# New Kobo Aura 6" (Sept 16th) vs New Paperwhite 2 6" (Sept 30th)



## northofdivision (Sep 7, 2010)

Would love to hear some thoughts on which to get. Very curious about the flat bezel of the aura that lay flush with the display screen, all the font and font weight control and Pocket app integration via wifi (sounds useful being i use pocket on my android and ipad often and would rather read long articles on e-ink). But Kindles are always so great. Every Kobo i've ever seen live seem very cheaply made and unimpressive. This one seems to be a new exception. Thoughts?

AURA 150.00
6" High-res Pearl E Ink ClarityScreen with low-flash waveform; 1014 x 758, 16 level grey scale
150 x 114 x 8.1 mm
174 g
1 GHz
ComfortLight; the best, most even, built in front-light
4 GB
Option to expand up to 32 GB with a microSD card
Over 2 months*
11 fonts, 24 sizes, exclusive weight and sharpness settings
Games: Chess and Sudoku
Web browsing
Web browser
Supports file formats
eBooks: EPUB, PDF, and MOBI
Images: JPEG, GIF, PNG, and TIFF
Text: TXT, HTML, XHTML, and RTF
Comic Books: CBZ and CBR
Supports ePub and Adobe DRM. Read books borrowed from your public library
Integrated Wifi with Pocket App (IOS/ANDROID)

PAPERWHITE 2 119.00/139.00
4.6 in x 0.36 in x 6.7 in
206 grams
Screen size (diagonal)	6 inches
Massive library
Kindle-it via Chrome
Screen: Carta (20% increase in whiteness)
2 month battery
2gb
New gen paperwhite display
The front-lit screen is also brighter, and higher contrast, designed to more closely replicate paper books. The difference is due in part to changes in the underlying "light guide," which has been better tuned to deliver the light across the screen.
Goodreads features will be added to the Paperwhite later this year through a free software update.
Touchscreen: Capacitive
Web Browser
Amazon Prime Book rental
Library loan
Notable software: new flip page/x-ray improvements
A 'smart lookup' feature integrates a dictionary with Wikipedia to allow users to search for definitions and information without losing the place in their book and a 'vocabulary builder' compiles a list of words users look up.
File support	PDF .Mobi .DOC, .CBZ


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## cinisajoy (Mar 10, 2013)

Your question or comment?


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

I understand you are looking for thoughts on one vs. the other.  For me, I want 3G and I se the Wikipedia a lot for nonfiction, so I am bound to the Kindle. I do like the smaller size of the Kobo. Multiple font and formatting choices don't concern me.


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## northofdivision (Sep 7, 2010)

The Hooded Claw said:


> I understand you are looking for thoughts on one vs. the other. For me, I want 3G and I se the Wikipedia a lot for nonfiction, so I am bound to the Kindle. I do like the smaller size of the Kobo. Multiple font and formatting choices don't concern me.


Thanks, The Hooded Claw
That Wikipedia feature is most definitely a great feature, agreed.


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## Atunah (Nov 20, 2008)

Well first the screen is listed incorrectly for the new PW. Its Carta, not pearl. Whatever that means, I have no clue.  

To me the flush screen would be a total turnoff on the Aura. It was hard enough for me to get used to the no button reading, but at least I can feel the edge of the bezel to know where to put my thumb. If I don't have that, I would constantly have to either look at my fingers, or change the page accidentally. So to me that is not an improvement on an ereader. This has actually happened to me when I tried reading on my Fire a few times. I kept getting distracted trying to figure out where the "edge" of the book was. 

So as far as features, the PW has more than I need and want. Even if I wasn't already a Amazon customer, I would still pick the PW. Unbeatable customer service is not to be underestimated. 

The only feature I would pick on the Aura over the PW are the different fonts. But on pretty much all the other feature, the PW beats the Aura. To me at least. So there is that.  

But overall I am just happy that e-ink readers are still being competed over and they aren't dying as some like to say. No reading for me on a tablet, so competition is always good.


