Best e-Reader in Canada?

[Nehkara]

Hey folks!

I don't know a lot about e-Readers in general and I was wondering what the general opinion was on here about the best e-Reader to have in Canada. Is it the Kindle or the Kobo, or something entirely different?

Thanks!

For reference these are the ones I have been looking at:

Kobo Vox

Kindle

[calumniate]

I bought a sony ebook reader for somebody last year, due to the fact that you can sign out library books with it. Kindle is kind of proprietary from what I understand.

My 2 cents!

[Five-hole]

I was looking at these for some gifts but noticed they had this super annoying quality of the entire screen turning black when switching pages, then "flashing" to the proper text. It looked horrible. Is this how they're really supposed to work?

[CaptainCrunch]

I like my Kobo, and I don't notice that flash that you're talking about.

[photon]

Originally Posted by Five-hole

I was looking at these for some gifts but noticed they had this super annoying quality of the entire screen turning black when switching pages, then "flashing" to the proper text. It looked horrible. Is this how they're really supposed to work?

Not all of them do it every page, but the way that eInk works generally yeah something like that has to happen from time to time. It's not like an LCD where you can address each individual pixel to turn it on and off.

So it's a tradeoff between having a ghost of the previous screen left behind, or a "flash" to reset all the particles to have a clean image.

The Kobo I think lets you adjust that, from every page to every six pages.

[Buff]

If you want to download ebooks from your library then don't get a kindle. It doesn't work with the system that most, if not all Canadian libraries use. All the other devices will.

[photon]

The Kobo Vox doesn't have the eInk type screen, it's an LCD like an iPad. So that's a pretty major difference IMO, they're each better for different situations.

[Ashartus]

The differences are becoming less and less. In terms of quality of the device, most people who have multiple readers seem to say Sony and Kindle are the best, followed by Nook and then Kobo, but the differences aren't huge. Kindle uses a proprietary format for books while the others all use the "standard" ePub; Sony, Kobo and most of the lesser-known brands all use Adobe DRM, while Kindle and Nook both have proprietary DRM. Basically that means if you have a Kindle you're pretty much limited to buying from Amazon unless you want to mess around with stripping DRM (likely to be illegal soon) and converting formats (which can have mixed results), while a Sony or Kobo reader lets you access a range of sellers (e.g. I have a Sony reader but buy most of my books from Kobo, but have probably used about 4 or 5 different stores). However, these days you can get pretty much the same books from any of the sellers, and the big publishers have all gone to an "agency model" which means that the book will be the same price no matter where you buy it from.

Really it comes down to personal preference and what features you like (e.g. do you want to buy/manage books using the reader or using your computer, do you prefer touch screen or a button, etc.). Edit: also as Buff pointed out library access is currently limited to EPub devices in Canada.

Five-hole - there is a brief flash, but it's pretty quick on the newer readers (way quicker than turning an actual page) and I never notice it myself - most people say they stop noticing it pretty quickly.

[Nehkara]

The Kobo Vox supports all of the formats that the Sony e-Reader does so it should be able to be used with the Library as well.

[northcrunk]

Samsung Galaxy Tab

[Ashartus]

Originally Posted by northcrunk

Samsung Galaxy Tab

Like the Kobo Vox this has an LCD screen. I'd personally only consider an LCD device if I was planning on reading lots of magazines, comics etc. with it, or if I wanted a tablet for other purposes and didn't want 2 devices; for novels an e-ink screen is better (though you do need a light to read in the dark). I have a Samsung Galaxy Tab v.10.1 and never use it for reading books.

[northcrunk]

Pandigital is not bad either, I bought my wife a touch screen color pandigital last year which runs android and it's been working great

[Tinordi]

I would get an e-ink reader not a backlit one if what you really want to use it for is to read books.

[Kipper is King]

If it does not use E-ink, you will get eyestrain while reading for any length of time. I have a Sony Reader and I just bought an Amazon Kindle as a Christmas present for my mom. Both are great!

[Burninator]

I've been using a Kindle (called the Kindle Keyboard now) for over a year now and it's great. Forget about LCD, I've read a couple books on an iPad and it's definitely a sub par reading experience compared to e-ink.

I went with the Kindle because they seem to have better hardware than Kobo and I believe their store is better. I found that they had more books that I wanted than Kobo and I trust the Amazon name more than the Kobo name. But I am sure you would be happy with either.

[Azure]

The Nook, while not available in Canada is rather versatile, and talking to the people that own one, it is a great e-reader for a great price.

[Meelapo]

I tested a few of them out but I went with a Kindle (keyboard). I think it's a great product. The buttons are well placed and it's a treat to use.

[REDVAN]

My parents got me the Kobo Vox for my birthday last week. I haven't had an e-reader or a tablet before, and I really want to like this thing.

It is nothing but problems for me, so much so that I am considering taking it back and getting a small tablet- since it's essentially the same thing, and frankly, for 100 bucks more, I'd rather have something that works and is a mini computer. Ie/ I'm thinking a tablet with e-reading capability would be better for me than an e-reader with tablet-like capabilities.

Maybe mine is a dud- and maybe the next software update will fix it. I just don't know what to say.

Thus far, colour me unimpressed. I would anti-recommend this product as it stands.

[Ashartus]

Originally Posted by REDVAN

My parents got me the Kobo Vox for my birthday last week. I haven't had an e-reader or a tablet before, and I really want to like this thing.

It is nothing but problems for me, so much so that I am considering taking it back and getting a small tablet- since it's essentially the same thing, and frankly, for 100 bucks more, I'd rather have something that works and is a mini computer. Ie/ I'm thinking a tablet with e-reading capability would be better for me than an e-reader with tablet-like capabilities.

Maybe mine is a dud- and maybe the next software update will fix it. I just don't know what to say.

Thus far, colour me unimpressed. I would anti-recommend this product as it stands.

The Vox is a tablet, much like the Kindle Fire and the Nook Color, but all of them are relatively limited in their capabilities (which is why they're cheaper than the iPad, Galaxy, Transformer, etc.). Personally I wouldn't use a tablet for extensive reading - I'd get something with an e-ink screen, especially with good options under $100 now. I guess the budget tablets would be ok if you only wanted limited tablet functionality and maybe reading magazines and comics, but if you really want a tablet instead of a pure e-reader and can afford it I think you'd probably be better off with a full-featured tablet and getting the Amazon and Kobo apps.

[J epworth]

^^^ I just use Kindle on my iPad 1 and it works find for me, eyes never get sore, wen't through the entire SOIAF series in the past 2 months on it. It lets you adjust the brightness while you are reading, and the thing I found so great about it was for words I didn't know or obscure references I didn't know, just clicked the word and you can get it's definition right at the bottom of the screen for you.