Last night I ordered a Kobo Clara HD ebook reader. The confirmation email told me to expect delivery in 7 to 10 business days. That’s pretty slow fulfillment in 2019. This is not an auspicious start to what I hope will be a long term relationship. Hopefully it will arrive faster than that. We will see.
I am already heavily invested in the Amazon Kindle and also the Barnes and Noble Nook ecosystems but I always worry about DRM and silos so I have been contemplating diversifying further. My intention is that all new ebook purchases will be through Kobo, although I’m by no means abandoning Kindle. Eggs/basket - all that.
Kobo has only a small market share in the US, but is popular in Canada, Europe and Japan. Kobo’s hardware gets good reviews.
Before buying the Clara HD, I checked out the Kobo eBook Store and I liked the clean less cluttered look. They have many apps for reading ebooks on Android, iOS, and other operating systems. So I tried the free Android app on my Samsung tablet and liked it although the Samsung is way to heavy for comfortable book reading.
All that convinced me to try a low end Kobo ereader. The Kobo Clara HD is a big step up from my elderly Kindle. Both are 6 inch screen models but the Kobo has these improvements:
- Paper white screen background. My Kindle is murky grayish.
- Light up reading screen. No light on my Kindle.
- Nighttime reading light.
- Lighter, thinner, faster, more memory.
- Kobo supports a lot more ebook formats than Kindle. This is key because I can import books from elsewhere and read them on the Kobo. With more books finally entering the public domain in the US this is important.
