Kobo Touch e-reader
This is a review of the Kobo Touch, which is currently on sale at £29 in WHSmith. Mine is black; it also comes in lilac, silver and blue.
Why buy an e-reader?
I have an iPad, and have started borrowing ebooks from the library using the Overdrive app. This works great, but I find reading on a backlit screen tiring over longer periods of time. I bought my wife a (non-touch) Kindle a few years ago, but it is quite difficult to put epub books onto it (if you have the same problem, the answer is Calibre and a bit of Google searching).Setting up the Kobo Touch
The package contains the Kobo Touch, a brief getting started leaflet and a USB cable for connecting it to a computer. There is no charger included, but the micro USB connector is the same as most smart-phones, so a number of chargers at home will fit. You do not need a dedicated charger; any USB charger should work.The instruction leaflet directed me to plug the e-reader into my computer and visit www.kobosetup.com, to download and install the Kobo Desktop software.
Despite this, there was no need to connect the Kobo Touch to a computer to set it up. Switching on the device gave me the option to connect to a computer or to a wifi network, so I chose the latter. The wizard took me through the steps of joining the network and creating a Kobo account. I believe the latter is optional, but I did it anyway, as it allows me to buy books online and to sync your reading with any other devices you have.
Once done, I left the Kobo Touch to carry out an update (to firmware version 3.0.1) and set everything up. The whole process took about 20 minutes, and then my e-reader was ready to use.
Using the Kobo Touch
Reading books
The Kobo Touch uses the same Pearl E-ink screen as the Kindle 4. It's easy to read and fast to turn pages, though I did notice some ghosting. By default the Kobo Touch only does a full blank of the screen every 6 page turns. I turned this down to 3, as the brief flash didn't bother me, and I appreciated the clearer text. It's very easy to change the font and margins of the text.I liked the touch control. The Kobo Touch isn't really touch sensitive - there is an infrared sensor just above the screen. This makes the screen bezel sunk slightly deeper into the face than on the Kindle, but this is not noticable when reading. You can change pages by touching the right or left hand side of the screen, and this can be reversed for left-handed readers. You can also change the page by swiping left or right, which feels more natural in practice.
User interface
The Kobo has only two physical controls: an on-off-sleep switch on the top, and a central home button on the bezel. The latter brings you back to the home screen, which consists of a number of tiles, similar to a Windows phone. These change as you use the device, but tend to include books you have recently added or read, as well as functions you have often used. For example if you start to play chess on the Kobo, you will find a tile to the chess application on the home screen. These tiles can be dismissed by a touch and hold on them, but you can't change the home screen in any other way.At the bottom of the home screen are links to your library and to the Kobo bookstore. The library is very simple to use, presenting either a list of titles available to you or a grid of book covers.
At the top of the home screen is a status bar with indicators for wifi connection and battery life. There is a status menu in the top right corner, which drops down a quick status list, in a similar way to an Android phone. This makes it very easy to turn the wireless connection on or off in order to connect or to save battery life. I preferred this to the Kindle, where the option is buried deeper in the settings menu. You can also launch a settings page with more detailed control over the device and your accounts.
Getting books
I found three ways to add books to the Kobo Touch.Kobo bookstore
The Kobo Touch allows you to browse the Kobo bookstore to preview and buy books. This is easy enough to use, and the onscreen keyboard works well enough. Certainly the whole experience worked more easily that on the Kindle, where typing book names with the five way controller is quite tedious.Using the bookstore from a browser
I found the easiest way to buy books was to log on to the Kobo bookstore from a web browser using my Kobo account and buy online. I could then sync the Kobo and any books I had purchased, as well as any free previews, transferred themselves to the e-reader. I really liked the ability to preview books on the website and on the e-reader, though some previews seemed to consist of little more than the cover page.In general the Kobo book store is not as cheap as the Amazon Kindle book store, and I doubt it is as extensive. However lots of books were discounted, and I found some discount codes, so my first purchase (The Hunger Games) was 72p!
Kobo Desktop
This software runs on a Windows PC or Mac. It allows you to buy books, and transfer them to the Kobo. It also allows you to manage your Kobo via USB. I didn't see any need to use it.Calibre
The open source ebook management software Calibre has plug-ins for loading content onto the Kobo Touch, via the USB cable.Kobo vs Kindle
Advantages
Not only is the Kobo Touch significantly cheaper than the Kindle equivalent, but I noticed some advantages. The ability to purchase books from multiple sources and to download from libraries (via a PC) is a big plus in the UK. I also found the user interface very easy to work with and the whole process of reading books very enjoyable.The Kobo Touch is a very similar size and weight to the Kindle, and many cases claim to fit both. The Kobo Touch looks very good, though I am unconvinced by the 'quilted' effect on the back.
Both the Kindle and Kobo have apps available for other platforms, such as the iPad and Android phones, which allow you to read and synchronize content between different devices, though this only seems to apply to books bought from the Kobo store and not to content loaded with Digital Editions.
Disadvantages
On the negative side, the one place that you cannot buy e-books for the Kobo is the Amazon store, which is one of the cheapest and best stocked available in the UK. Neither can you share books with Kindle owners.The Kindle seems to have a much wider range of UK magazines and newspapers available for subscription.
Other comments suggest that the Kindles have better build quality - certainly we have had no problems with our Kindle over the last two years. It will be interesting to see if the Kobo lasts as well. The quoted battery life is also less (1 month) than the Kindle (2 months), but I haven't been able to check this yet.
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