When the Kobo e-reader first appeared, its very affordable price point of $149 made it an attractive proposition. It's been a few months, however, and the market is ever-more crowded, with both dedicated e-readers as well as multi-taskers (such as the iPad) moving into the space big time, and there are also plenty of similarly priced options, including the
WiFi version of the Nook. In fact, almost anything qualifies as an e-reader these days -- but there's still room for a thin, light dedicated device that reads books in an enjoyable way for an affordable price... or at least that's the story that Kobo is trying to tell.
We've spent the last few weeks reading with the Kobo, with the main goal being to find out if the simple device has enough features to contend with the host of options (and price points) available to consumers today. Read on for our thoughts.
Look and feel
Despite being a "cheap" e-reader (more on what that means in practice below), Kobo's device is, in practice, pretty awesome feeling. No, it doesn't feel as substantial as the much heavier Nook, but that is actually a good thing, it turns out, because the device is so comfortable to hold in the hand -- an experience we've always found lacking with the Nook, and, to a lesser extent, the Kindle. The rubbery "quilted" back is tacky enough that you can hold the 6-incher comfortably with just one hand, a move we've never perfected with the
Nook,
Kindle 2, or
iPad. The large blue d-pad for paging is a little bit mushy for our tastes, but it certainly gets the job done, with very few accidental key presses -- always nice to see. The only other buttons on the Kobo -- Home, Menu, Display, and Back, are seated nicely on the left-hand side of the device. It's very bare bones, but there's really nothing to complain about.
The display is something of another story. While its an e Ink-er, meaning that reading on it is, generally, pretty fantastic, the Kobo's lack of built-in screensaver has caused our unit to already have a fairly noticeable "burned in" home screen -- something we find to be pretty annoying. But more on the display in a moment. Ultimately, the Kobo's hardware is actually more enjoyable to use than many other e-readers we've run into: its simplicity and lack of features is actually its strong point, because holding the device is the closest thing to the experience of holding an actual book or magazine that we've encountered. The relative lack of elements for your hand to encounter while holding the unit -- for instance, there's no headphone jack... because there's no media player -- make it smooth and easy to grip whether you're curled up on the couch or laying on your back across your bed, and you don't have to fear dropping it on your face (as we often have with the iPad) because, even if you do, it's unlikely to do
that much damage.
E-reader experience
The Kobo e-reader has 1GB of storage (plus an SD card for more), which means you can house about 1,000 books in it, and it comes pre-loaded with 100 classics. While that sounds great on the surface, and surely will be for some buyers, we're actually not huge fans of Gutenberg e-books in practice, but this could just be us: we'd prefer to pay $5 - $10 for a copy of
Sense and Sensibility with great formatting. But for most, the wide selection of pre-loaded classics is a nice touch -- especially since there's no internet connectivity here, and the only way to get selections onto your device is by USB connection to your computer. That's a huge drawback, to be sure -- but back to the reading experience.
The e Ink screen is very simple, but very enjoyable to read on -- regardless of your lighting situation. e Ink continues to be the standard in e-reading, and it's the option we prefer. Page refresh rate on the Kobo is slower than we'd like. It's slower than the Kindle and the iPad, and slower than the Nook has been in our experience since the 1.4 firmware upgrade (unfortunately, our Nook unit is having some major performance issues right now, i.e., it appears to be dead, so we couldn't test them against each other). This is one place where we continue to have issues with e-readers: in the time it takes to turn a page, maybe your mind thinks a bit on what it's just read, and regardless, that behavior is so ingrained you barely notice it. With an e-reader, you make a decision to hit that button, and then -- lag -- wait for the page to "turn." It is an experience-breaking lag we really wish wasn't there. Other than that, the Kobo runs quite smoothly -- after all, there's really nothing going on, so you'd expect the device to be without hiccups, and it is.
Battery life and performance
Kobo proclaims that its reader gets about 2 weeks on a single charge. We haven't had our unit quite two weeks, but we've only charged it once and it's still hanging on with well over half of its life remaining. Whereas battery life on devices such as the iPad or Nook can be annoying, the Kobo's simplistic list of functions -- it really only reads -- again stands it in good stead here. Overall performance-wise, books can take longer than we'd like to see to load up, though when it wakes from sleep, it reloads the page fast enough to satisfy us. The process of software updating was also not without its annoyances -- a complicated series of simultaneous button presses (three of them! with two hands!) meant that we had to try several times before we got the reboot to take effect, but once we had that accomplished, the update proceeded without headache.
