glitchy. When I went to wake it back up, I would very often find that the font size had changed or the page had changed. It needed charging every 4 days (and that was with wifi off). The backlight seemed to randomly adjust itself and I would often turn it on at night and would need to find some other light so I could turn on the backlight.

I hate how when I get to the end of a book, amazon pops up with an ad for more books like it. If I have been reading something engrossing, it is incredibly jarring to be hit with an ad in that moment. This was a supposedly ad-free Kindle, but I guess that only applies to the cover.

After running across a Six Colors e-reader roundup by Jason Snell, I bought a Kobo Libra 2, and am very happy with it.

I don’t have a whole lot to add to what Jason Snell said, but can confirm that the battery life is great. The integration with Libby (app to check e-books out from the library) is even easier to use than with the Kindle.

I was also thrilled to find that the advertisements at the end of the book are missing from the Kindle. And its interaction is better in a lots of little ways, like the way I can configure it not to change pages if I accidentally tap the wrong part of the screen. I did configure it to change pages if I swipe and that is the main way I change pages now.

I love that I can adjust the backlight up or down by swiping up or down, which means I can do it in complete darkness.

I do feel like synchronizing (e.g. to get that library book onto my device) is slower than with then, but it probably isn’t slower if I take into account the extra clicks I have to do to get the library book into Amazon and than onto the Kindle.

I’d recommend giving the Kobo a try.

I don’t have any financial relationships with Amazon or Kobo. I paid for both devices myself.