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## northofdivision (Sep 7, 2010)

Atunah said:


> Well first the screen is listed incorrectly for the new PW. Its Carta, not pearl. Whatever that means, I have no clue.


Great comments, Atunah (thanks for the carta fix. *modified*). E-ink trumps LCD forever for reading, indeed. and agreed that competition is good. Not sure about the flushed bezel either but am curious what that would be like with e-ink. do love the idea of so many fonts though.

i'm from the camp actually that isn't that big of a fan of touchscreen e-ink and prefers the K4 simple when reading and being able to put my fingers all over the screen without it page turning. but with all the new features, i found i needed to move to touch.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Frankly, I'm happy with kindle/Amazon and more than happy with their content selection and customer service -- which is at least as important as the tech specs. For many, it's MORE important.  And, at this point, it seems to me, there isn't enough difference in the technology to really matter.


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## booklover888 (May 20, 2012)

That picture illustrates one of the reasons I plan to get the new Kobo Aura and not the new PW2. The size! And also I am so happy that it has 4gb AND an SD card slot. To me the new PW is, from what I can tell so far, not much better than my current PW. I want something new, something different, not a refresh of the same thing. So I am waiting for the Kobo Aura in pink to be available, then I am ordering one.


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## Lursa (aka 9MMare) (Jun 23, 2011)

At a certain point, you need something to hold onto (& not accidentally touch the screen). Not so sure smaller is going to keep on being 'better.'


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## Koi (Apr 28, 2010)

Lursa, that is my same thought when I look at the Kobo.  Where the heck would I grab onto that thing?


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## Lursa (aka 9MMare) (Jun 23, 2011)

The main advantage I see is an external memory slot. 

Disappointing that the new K PW doesn't, still.  I'm sure there an angle for Amazon behind it.

I'll probably wait til the next gen of the PW or K e-reader, since I'm quite happy with my original PW and hope to get the new software features at some point.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

See, and I don't see a need for a memory card slot.  I can access my books via WiFi on Amazon's cloud. And, in the event that I'm ever stuck somewhere for an extended period without wifi, well, the device itself holds plenty of books.  I've got a couple hundred on as it is.  Even if I have NOTHING else to do, that would last me at least a half a year!


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## stevene9 (Nov 9, 2008)

To me the universe of available books, both now and in the future, is the important thing. Small differences in these readers is miniscule compared to the media universe that they use.

Steve


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## northofdivision (Sep 7, 2010)

Ann in Arlington said:


> See, and I don't see a need for a memory card slot. I can access my books via WiFi on Amazon's cloud. And, in the event that I'm ever stuck somewhere for an extended period without wifi, well, the device itself holds plenty of books. I've got a couple hundred on as it is. Even if I have NOTHING else to do, that would last me at least a half a year!


Memory card slots on ebooks don't concern me too much as well. I like them on mobile handsets but on e-ink, i usually have a hundred or 200 books on the Kindle itself. i'd like to throw my entire 10gig library on it just because though.

I do find the "Pocket" integration worth a look as its one of the better news/article apps out there. I see a lot of comments on the size and i might be the minority that is curious what a smaller form factor would be like with the same size screen. I've tried 5" readers and they're just too small screenwise. with my Paperwhite it gets uncomfortable to wrap my hand around its sides and to hold it with one hand (right) while riding on subway commutes while standing. With the Aura, it might be a nice size for that using the thumb on my right hand for page turning. I've been using my kindle 4 on subways rides because i can grip onto with one hand more easily than my pw and where my thumb is i just lean on the button to turn pages. Do any of you use more than one e-reader?

it's funny to me that Kobo is trying to sideswipe kindle's light by advertising as "the most evenly distributed light on the market". As for the ecosystem, the selection is amazing with amazon so agreed with that one. can never go wrong with a kindle.

as for the "media universe", that's a really great point. nowadays that universe is expanding in a way that amazon won't be able to monopolize it like itunes is also slowly figuring out. hopefully the universe can be expansive and not use proprietary file forms that can't be used cross platform. I support an open system as i agree, the media universe is incredibly vast. Thank goddess for Calibre which affords the media universe to be better utilized with kindles and most other e-readers out there.