What's missing and wrap-up
E-readers these days are defined by their features, meaning, essentially: 'what do they do besides books?' By that metric, the Kobo doesn't fare well: it's got no internet connectivity, no media player, a relatively small storage space (both the Kindle 2 and the Nook boast 2GB), and no browser (because there's no internet!). That said, a lot of readers which do boast features like browsers aren't doing so very successfully, and for this bargain barrel price, we're just as happy to not have one. After all, the point is to read, right? At the end of the day, if you're an avid reader looking to shell out a relatively small amount of money, you might not care about listening to Nine Inch Nails while you browse the pages of
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (seriously, who does that?!). The Kobo store, in conjunction with the Borders e-book store, offers a pretty massive collection of over 1 million titles, so nearly any reader will be satisfied, with plenty of new bestsellers coming in at around $10 -- a price which we have no problem with. Bluetooth syncing with mobile devices (Kobo's launched e-reader apps for most platforms) is a nice touch for the reader who must read wherever they are.
Here's the thing: the fact that the Kobo e-reader isn't a multitasker like the iPad and newer "hybridized" devices might not signal its failure in any way. In fact, its single-use is justified by its price. Is it the best e-reader we've ever used? No -- like we said, its page-refreshes are a little slow, and for a device that's all about the business of reading, that's no small thing. And, as we mentioned at the beginning, the e-reader market is increasingly filled with similarly-priced options, many of which boast more features. Still, we can say pretty firmly that its thinness, lightness, and comfort in the hand is far and away its strongest feature, and one that it beats a lot of its more robust competition prettily handily. So, if the Kobo reader isn't quite the future of reading devices, it's certainly firmly entrenched in the present, with enough likeable qualities at a price point that few could argue with, to keep it on our list of readers we wouldn't mind spending a night at home curled up with on the sofa, reading
Wuthering Heights while our significant other plays Red Dead Redemption.
posted July 19th 2010 12:02PM
@iName Yes, that's not clear. I'll update. Thanks!
@Laura June
At the moment the only platform they support Bluetooth syncing on is Blackberry, I think they have plans for their other apps but nothing yet (atm I doubt they could implement it on WebOS for example but I've no idea what other platforms are like for low-level bluetooth APIs).
You don't have to plug it into your computer to add books. If you have a kobo app on your smartphone it will wirelessly sync over Bluetooth.
@darknessangel For real time page turning, which is quite important when looking at ebooks.
I was considering the Kobo and even the Nook since it recently dropped in price. Then the Kindle 2 was being offered last week for $109 (refurb) and I couldn't resist. I think I made the right choice... I love this reader.
Think this through people!
1) The Kobo $149 price point is what forced Amazon and Borders to drop their price to a sane point.
2) It is a more comfortabkle book to read than these other monsters.
3) It is NOT WIFI based, and therefore is perfect for those of us NOT in the USA
4) When I DO want WIFI it happily works over BlueTooth with my Nexus One, so that is useful as well.
This was the PERFECT device to intriduce my wife to e-books with.
No sore arm from holding up a heavy book in bed!
Too much em dash!
My husband and I both own Kobo readers and are very satisfied with them. I don't miss expanded features, most of which duplicate things i already have available to me on my phone, nor do I miss things like WiFi or 3G connection.
Part of this may have to do with how I tend to purchase books, which involves comparing prices on various sites that I can upload from, an activity that i do most comfortably from a computer. If I had a Kindle, and thus always bought from the same place, the situation might be different.
sounds great. but still there's something missing :)
make it a 8-9" screen
wifi no bluetooth (or nothing of those :P)
and keep it just as simple as it is right now. with the bigger screen i'm sold for me and my almost blind mum :P
I've had the Kobo for a number of months and bought it before Kindle and Sony dropped their prices. It's now overpriced by about $60. I like the fact that it's an e-reader and doesn't do a zillion other things which just drain the battery. It's easy to handle, easy to bring in new books, and isn't limited to one book vendor like the Kindle. I noted that sometimes e-books are more expensive than the paper copy, which is ludicrous. As well, when a paper version is selling at $15, a price of !0 for the e-version is robbery. All in all, I'm pleased with the Kobo, especially with the large selection of books.
I bought the Kobo at launch in Canada, it was rather buggy then (battery meter only refreshed with a reboot, lights to display charging status were confusing, some ePubs had locked font-sizes) but it's quite a lot better after the update.
We're pretty limited in eReaders here in Canada, the only big names are the Sony readers and getting a Kindle from Amazon's US site. I compared it quite a lot to the Sony reader. It isn't as feature complete as the Sony but it was $50 less than the Sony at launch. I don't find the lack of internet connectivity a problem, I don't need to buy books wirelessly. The page turning speed seems comparable to the Sony reader to me, I usually press the advance button when I get to the second last line of text, it isn't ideal but not a deal breaker either (I did the same with the Sony readers).
