readers with built in light?

[mruk]

I'm looking for a new reader and since I'm a sucker for new and shiny my eyes glomed onto glowy e-readers. Not having seen any in real life, I figured I'd ask for your opinion. Any of you tried kindle paperwhite or kobo glo? maybe something else? What's your experience?

Comments

[adair]

I have the Nook Glow. I am happy with it. On any lit reader using the light uses the battery a lot faster. I check the battery after every use of the glow.

To me the issue of a reader is what format it uses. I have a lot of stuff side loaded - fan fiction, books bought directly from authors, etc. I chose the Nook because it uses epub, a standard format, and fairly easy to convert to. I do not like Kindle mobi format. Conversion is much harder, and mobi is generally less available outside of Amazon. Think carefully about what you want to put on your reader and how you will get it there. If you only buy books from Amazon a kindle could work for you, but most fans have broad reading sources.

[ninetydegrees]

Kinda unrelated to the OP's question but I'd like to give another perspective: I use my (now old) Kindle almost exclusively to read fanfic and free books (which I'm aware is not all you mentioned). If .mobi isn't available I generally can download/copy whatever and save it into a .docx which Kindle supports. Not saying that Kindles are better. Not being able to read .epub can definitely make it harder but it also may not.

[shanaqui]

Agreed. Most sites I get ebooks from will have both an epub and a mobi file available anyway, and I don't think conversion to mobi is particularly hard. Calibre does it pretty well nine times out of ten.

(I have both a Kindle and a Kobo, though neither with a light function, and conversion between the two formats hasn't proved a problem for me so far, at least.)

[alchemise]

I also have the Nook Glow and love it. I haven't tried a different e-reader simply because the Nook does everything I want it to. I don't use the light very often but whenever I need it, it works great.

[thalia]

I love my Kindle paperwhite--I like having the lighting, but I find it a lot more comfortable to read than a tablet. The battery lasts a long time, even with wifi on, and if I turn off wifi the battery lasts for weeks. And I don't know if you've got a Kindle now or something else, but I don't find the mobi format particularly limiting.

[afuna]

I've had both the Nook Glow and the Kobo Aura. Overall, I much prefer the Kobo Aura -- the light is whiter and more even, and it's easier to get it really dim or really bright.

I had to give up my Nook after I was careless and scratched the screen surface, after which there were a couple of really bright spots of light (almost like flashlights, very annoying). This seems to be one of the most common complaints about the Nook. I don't think either the Kindle or Kobo suffer the same thing.

I have never owned a Kindle, but based purely on comparing side-by-side with that of a friend of mine, the quality of the light seems about the same. Both are fairly even throughout the entire screen, with no weird bright spots even at the edges.

[sally_maria]

I have a Kobo Glo, and I'm very happy with it - it works well as an ordinary ebook reader most of the time, but being able to turn on the backlight is great in lower light. I find it particularly useful in that kind of half light when turning room lights on seems wasteful, but it's not quite bright enough to read without squinting. I keep the wireless turned off, as I pretty much only use it for reading fanfic sideloaded via Calibre, and even using the light from time to time the battery still lasts weeks.

[amalthia]

I have a Sony PRS-650 and I love it. My husband also loves his Sony PRS-T2. It's great for organizing a large collection on the device.

[lauredhel]

I adore my Kobo Glo (and using the light really doesn't suck battery at all, but having wifi on does). I helped my mum set her Glo up, and she loves it too.

But if I was buying now, I'm all adrool over the newly announced Kobo Aura - not the Aura HD, but the new six inch one with capacitative screen.

[jesse_the_k]

I had a Kobo Aura HD for a couple weeks.* The light was excellent, the big fonts were beautiful, the screen was outstanding, but the outside frame had slightly sharp edges. So sharp I couldn't hold it comfortably without thin piece of foam in my hands. The HD was a limited-edition, so there weren't any custom-made silicone cases; it can be hard to get hands-on with the Kobos before purchase so something to keep in mind.

Passed it along to oyceter, who's loving it for readying manga scans.

[lauredhel]

There have been new cases coming out for the Aura HD recently, and skins too. It seemed to take a while for the case industry to catch up - possibly not surprising, since it was launched as a "limited edition" as you say and no one quite knew how many would end up being released into the market (and they still don't know, I guess).

The new Aura (six inch) isn't being launched as a limited edition, so hopefully there will be the full panoply of cases available. It's a new design, too - who knows how pointy the edges will be!

I like my Gecko Slimfit case on my Glo. And it's lime green. And has a gecko. It's all good.