14 ms·

I own a Kindle Paperwhite (last gen, relative to this new one) and a Kobo Clara BW (purchase in the last 6 months). IMO, the Kindle is the premium e-reader when

by jjice 2y ago

I own a Kindle Paperwhite (last gen, relative to this new one) and a Kobo Clara BW (purchase in the last 6 months). IMO, the Kindle is the premium e-reader when it comes to look and feel. It's just a fantastic experience. The issue is Amazon and how even if you want to put your own purchased ebooks on it, you have it send it through their servers. That tied with a few other privacy issues over the years led me to also get a Kobo. The Kobo can run in a fully offline mode (called "side-load mode" or something like that) and I can transfer my ebooks directly via USB. I use the Kobo most of the time now since most of my reading lately has been independently published ebooks, but I still use the Kindle for books I purchase via Amazon directly. With all that said, I personally think the Kindle Paperwhite is already the perfect size. It fits snuggly in my back pocket and strikes the perfect balance between screen size being large, but not too large to hold for my average male hands. I'd be a bit concerned about the size increase for my personal use case, but Amazon does a great job with the Kindle in general so I'd like to see some reviews. As for the new Colorsoft, I'd really like to see some reviews. The color Kobos that came out earlier this year got some mixed reviews for colors, but I'm not sure if that's just the nature of color e-ink or not.

thimabi 2y ago
> The issue is Amazon and how even if you want to put your own purchased ebooks on it, you have it send it through their servers. You can sideload your books over USB too, using Calibre for instance. I own a few Kindle models and a Kobo Forma as well. The Kindles do have some quirks and bugs (e.g., disappearing books, issues with sideloaded fonts…). But my Kobo Forma’s battery completely died after a couple years of usage, and the device became completely unreliable. After that experience, I’ve resigned myself to live with the Kindle’s problems.
- __float 2y ago
  Whenever I’ve converted books to mobi in Calibre it seems they fall back to a slightly worse experience - using “location” markers instead of real page numbers as official Kindle books display, cover art is tricky to get working on the lock screen, etc. Is this a poor Calibre configuration or are there real limitations to reading books side-loaded on Kindles?
  - thimabi 2y ago
    You can find Calibre plugins to convert the books to KFX, Amazon’s native format. There’s also a plugin to recover actual page numbers rather than loc markers in the books. It’s not very intuitive, but it’s doable given the options Amazon gives us.
  - danhon 2y ago
    You sideload them as epubs and they're fine on my Oasis at least. Calibre does a good job of fixing metadata like covers.
  - Tijdreiziger 2y ago
    It’s been a few years since I’ve had to do this, but I think that (at least back then) Calibre defaulted to MOBI for the conversion. However, you could manually select KF8 (AZW3), which is essentially EPUB with a different file extension.
- soco 2y ago
  Why do you need a few Kindles and also a Kobo? Are you keeping them in different places and don't move them? I only have the first Paperwhite which I carry along, it's 11 years old already and it still does the job. The battery keeps up and I was probably lucky to not have noticed any hiccups.
  - thimabi 2y ago
    I read several types of books, multiple hours per day: reflowable fiction books, PDFs, books generated from my Markdown notes… I’ve got a Paperwhite, a Scribe and a Kobo Forma, but I’m still searching for the perfect e-reader. The Paperwhite is too small for PDFs, but great for fiction and portability. The Scribe is excellent for PDFs, but it makes my books disappear sometimes, and it does not work well with sideloaded fonts. The Forma is a middle ground in terms of portability, but its battery died after a couple years and nowadays I only use it near a power outlet.
    - jacurtis 2y ago
      I use a combination of a Kindle Paperwhite Signature for novels and mainstream books. THen I use a Remarkable Tablet for PDFs, research papers, my own notes, etc. I find it to be a good combination. Like you said, the paperwhite is amazing for laying in bed at night (really like the backlight) or on the couch or traveling to read. But it is too small for PDFs or serious notetaking. The Remarkable is perfect for those things. The remarkable also gives you full control over your files to do whatever you want. You can connect it to Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, etc and/or just manage files directly on device (plug it in via usb-c and it shows up as a USB mass storage device). The two tools compliment themselves nicely. Just my 2 cents.