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## kansaskyle (Sep 14, 2010)

It is all about the ecosystem for me. I purchased a Kobo Mino for $40 bucks a few months ago, and I found the overall Kobo experience to be a bit lacking. Kobo Customer Service was nice, but it took multiple calls to resolve an issue, and it was a hassle to download DRM books in Adobe to get them to my device.

You can read about the experience in this _Other (non-Kindle) eReaders _thread.


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## Lursa (aka 9MMare) (Jun 23, 2011)

Ann in Arlington said:


> See, and I don't see a need for a memory card slot. I can access my books via WiFi on Amazon's cloud. And, in the event that I'm ever stuck somewhere for an extended period without wifi, well, the device itself holds plenty of books. I've got a couple hundred on as it is. Even if I have NOTHING else to do, that would last me at least a half a year!


I guess that's ok. But I don't always have access to wifi and I tend to be a spur of the moment kinda gal. I'd like to have 'sets' I could take with me (large sets!) But I felt I needed 3G for the same reason and chose to forgo that for the PW and rarely miss it. I have the hotspot on my phone if I really need it.


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## northofdivision (Sep 7, 2010)

kansaskyle said:


> It is all about the ecosystem for me. I purchased a Kobo Mino for $40 bucks a few months ago, and I found the overall Kobo experience to be a bit lacking. Kobo Customer Service was nice, but it took multiple calls to resolve an issue, and it was a hassle to download DRM books in Adobe to get them to my device.
> 
> You can read about the experience in this _Other (non-Kindle) eReaders _thread.


helpful. thank you for that.


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## B. Justin Shier (Apr 1, 2011)

Gosh, this is going to be a tough one. I like the Aura's form factor and memory slot, but the freaky Kobo firmware on my Mini unsettles my nerves...I think I'm going to wait and see until consumers start getting their hands on V2 PWs. The units Amazon sent to the tech sites were well received, but I want to make sure that the mass produced V2 PWs are of equivalent quality.

B.


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

stevene9 said:


> To me the universe of available books, both now and in the future, is the important thing. Small differences in these readers is miniscule compared to the media universe that they use.
> 
> Steve


My understanding is that the Kobo can run the Kindle Android app, and thus read Amazon books. I have no direct experience, that's just what I thought I'd read. If the Kobo can't read Amazin books without DRM ripping and other drastic measures, then for me it isn't a contender at all....Am I confused about being able to read Amazon books on the Kobo?


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

The Hooded Claw said:


> My understanding is that the Kobo can run the Kindle Android app, and thus read Amazon books. I have no direct experience, that's just what I thought I'd read. If the Kobo can't read Amazin books without DRM ripping and other drastic measures, then for me it isn't a contender at all....Am I confused about being able to read Amazon books on the Kobo?


I think there's a 'tablet-like' kobo -- which probably would run the kindle app. I'd be very surprised if their eInk models did so. But I really don't know.


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## kwajkat (Nov 6, 2008)

The Aura HD looks more impressive than this model. After all the problems I had with the paperwhite screen I am going to wait on this to see since they have changed the screen lighting etc,


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## northofdivision (Sep 7, 2010)

kwajkat said:


> The Aura HD looks more impressive than this model. After all the problems I had with the paperwhite screen I am going to wait on this to see since they have changed the screen lighting etc,


I like the specs of the aura HD for sure. but 6.8" form factor is too big for what i'm looking for and the back of the aura is a little too sci-fi for me. but i'm with you on wanting to check out how the new pw screen pans out and checking out the hd in person just to see the screen


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## booklover888 (May 20, 2012)

The Hooded Claw said:


> My understanding is that the Kobo can run the Kindle Android app, and thus read Amazon books. I have no direct experience, that's just what I thought I'd read. If the Kobo can't read Amazin books without DRM ripping and other drastic measures, then for me it isn't a contender at all....Am I confused about being able to read Amazon books on the Kobo?


You can NOT read Amazon books on a Kobo e-ink reader, without stripping the DRM and converting to epub.