I really like the UI, it is a much nicer device to navigate than the Sony readers. The price was an advantage but now it's not as competitively priced anymore. The Kobo team also seems really great, they're quite open with their priorities (they respond on the MobileRead forums).
For the current price I'd probably look at other eReaders first but if they can bring the price down by $25 - $50 and introduce better book management on the device and resolve some power management issues then it will be very competitive again.
It's sad that the review doesn't mention the supported formats. For book reading, I definitely like the E-Ink display better than the LCD displays of the PDA and laptop I used to use to read with. I could go for a month on my EZ Reader Pocket Pro, reading about 100 pages a day, before my battery dropped to half full. There's also sites like Mobileread where people have done great conversions of the public domain books, some of which are even illustrated. And the people on there take more care in their formatting because a lot of the ebook formatting with retail ebooks isn't that great.
Too much for too little. Kindle still performs better, has a bigger library, and can sync books anytime anywhere.
For all of you who are saying it could be cheaper, Borders announced a $20 dollar gift card to sweeten the deal. So really the thing is $129. Any takers now?
I've had mine for about 6 weeks now and I love it more and more each day. Alot of you complain about the lack of Wifi, but let me tell you that I did not feel the need for it at all. Did I feel a hint of regret when the Kindle went down the $189 a few weeks after I bought my Kobo? Yes. But a co-worker of mine picked up a Kindle a few days later and let me tell you, the Kindle have such a bigger physical footprint that despite having the same screen size as the Kobo, the screen seemed awfully awfully small. Along with the keyboard and all the other bells and whistles, she actually complaint that she wished there was no keyboard so it wouldn't be so big! (this being said, the speed of page turning on the Kindle is AMAZING!)
The speed of page turning is a legit complaint. But apart from that, I've gotten through so many books on it and the thing goes so long without needing a charge, I really do think its the best $149 I've spent this year.
@NeoXY
The page turning is really an issue. did it get better with the update? so that they probably are able to speed things up again with an later update? or is the hardware/display too slow to handle better refresh rates?
Can't see why anyone would buy this over a nook at the same price tbh (or a kindle.) If they speed up page turns and drop it by $50 then yeah maybe. I guess it's easier to get in some countries
I went into Borders (in Australia), ready to buy this, SD card in pocket with a few eBooks (PDFs) to test it out first. Three things stopped me:
1. Time taken to flip pages (as pointed out in the review);
2. Zoom didn't have flexibility (117%, versus 100% or 125% - ie - no ability to zoom gradually); and
3. Fell over on some PDFs that I'd looked at on my home box, claiming that they were secured (but weren't), so I was locked out of them.
I could live with the slow time for copying files from the SD card to the reader, the clunky navigation (it was slow and I kept over pressing, thinking that the first press had not registered), and my third issue could be dealt with too, but the first two were the deal breakers for me. Shame, as I really wanted to like it.
I giggled when you said the iPad could multitask.
Borders is currently offering a $20 gift card and double Rewards points with the purchase of a Kobo - totaling about thirty bucks in "incentives."
Yes, I could have purchased a Nook with WiFi for the same price. Or saved up another $40 and purchased a Kindle2. But for me, I just wanted a reliable book reader - period. Every time I pick up my wife's Kindle2, I find myself messing around on the 'Net. What attracted me to the Kobo is what it does NOT do - as much as what it does do. I am "connected" all day long. When I want to pick up a book and read, that's all I want to do. The Kobo is a great value for me - but needs to come down a little in retail prioe to survive, IMHO.
By the way, if you want good formatted free books, try feedbooks.com. They basically take Gutenberg texts and format the awesomely. I recently downloaded Cory Doctrow's Little Brother from their and Rudy Rucker's Ware Tetralogy (both CC licensed digital books, BTW) and read them across both the desktop and iphone and it worked great!
Wow, my previous comment was keyboard fart!
I was rather amused by: "unfortunately, our Nook unit is having some major performance issues right now, i.e., it appears to be dead, so we couldn't test them against each other." This is a not uncommon problem with Nooks since the 1.4 upgrade. Browse the B&N discussion page.
As a Brit, I bought this at the £99 price point after comparing all. As a simple reader, loading off my PC, its very competent, it loads quickly, and the whole process via Digital Editions is seamless. It is good to read, good to hold, good to look at, imho the page turns are adequate enough speed wise, and I use it when travelling which I do a lot, battery life is good for a week easily. Its not an ipad and doesnt do anything else, just reads......its an e-reader!!! It's £100, well spent , and if I need to upgrade in a couple of years then if it still works, (which it should because its quite well put together) then I'll give it away.
So if you dont like it, buy something else, but this is a good basic bit of kit: if it drops more in price then so much better!