Sunday, July 4, 2010

Kobo Review

After much uncertainty, I officially broke down and joined the eReading craze. I compared, contrasted, and took a good honest look at what I wanted out of an eReader and decided on a Kobo, which is the Border's bookstore version. Here's what I think of it.



Pros:
- Lightweight
- Simple and easy to use, with just a few self-explanatory buttons
- Pre-loaded with 100 free books that you can start reading immediately
- A battery life that claims to last up to 2 weeks with 8,000 page turns. I've only had mine for 3 days so far and only had to charge it when I first bought it, so that's a good sign.
- Has room for 1,000 books. If that's not enough, there is a memory card slot where you can use an SD memory card up to 4GB.
- You can sync the books you have stored on your Kobo with your computer, iTouch, BlackBerry, and iPhone - thus reading your books wherever you go!

Cons:
- The battery is embedded in the eReader, meaning it can't be changed when it dies. The battery is rechargeable, naturally, and it is said to have 20% of its life potential after 5 years - therefore the battery will last 1/5th as long as it did when it was first purchased. Whether or not that's good or bad depends on how long you plan on using your Kobo.

- It doesn't have quite the same feel as reading a book. This is a no brainer, considering it's an eReader, but I find it more difficult to get into the story on this as oppose to in a regular paper book.

- It doesn't come with WiFi. If you want to purchase and download a book, you have to connect the Kobo to your computer with the USB cord it comes with, or use Bluetooth. This can be annoying if you're not near your computer and want to download a book.

Bottom Line:
If you're just looking for simple, down and dirty reading, the Kobo is a good choice. It doesn't come with any additional fancy shmancy features, like a built-in dictionary, highlighter, or word processor the way some of the other eReaders out there do. But I bought it because I wanted to bring my books along with me without dealing with the unnecessary extra weight. I would recommend the Kobo to people who travel, commute regularly, or simply enjoy reading and want to free up some space in their home or bag.

1 comment:

Joyti said...

It looks a bit sleeker than the Kindle too.