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

booklover888 said:


> You can NOT read Amazon books on a Kobo e-ink reader, without stripping the DRM and converting to epub.


Ouch, then for me it is a complete nonstarter! No use at all for one....I have too much invested in Amazon books. I thought I'd seen mention of running the Android Amazon app on the Kobo, but that always seemed a little peculiar.


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## KingAl (Feb 21, 2011)

booklover888 said:


> You can NOT read Amazon books on a Kobo e-ink reader, without stripping the DRM and converting to epub.


Is the e-ink Kobo Android? If so, you may be able to root it and install the Kindle app (though that's more complicated than stripping the DRM and converting to ePub.)


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

In looking to see if I could locate what I'd read that made me think Amazon books could be read on the new Kobo, I found this review that may be of interest.

http://www.laptopmag.com/reviews/ereaders/kobo-aura.aspx


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

The Hooded Claw said:


> Ouch, then for me it is a complete nonstarter! No use at all for one....I have too much invested in Amazon books. I thought I'd seen mention of running the Android Amazon app on the Kobo, but that always seemed a little peculiar.


Well, again, if there is a 'tablet-style' kobo device, that might be possible. I've definitely heard of nook people rooting their tablet nooks so that they can install the Amazon app. But the e-ink devices are not, exactly, android.


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## booklover888 (May 20, 2012)

No, it's not Android. The Nook ST and the Sony T series are android. So yes they can be rooted and run the Kindle app. (but it's not that easy, on the Sony, unless you know how to change partition size...I tried to put it on my rooted Sony and there wasn't enough space....)

My Paperwhite is rooted, btw. My Kobo is not. It is great just the way it is. However, I buy books from Amazon, fix them up, then put them on the Kobo.

I think I want the new Kobo AND the new Paperwhite. _Patience, grasshopper! Christmas is coming!_


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

A reminder that, in general, 'rooting' a device *is* against the terms of service and will most likely void any warranty.


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## northofdivision (Sep 7, 2010)

indeed. IMO, many (if not most) Kindle users love the book ecosystem and are tied to Kindles no matter what because of the investment in .azw files. Fortunately, amazon makes oustanding e-readers and every iteration offers something new. Like being stuck in itunes though, i just wish there was way to buy outsider hardware which offer new tricks and features Kindles don't while still having a simple way to access amazon's great bookstore. Fortunately i'm like booklover888 and have found a great workaround in calibre and have all of my books cross platform (epub and mobi) and uncoded so i can move them as i please with real life book pages not percentages. I rooted my pw too just because i wanted to have my own screensavers that i also put on my sony readers. Hear you though, Ann. Losing warranty is no fun. But having my own screensavers, a different font set, access to shut off times (have my kindle shut off after 15 minutes instead because i half fall asleep and then wake up and like to have it remain on for a bit longer than stock) and totally shutting off the PW light (real 0) when i want trumped my warranty. my kindle keyboard is rooted with Georgia font and still works perfectly three years later with all updates via wifi. but Ann is right, always a price to pay for tinkering (time hassle. luckily most never even feel compelled to root for features that i feel i need.)

Staying on topic though, i still look forward to having both the pw2 and the aura 6" in my hand and trying them both out. I wonder if a new non amazon E-ink reader came out that was heads and tails better than a Kindle and the same price, if most users would even leave because that would mean having to leave the ecosystem. Prime is a phenomenal service. #middleclassproblems #pocketintegrationforkindleplease   Thanks for all the help.


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## booklover888 (May 20, 2012)

Stanley, did you pre-order the Aura? I didn't, but I want the pink and it's not available yet. Plus it would be nice if I could get it from a US site or store.  I'd like to have the Aura and the new PW too....but I haven't reached the point of ordering either, yet.


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

Ann in Arlington said:


> Well, again, if there is a 'tablet-style' kobo device, that might be possible. I've definitely heard of nook people rooting their tablet nooks so that they can install the Amazon app. But the e-ink devices are not, exactly, android.


Yeah, I may have confused device reviews. Fortunately I have been very happy with my Kindle devices. If I am stuck in a gilded cage, it is a very nice gilded cage!


