# Kobo Glo vs Kindle PW



## history_lover

I wasn't sure whether to put this here or in the Kindle section but I think it's more about Kobo than Kindle.

My husband just got a Kobo Glo (he wanted something that supported epub so Kindle was out) and I have to say, the front lighting on it is definitely superior to my Kindle AND it has several features that many Kindle users have been wanting for a long time, such as the ability to set your current book cover as your screen saver. I have to admit, I am a little jealous!

The front lighting is flawless - it does have the same shadows at the very bottom of the screen like the Kindle PW but that's never bothered me, I don't consider it a design flaw especially now knowing it's on both Kobo and Kindle. Kobo attempts to mask it by putting a black bar at the bottom of the screen but you can turn this off in the options. However, it has no trace of the infamous color blotches on the Kindle PW and the lighting is perfectly even and smooth. My PW has a subtle crosshatch pattern to it across the whole screen (different from the color blotches) - it's only noticeable when the light it cranked up to the max, which I never do, or when there's no text on the screen (when it's just a blank white screen, the crosshatch pattern shows). But Kobo has nothing like this, the lighting is perfectly even and it just makes me all the more disappointed at what an epic failure Amazon made of their front lighting. I will definitely not be buying another Kindle until I'm positive they have sorted out the front lighting issues. If Kobo make flawless, even front lighting, the technology is obviously capable of it and so the PW issues are clearly a design flaw.

Kobo's light is also much brighter at it's max setting than PW at it's max but since I never have it set that high anyway, it doesn't really matter.

Kobo supposedly has a faster processor - I honestly didn't notice a difference in practice but maybe it would be noticeable when filled with thousands of books. I know a lot of Kindle users say that loading too many books on it will slow it down. Perhaps the Kobo, with it's faster processor, wouldn't get blogged down by that many books.

There's also a lot more settings customization with the Kobo - for example, on my PW I have the option of setting the screen refresh to once every 6 pages or on every page. On Kobo, you can set it to refresh from anywhere in between once every page and once every 6 pages (ie, you can choose every other page, every 3 pages, etc). Or you can choose how long before the device goes to sleep - on Kindle, this isn't even an option! These are just a couple examples - there are more settings and most of them give you more options than Kindle. It's really made me realize how limited Kindle's features are.

That said, there are some things I don't like about the Kobo. 

I hate the touch screen orientation. While it does have the option to set it so most of the screen will turn the page forward, the spot to bring up the menu is at the bottom, in the center. But it comes up high enough that this happens to be right where my thumb lands when I'm trying to turn the page! Luckily, my husband's hands are bigger so he says it's not a problem for him but personally, I would not be able to use the Kobo with one hand, I would be forced to use my other hand to turn the pages and I would not be happy with that. I think Kindle's orientation makes much more sense, with the area to bring up the menu being across the top of the screen, up and out of the way so you don't accidentally hit it while trying to turn the page.

The other downside I noticed of Kobo is the set up. I don't know exactly what was involved since my husband did it but it sounded like he had to download and install something just to do the initial set up before he could even use it. The whole set up took at least a half hour (and I don't mean customizing preferences, I mean just getting it to the point where he could read a book). Ridiculous. I think as long as there's no problems connecting to wifi, my Kindle set up took about 5 mins, if that. So that's definitely a con for Kobo but at least you only have to deal with it once.

Then there's the physical design. While it's nice to have more color options and my husband went with Blue Moon (he was particularly pleased by this since he's a Manchester City fan), it has a much more "boxy" feel and it's definitely thicker than my Kindle. According to specs, it's only about 1mm thicker but it's noticeable in the look and feel, I think especially because there's no tapering towards the edges, which gives it that boxy feel (much like the iPhone 4 actually). Kobo is slightly smaller than the Kindle PW which wouldn't be a concern for me but might be for those with larger hands - though my husband hasn't complained yet.

