Kobo/Ipad/E-reader - What are your experiences?

[cassiatwenty]

Hi friends,

I'm looking into buying a tablet/Kindle/Kobo/Ipad/some other tablet.

The problem is, I have never used it before so I don't have much experience. So I came on MN to ask for your experiences and advice 😊

What do you all use? What works for you? Any recs please?🙏 Many thanks for reading this.

I love my kindle paperwhite, and find it is so much nicer than reading on a kindle app from a phone or tablet. It must be better for your eye strain/headaches etc.

The charge lasts a decent time and it is a few years old now with daily use.

I love that I can set the background to black and text to white and lower light so I can read in bed without it being too bright for husband to sleep.

The only thing that irritates me is that I can't get library books on it, and I have considered a Kobo for that reason. The ease of getting books on amazon is great, and I have a kindle unlimited subscription which both my children and I use on our respective kindles, so it works out decent enough value, and there are daily deals to be had as well.

I have a basic Kindle from 2012 and love it. It's basic, but that's all I need. It’s small and light, and fits into a small handbag or DH’s pocket. I don’t see a phone or tablet as a replacement as the reading experience is so different. Dedicated e-readers use e-ink, which doesn’t cause eye strain as it isn’t backlit, and can be read in full sunshine. The only thing I use the Kindle apps (on Mac, iPad and iPhone) for is recipe books, which don't display well on the e-reader. I have a Kindle because that’s what I bought years ago and Amazon very much locks you into the system because the books can’t (legitimately) transfer books across.

Kobo is a good platform and is more flexible with formats than Kindle. I think (but happy to be corrected) a lot of self published books available on Kindle Unlimited have to be Amazon exclusives, but if you mostly read traditionally published books then I can’t imagine anything not being available on either system. Kindle also doesn’t allow library lending on their e reader devices, whereas Kobo would allow you to rent library books through Overdrive.

If you’re not totally convinced, it might be worth looking at the second hand market. If you like it you can either decide you’re happy with what you have, or if you want to either upgrade or decide you aren’t getting on with it, you can sell it on from pretty much what you paid for it.

You can pick second-hand ones up on ebay for peanuts OP. People upgrade and then sell them on.
I've had Kindles since they launched. I think they're a genius invention. I currently have a Voyage (from ebay) which is slightly smaller than the Paperwhite and more comfortable in my hand.
They're a godsend for travelling. no need to lug heavy books around and an endless supply.

Wow thanks so much guys, very helpful comments. I sort of wished there was a tablet where I could read books and watch Youtube videos but as you say, it's not such a nice experience for e-books right?

But I like reading what people use it and how they use it. Excellent idea to look for a used device too

If you join the queen's library in America they let you join out of state. It's about $50 a year. You can then download ebooks from their library because America allows kindle downloads from their libraries.