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## northofdivision (Sep 7, 2010)

haha. a very very nice gilded cage indeed...booklover888-no haven't pulled the trigger either. really would like to get my hands on it first. that pink one looks great. pretty much the only tech product i'll buy sight unseen are kindles.


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## Seleya (Feb 25, 2011)

The Hooded Claw said:


> Yeah, I may have confused device reviews. Fortunately I have been very happy with my Kindle devices. If I am stuck in a gilded cage, it is a very nice gilded cage!


You weren't the only one confused, Claw, since at least one page on the official presentation of the Aura said it read mobi files (wish it was true).


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## booklover888 (May 20, 2012)

At this point, I am way too scared to even try to order the new Aura. People are getting them, they have light pin holes in the screen, and they are getting the run around when they call customer service.

And they removed the ability to order the product from the web page. Which leads me to speculate on whether they are having major issues with this product.

I have ordered the new Paperwhite with full confidence that if there is something wrong with it, I can get my money back or an exchange with no hassles. I don't have that confidence with Kobo. Which is a shame, as I absolutely love my Kobo Glo & Mini!  But for the price of the Aura, that is a huge risk to take, not knowing if the product will be defective, and if it is, not knowing how hard it will be to return it. (Unless one lives in Canada and can buy it at the store!).

If anyone on this board has received one, I'd love to hear your opinions on the device.


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## Meemo (Oct 27, 2008)

Ann in Arlington said:


> A reminder that, in general, 'rooting' a device *is* against the terms of service and will most likely void any warranty.


It depends on how you root it, though. The Nook tablets can be rooted with an SD card that doesn't affect the "innards" of the device. You can also do it with a Nook Simple Touch.

Kobo's spec page shows that the Aura can read mobi files. http://www.kobo.com/koboaura#techspecs However, that doesn't mean you can put Kindle files on it and expect to read them, because there's still the issue of that pesky DRM. So if you had some mobi files from other sources like Gutenberg, Feedbooks, etc, that you'd picked up to read on your Kindle, you could put them on an Aura with no issues. But most Kindle books from Amazon would require doing that unspeakable thing to them.


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## slkissinger (Jul 29, 2010)

My opinion on the original topic: new vs. new Aura/Paperwhite.  I see advantages in either; but I chose the new paperwhite.  But that's mostly because of my history (large amazon library) and also, selfishly... currently have a paperwhite and my covers can be re-used.  

That said, I did buy a Kobo Mini several months ago, and use it constantly.  I have lots of books in Calibre (excluding most of my Amazon library, although I've converted some); and I haven't purchased a book from the KoboBooks store at all.  The reason I bought the Mini was it's the smallest one you can get in North America, and it fits in my back jeans pocket.  I'm not a person that usually carries a purse...it's the phone and the bare minimum cards needed in the front pocket, and the Kobo in the backpocket... and I'm ready for a full day of adventure... AND when there is downtime to sit and read something, e-reader right there.

Regarding the SD Card to "put ones entire library on it"... I actually tried that with my smart phone. (android).  I copied my entire Calibre library onto the SDCard; and it was just unwieldy.  A smart phone just doesn't have the speed (and none of the apps I tried had a good enough database) to handle being able to search all of those filenames.  I did let Alkido spend hours to pull all the info into their database; and it still was awful for searching.  So, in my opinion; having your entire library local on a device isn't worth it.  You are better off keeping your library in the cloud (whether that is amazon's cloud or kobo's cloud, that's irrelevant) or having your own private cloud from Calibre (which I do, I'm a computer geek, and poked holes in my home router and can access my home computer Calibre through a web address); and whatever device you have... if you have wifi; you can grab a book from that cloud, regardless of the device.

I keep maybe 200-500 books on my ereaders...which I keep old versions around for various reasons.  I keep my Kindle Keyboard because I LOVE the text to speech in the car for long drives.  (rooted, and put an English-accent voice on there instead of the original voice).  Paperwhite for the light; Kobo for the portability.  New Paperwhite on order because... um... I don't need to justify my reason on THIS forum.  It's just because I can.  