I suppose the physical design could come down to personal preference but I think the Kindle has the best looking and feeling design of all eInk readers out there. I have also handled my SIL's Nook Simple Touch - the frame is too wide and square-like for me but of course it has the physical page turn buttons which the Kobo Glo, like the Kindle PW, is also missing.

The major downside to Kobo I think is that their ebook store is not as extensive as Kindle's. You can make up for it from buying from other stores but of course those books won't have the cloud synchronization I have come to love from my Kindle books (I think Kobo books have this too but of course if you buy from another store, it won't). However, this didn't concern my husband.

So overall, I'd still have to go with my Kindle - even if I weren't already invested in it as a brand with all my books there - mainly because of the touch screen orientation, the physical design, and the ebook store. But I am totally jealous of Kobo's flawless front lighting and better customization and when I expressed this, my husband joked "Want to switch?" Even so, I'm pleased to say that without hesitation I sarcastically replied "Yeah, right." I certainly won't be parting with my Kindle!


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## The Hooded Claw

Thanks, this is interesting! I hope the new Kobo is a success, but even if it isn't, it will help spur Amazon to improve the next generation Kindle even more! Like you, I'm so invested in Kindle books that switching is not an option. Since many of the most avid book buyers will already be in this position, it may be tough for eInk competitors to make a place for themselves.


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## history_lover

Kobo is already pretty popular here in the UK and apparently also in Canada. In the UK, they are backed by Waterstones and WHSmith, both large chain bookstores like B&N or Boarders in America. So Kobo is similar to Nook in the UK market. Nook recently launched in the UK too but B&N don't have any store fronts here so they are latecomers to the ereader game.

I forgot to mention that the other downside to Kobo is that the top and bottom margins are bigger which means less room for text. It has a thin margin at the top where the book title is and then a rather large one at the bottom - even if you turn off the black bar, the margin remains, it just turns to white. My Kindle PW has no margin at the top and only a very small one at the bottom, maximizing the room for text. So to me, the Kobo screen felt smaller even though it's the same size as my PW. Surprisingly, considering how many custom settings Kobo has, I don't think there is a way to adjust the top and bottom margins, only the side margins.


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## booklover888

I have one of each, and for the most part, I like the Kobo Glo better. On the paperwhite, I like the time to read and page numbers better. Kobo gives time to read to the end of the chapter and end of the book, and how many pages in a chapter, but not total pages. Pretty much everything else about the Kobo Glo, I like better.


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## Mike D. aka jmiked

I've just ordered a Kobo Glo. It looks like it will let me do a better job of customizing the reading experience than the Kindle(s) I presently have.


Mike


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## booklover888

Yeah, I hope you used the coupon and got it for $99. I wish I had gotten mine for that!  Amazing.

The Kobo can do so much more, if you use Calibre to manage your collections. My paperwhite is rooted and hacked, and it still is not as easy to manage as the Kobo, which is not hacked or rooted.


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## history_lover

Discovered another con to the Kobo Glo - you can't sync personal documents. You can side load them on any device but they won't sync across the devices. That would be a huge issue for me, another reason I'm grateful for my Kindle.


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## Mike D. aka jmiked

I finally got a notification that a Kobo Glo has been shipped to me. Estimated delivery time 10-14 days. I'm definitely not in the Amazon ecosystem. Their tracking system doesn't even work once the package leaves Canada!

I'm a bit disappointed that the Kobo store seems incompatible with Firefox Mac, although it works with other browsers and Firefox Win7. Not a huge problem, since I wasn't planning on buying many books from the Kobo store.

Mike


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## Mike D. aka jmiked

I got the Kobo Glo an hour or so ago. First impressions are good. It has quite a few capabilities that the Amazon eInk readers don't have.

It turns out I _could_ track the package after it left Canada, I had to enter the Canadian Post tracking number into the USPS system and it worked fine. In fact, it worked much better than any package that was entirely in the USPS system from the beginning. 

I'll have to wait a month or so before giving a definitive judgement on it. I've already run into a snag where a book I converted from mobi to epub wouldn't allow any typeface changes or line spacing changes (although a number of others worked fine).

