frontpagepowerfuldoppler | Staff posted Apr 25, 2026 12:13 AM
Item 1 of 3
Item 1 of 3
frontpagepowerfuldoppler | Staff posted Apr 25, 2026 12:13 AM
7" 32GB Kobo Libra Colour IPX8 Color Display eReader
+ Free S&H$200
$230
13% offKobo eBooks
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Buying books is probably very similar, both have their store fronts to buy from. Any place you can get an epub from you can buy books for the kobo and side load them at least. However, seems most stores are moving to proprietary formats. Kobos store still delivers their epub variant, though. Both you can use calibre to side load and convert, a reasonably similar process on both. Though I think newer kindles have some more quirks now. Using calibre to side load on kindle almost always requires removal of DRM, which may be a legal gray area. For books you bought and own, doubt you'd ever have any problems though. Sometimes stripping DRM isn't as smooth as it could be though.
For a typical user that just wants to read books in the US, the kindle is probably a better experience. However, you are locked in to Amazon. Kobo is more open, you can install things like koreader without having to jailbreak and you can source books from anywhere without conversion usually.
The other consideration will be kindle unlimited vs kobo plus, they are similar but different. You'd have to review them both to see if you'd use them and which you'd prefer. Amazon also locks authors into their ecosystem, for smaller/independent ones. So you may only be able to get the books from Amazon in that case.
Kobo still lets you access your purchased ebooks without as many restrictions, and their DRM free books are actually completely DRM free epubs you can use anywhere, on anything.
Unfortunately, there are still a whole lot of things (mostly self-pub and indie publishers) that are Kindle exclusive due to Kindle Unlimited.
Comparison to kindle:
Libby / OverDrive integration is better than the Kindle - you can browse and check out directly on the device itself. It's really good.
Both have integrated bookstores. On either store books are DRM locked and you can't easily use them on the other device. Yes, there are ways around that but it's not simple or very quick.
The Kindle IMO has better cloud functionality for books you get elsewhere. You get an email address, you send that a non-protected ebook, and it sends to your device AND is stored in a personal library. This is goated. Broadly speaking side-loading content onto Kobo is done by plugging it in and transferring files onto it like a removable drive. The newer devices have like Google Drive integration but in my experience it did not work well or in a way that was actually more convenient.
The devices are pretty comparable IMO. Similar quality eink, hardware quality, etc. The Kindle Oasis was great (fantastic page turn buttons) but that's discontinued and now they don't make a nice kindle anymore.
The Kobo is a bit more hackable if that's your jam. Of note is you can pair bluetooth controllers or keyboards to use as page turn buttons. You can install different UIs and various tools that let you do nerdy stuff.
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It is very easy to borrow books via Libby, but my friends and I share PDF version of books and we just email the book and I plug the Kobo over USB and download from the desktop.
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