I know, I know... I can hear a few of you wondering how I keep my 'place' moving from device to device.  I don't.  Each device is a different book.  Even before I had any e-reader, I was a voracious book reader, and I would have a different book in each room of the house, and just picked up wherever I was in that book.  So reading 3 or 4 different books at the same time was just what I did.  So it's no big deal for me.


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## Meemo (Oct 27, 2008)

slkissinger said:


> .............
> So, in my opinion; having your entire library local on a device isn't worth it. You are better off keeping your library in the cloud (whether that is amazon's cloud or kobo's cloud, that's irrelevant) or having your own private cloud from Calibre (which I do, I'm a computer geek, and poked holes in my home router and can access my home computer Calibre through a web address); and whatever device you have... if you have wifi; you can grab a book from that cloud, regardless of the device.


I agree completely. I put my Calibre library into Dropbox - if I can access Dropbox, I can access my Calibre library. And one of the beauties of the Kindle (as opposed to the Nook eInk devices, not sure about Kobo) is that I, like you, can access Calibre from my Kindle without physically connecting the computer. If I want to move a bunch of books at one time (like I will when my PW2 arrives in 9 days), I pull out the USB cable. Otherwise, I connect via wifi. Flippin' awesome! (Do we have a geek-out smiley??) 

I will say though that a lot depends on the size of your library, especially the unread books. Mine is out of control. So while it was reasonable after a couple of years of Kindling to have my entire "unread" library on my Kindle, after 5 years...not so much. There are just too many books there. Things would be a hot mess without Calibre.

And to the original question - my first eReader was a Kindle (the original). Then I got a Sony to read the ePubs I'd picked up from other sellers via apps on my iPhone. Then I sold it and switched to an original Nook so I could read B&N's ePubs too. I hated that Nook, though, and missed my little Sony pocket reader so found another one cheap on eBay and gave away the Nook. I've cycled through a few ePub readers (now I have a $20 Nook Simple Touch, and that's about what I think it's worth, personally - I really should try rooting the thing, maybe I'd like it better), but I've always had a Kindle, and loved every one of them. I've never had a Kobo. But Amazon's store and customer service have always kept me on the Amazon side of things overall. If I were going to restrict myself to one reader/one store, it's Amazon for the win.


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## Eltanin Publishing (Mar 24, 2011)

I've got a Kobo Glo. I thought I'd love it because of all the customization, but I don't. The biggest problem I had was with the light. Although you can turn it totally off on the Kobo Glo (unlike the paperwhite), the first/lowest "on" setting is quite bright. There is no way, on the Kobo Glo, to have just a very tiny amount of light. If you turn the light on, it's on pretty bright. I like that on the PW, if the room/day light starts getting dark, you can turn the light on just a tiny bit. The Kobo Glo light was way too bright (for me, in my opinion) for reading in the dark, such as in bed. It was glaring. And a bed partner would certainly notice it.

I thought I'd love that I could customize the font, have narrower margins around the screen, etc., but the standard font on the PW just looked better. I can't say exactly what the difference was... maybe the text was darker on the PW. 

My Glo's battery is dead right now so I can't check (I'm charging it) but I think I also preferred the screen areas assigned to change pages on the PW. I think on the Glo I had to tap on the right side of the screen to go forward, whereas the PW, I only had to get past the narrow area on the left edge that would go back.

Obviously, I am talking about the Glo, not the latest Aura, but these are things you should take into account.


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## Pickett (Jan 6, 2011)

northofdivision said:


> Very curious about the flat bezel of the aura that lay flush with the display screen,


I would like to try the flat bezel; sometimes on my kindles I feel as if I am reading at the bottom of a hole, an uneven one at that!
I also like the smaller size for an easier one hand hold.
But, I am not about to start a second library of ebooks-I made the decision to go with Amazon and it's too late to turn back.


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## KingAl (Feb 21, 2011)

booklover888 said:


> And they removed the ability to order the product from the web page. Which leads me to speculate on whether they are having major issues with this product.


I think this is simple incompetence, as this seems to happen fairly frequently.


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