      - chrisweekly 2y ago
        Similar 2-device story here. Love my Kindle Oasis for reading books, and rely on my reMarkable 2 tablet for writing / notes -- driven by a hyperpaper-based daily planner (its navigable pdfs are a game-changer).
  - 2y ago
- htamas 2y ago
  My Kindle had this "bug" where my side loaded books randomly disappear. As a workaround, I have to keep it in flight mode at all times. Not a big issue since that’s what I would do anyway, but in case my Kindle would break, I wouldn’t think long to buy an alternative
  - andwaal 2y ago
    This happend to my kindle to! After keeping in in flight mode for years I put it online again in order to buy a few new books from the kindle store, poof suddenly my entire library of side loaded books was gone, with progress and everything. I could see random metadata files related to the books on the drive, be books was gone. Super annoying as many of the books I didn't have locally anymore and to loose the "archivement" of finished books sucks big time. I can see this may be implemented by amazon to counter piracy, but alot of these books was perfectly legal. So the result of this is that I will never put my kindle online again and just stop buying from the Kindle store.
    - heelix 2y ago
      Same, though I don't think it is going to help Amazon the way they hope it does. I moved books over to my kindle and had it nuke my humble bundle collections when I added a purchase from Amazon. I've not connect it again until I figure out how to backup and restore MY metadata.
      - mcmcmc 2y ago
        Won’t help with restoring metadata, but if you add books by using the “email to kindle” feature it will keep them in your library through syncs
    - throwaway48476 2y ago
      I had an issue exactly like this with my iPad.
    - gullevek 2y ago
      Keep mine in Aeroplane mode. Download books I buy on Amazon directly from amazon and drop them into calibre. Amazon doesn't get to touch my Kindle ever. Thinking hard if I ever want to get another Kindle when Amazon can just screw around with what I put on my Kindle ...
- andrepd 2y ago
  So you got one bad battery and you decide to ditch their devices? Seems weird. Fwiw I have an 11-year old Kobo that's still going strong lol. Opted for a pocketbook this time though. Physical buttons and small 6-inch form factor? And respect for your privacy? Count me the fuck in!
  - thimabi 2y ago
    I decided to ditch their devices because of the support I got — or lack thereof. First they refused to talk to me, because, for privacy reasons, my device was unregistered. I ended up registering it, and even so they offered just a 10% discount on the purchase of a new device. Sadly, Amazon’s support is not far behind, considering its inability to fix certain persistent Kindle bugs. But I’ve never seen the hardware itself fail.
    - msh 2y ago
      I had a kindle that died. Amazon support was top notch
    - MostlyStable 2y ago
      If it makes any difference (although I fully agree it does not excuse past bad behavior), for the current gen devices, Kobo has partnered with iFixit to offer user serviceable parts and guides, including replacing batteries [0]. Although iFixit has had partnerships in the past that have fizzled, as long as user-repair is pretty easy, things like batteries are probably generic enough that they can be sourced even if Kobo doesn't end up sticking with it. If the screen fails though, then yeah, you'd better hope they have committed to maintaining stock of OEM parts, which, even with an iFixit partnership, is in no way guaranteed. [0] https://www.ifixit.com/Device/Kobo https://www.ifixit.com/Device/Kobo
      - thimabi 2y ago
        That’s news to me, thanks for the information! I’ve considered replacing my Kobo’s battery, but the issue seems firmware-related, so I never thought it was worth the hassle.
