Friday, November 26, 2021

2021 E-reader Roundup

Jason Snell:

Which brings me to page-turn buttons. The Paperwhite still doesn’t have them. Amazon has decided that page-turn buttons are a premium feature that should only be available on its $270 Oasis. (This is one of the reasons I recommend the Kobo Libra 2.) Clicking a button is just a better way to move through a book than moving your finger from the edge of the device’s bezel to over the screen for a single tap or swipe, and then putting your finger back on the bezel.

[…]

If physical page-turn buttons are something you care about, and you don’t mind a screen that’s recessed into the bezel, the $180 Libra 2 is a great choice.

If you can’t countenance a recessed screen and want a larger screen, the $260 Kobo Sage is a big, beautiful e-reader with some fancy features like Dropbox support—and of course, physical page-turn buttons.

[…]

Beyond compatibility, though, the Kobo experience is remarkably similar to the Kindle. You can buy books on Kobo’s store, either on the device or on the web. The prices are the same as those found on the Kindle Store. Of course, Kindles have access to Amazon services like Kindle Unlimited. On the other hand, Kobos are much better citizens when it comes to borrowing e-books from your local public library.

Previously:

Update (2021-12-03): Jason Snell:

When I say Kobo e-readers are better at Overdrive than Kindles, I’m not saying Kindles don’t work. I’m saying that it’s not nearly as good as an experience as it is on a Kobo. (This is unsurprising, since the owners of Kobo also owned Overdrive for several years.)

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A neat feature of Kobos is that they built-in sync with Pocket for a read-it-later service.

That could lead to me actually reading the stuff later.

Another nice features of Kobos, in the UK at least, is that you can use them to borrow ebooks from your local municipal library.

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