Mike


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## Meemo

jmiked said:


> I'm a bit disappointed that the Kobo store seems incompatible with Firefox Mac, although it works with other browsers and Firefox Win7. Not a huge problem, since I wasn't planning on buying many books from the Kobo store.
> 
> Mike


I've been using the Kobo store on Firefox on my Mac for at least a couple of years. Just picked up a free book from the Kobo store to be sure it still works (all my Kobo books are in Calibre anyway, but still wanted to be sure I could access them). Not sure I've installed the latest version of Firefox yet, though.


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## Mike D. aka jmiked

Meemo said:


> I've been using the Kobo store on Firefox on my Mac for at least a couple of years. Just picked up a free book from the Kobo store to be sure it still works (all my Kobo books are in Calibre anyway, but still wanted to be sure I could access them). Not sure I've installed the latest version of Firefox yet, though.


I'm using the latest version of Firefox, but not the latest OSX (Apple decided to not let the current version run at all on my 2008 laptop). For whatever reason I can't get to the login screen at all. It just reloads the current screen.

I'm getting pretty disappointed in two things about the Kobo Glo: the touch screen isn't very responsive, sometimes required 6 or 7 taps to go to the next page, and there seems to be a lot of white space at the bottom of the screen that could be used for text.

Mike


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## Meemo

jmiked said:


> I'm using the latest version of Firefox, but not the latest OSX (Apple decided to not let the current version run at all on my 2008 laptop). For whatever reason I can't get to the login screen at all. It just reloads the current screen.
> 
> I'm getting pretty disappointed in two things about the Kobo Glo: the touch screen isn't very responsive, sometimes required 6 or 7 taps to go to the next page, and there seems to be a lot of white space at the bottom of the screen that could be used for text.
> 
> Mike


Apple probably did you a favor - your 2008 laptop probably couldn't handle the newest OS - I ended up reverting my old Air to an earlier OS when the newest one at the time proved to be too much for it. It got really slow and cranky and was much happier when we reverted to the older OS.

No option on the Kobo to change the margins (including top & bottom)? It's always something, isn't it? What type touchscreen does the Glo have?


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## Mike D. aka jmiked

Meemo said:


> No option on the Kobo to change the margins (including top & bottom)? It's always something, isn't it? What type touchscreen does the Glo have?


There is an incremental adjustment to the margins that can be made. I think the problem was with the type size... there may some sort of widow/orphan internal algorithm that was causing a bit more space at the bottom. I made the type size a tad smaller and that seems to have cured the problem.

The Glo has an infrared touch screen. I went into the settings and adjusted where the touch spots are and that seems to have cured that problem. So a the moment, no complaints against the device.

Mike


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## Mike D. aka jmiked

After using the Kobo Glo for a month or so, I have only one continuing complaint of any note with the latest 2.8.1 software: the rendering engine for regular ePubs has a glaring bug that causes paragraphs to be broken in very strange places. About every three pages or so, there is a pronounced gap at the bottom of the page that can be anywhere from two or three lines to half the page. This can happen between paragraphs, also. This really spoils the reading experience for me. I can transfer the same ePub file to my Nexus 7 and read it with Moon Reader and it looks just fine. But on the Kobo Glo, there can be these enourmous gaps. There seem to be two rendering engines in the device, one for standard ePubs, and one for kePubs (books you get from the Kobo store). I've been led to believe that the kePubs do not have this problem. It's a moot point, since I don't intend to get any books from the Kobo store.

Of minor note is that the software seems to not really know if I'm connected to my wireless network or not. It claims it can't find the network, but most of the time will still work with the network.

Also, most of the time, the line spacing control doesn't work with many ePubs converted from Mobi files by Calibre, but I haven't spent much time trying to find out why.

All in all, I'm less impressed by the Kobo Glo than I had hoped. I may go back to the Nexus 7 for ePubs, despite the backlit LCD screen. I get acceptable results with it using a dimmed screen and 'night' mode, i.e., light letters on a dark background.


Mike


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