Kobo glo vs aura review8/8/2023 ![]() While there's a touch of cloudiness at the bottom of the screen where the LEDs are, it's no worse than what you'll see with the Paperwhite and the uniformity is quite good - the light splays out pretty smoothly across the screen. At its brightest setting, it's very bright in a dark room, so you'll want to turn it down to midlevel or maybe even lower. As with all e-ink devices, there's some lag, and extras such as the built-in Web browser work but not well.Īs I said in the intro, the light is pretty impressive and can be adjusted with an onscreen slider. As I said, the touch screen is responsive, maybe not quite on par with the Paperwhite's but close, and page turns were relatively zippy. Overall, the Glo's performance was decent enough. Amazon also has other small but useful features such as "Send to Kindle" plug-ins for browsers that allow you to send articles directly to your Kindle. However, as noted, the Kobo Store simply isn't on par with the Kindle or Nook e-book stores and Kobo doesn't have an e-book lending option or anything like Amazon Kindle Lending library, which allows Prime members to check out certain e-books for free (one book title per month). Kobo does have apps for Android and iOS, so you can sync books bought via the Kobo Store across multiple devices just as you can with the Nook, Kindle, and Sony Reader. In contrast, many libraries now allow you to send files directly to other e-readers such as the Kindle. The same goes for library e-books: they have to be manually transferred over to your device. You can buy EPUB e-books from any EPUB-compatible store (so not Apple, not Amazon) so long as you install Adobe Digital Editions on your computer. Standard fare for an e-reader these days, but it's there.Īs far as what files the Glo accepts, it's considered an "open" device with support for EPUB files with or without DRM copy protection. You can also highlight words and sentences and add annotations. Yes, the Glo is an international device, so you can change its "base" language to one of several options. Kobo's Reading Life social reading features, and Kobo Picks, which makes reading recommendations based on your feedback and preferences, are also included, along with standard features such as a built-in dictionary with 13 different language options. The Kobo Glo (right) and smaller Kobo Mini (left), which doesn't have an integrated light but costs only $79. But if you don't mind the flashing and are more irritated by the ghosting artifacts, you can set it to refresh more frequently. For those who don't like the flashing, you'll want to stick with six. You can have it refresh every page turn or less often, down to every six page turns. The other unique customization feature is the ability to adjust how often the screen refreshes, aka flashes, to clear the ghosting inherent to e-ink. That's where the higher resolution is a big boost that, and cover images. I didn't find the contrast incredibly good - the letters aren't inky black but more of a dark gray - but the text is sharp at smaller font sizes, which is nice. It's added new fonts that are optimized for the screen's higher resolution, and you can really customize how the text is displayed on the screen, with the ability to change the margins and justification. You can quibble over how Kobo uses the space on the home screen (there's some unused space), but that's a minor gripe.Īside from the built-in light, Kobo's done some interesting things with the fonts on the device. I had no problem accessing settings or navigating the device in general. ![]() My review unit was white with a blue back, but you can also get the Glo in black.Īs part of the launch, Kobo has redesigned the user interface, and it's now more inviting and straightforward. ![]() Overall, its design is pretty straightforward, even slightly generic (at least from the front), though its textured back panel, which has a sort of argyle pattern and comes in various colors, gives it a bit of flair. The Wi-Fi-enabled Glo is a touch smaller than the Paperwhite, both in terms of dimensions and weight, coming in at 6.52 ounces. ![]() Just don't expect the Kobo Store - and the breadth of Kobo's offerings - to be on par with Amazon's and Barnes & Noble's offerings. In all, this is a very solid e-ink e-reader that has a few unique features not found in other e-readers. When Kobo first announced the product, I was a little skeptical that the hardware and lighting scheme could match up with the Kindle and Nook devices, but after using the Glo for a few weeks I have to say that its built-in light is basically on par with the Paperwhite's and offers slightly more uniformity than the Nook's built-in light. ![]()
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