- dml2135 2y ago
  I recently picked up a refurbed Kobo Forma, and I absolutely love the device -- with the caveat that, like you mentioned, the battery has been completely unreliable. Multiple times I have picked up the device to find it completely dead, while it was at full battery less than a day ago. I haven't quite narrowed down the cause yet -- since I did install KOReader and Nickel right after getting the device, it's not running stock software, so I'm not certain if the issue is hardware or software related. It definitely seems to be doing something in sleep mode that's draining the battery, even with wifi turned off. This really shouldn't be the case -- I'd expect close to 0 power being used when not actively refreshing a page. I've recently turned to mitigating the issue by setting the device to turn off completely after an hour... which is not ideal, but having to wait for the thing to boot up is definitely preferable to waiting for it to charge. It's annoying because otherwise this thing is pretty close to perfect for me -- the form factor is excellent, extremely lightweight, and I can connect to my Calibre-web server and download any ebook I have on demand. I'd seriously consider buying an extra one to crack open and install my own battery if I knew that would fix the issue. Edit: Lastly, I have a sneaking suspicion that "refurbished" does not mean "replaced with a new battery", which, honestly, should probably be illegal to advertise a device that way vs "used".
  - thimabi 2y ago
    My biggest problem with the Forma is that, even when completely turned off, the battery dies and refuses to charge for days on end. One day, the device says it is charged to 100%; the following day, it dies without an apparent reason. I’ve calibrated the battery many times, but the issue remains. I agree that if it didn’t happen, the device would be excellent.
- jjice 2y ago
  Sorry, you're absolutely right. The overhead of it was more than I cared to do (needing to use Calibre instead of a drag and drop of a file), especially since Amazon would then report my newly loaded books back to themselves. That's the part that I really didn't like. Shame to hear about your Kobo's battery. FWIW, they have great repairability (in newer models at least). That said, the Kindle's battery does smash the Kobo's in my experience as well.
  - galleywest200 2y ago
    You can drag-drop the file from the file explorer, at least on my Kindle (2022). I think the OP mentioned Calibre because sometimes you need to convert the file for Kindle if you have a bespoke format.
    - tstenner 2y ago
      FWIW epub is the standard almost every ebook reader supports. AZW3/KFX is the Kindle-only format you mean.
- RMPR 2y ago
  > But my Kobo Forma’s battery completely died after a couple years of usage, and the device became completely unreliable. After that experience, I’ve resigned myself to live with the Kindle’s problems. Funny that I got the exact same issue but with Kindle instead. I swore I would never buy a Kindle again https://x.com/_paulmairo/status/1453485148490674177 https://x.com/_paulmairo/status/1453485148490674177
kjhughes 2y ago
> As for the new Colorsoft, I'd really like to see some reviews. Here's a hands-on Kindle Colorsoft review, Amazon's first color Kindle is the e-reader of my dreams, https://www.tomsguide.com/tablets/e-readers/kindle-colorsoft-review https://www.tomsguide.com/tablets/e-readers/kindle-colorsoft... submitted earlier: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41858947 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41858947
loeg 2y ago
> you have [to] send [books] through [Amazon's] servers. No, you can sideload books using USB mass storage. It's pretty easy. Kindle Paperwhite is still a great experience even without using the Amazon book ecosystem.
- jestersarmed 2y ago
  You are correct, you can sideload, but as soon as you open them in your Kindle, they get an Amazon-DRM; so you can't read the very same files on another e-reader. And - as soon as you go online with your Kindle - said DRM is checked and all non Amazon books deleted. At least, that was the case 10 years ago: I still own a Paperwhite 1st Gen which is now basically defunct. I switched to a Poke 5P (Onyx) and was surprised at the tons of features. No ads, no DRM and reads basically all formats. Win. I downloaded all my Amazon-bought books, so I can still read them on PC, but otherwise I'm done with their product.
  - loeg 2y ago
    I've literally never run into the problems you are describing. It might be true (it seems implausible but I don't know), but it is not a significant factor in day to day ergonomics. Text crispness, page turning speed, battery life, physical dimensions are all much bigger factors in an ereader IMO.
  - WillPostForFood 2y ago
    you can sideload, but as soon as you open them in your Kindle, they get an Amazon-DRM; so you can't read the very same files on another e-reader. Not true and never has been. The Kindle will make no changes to sideloaded files.
    - adhamsalama 2y ago
      Other than deleting them.
  - carlosjobim 2y ago
    What you wrote is completely untrue. I have myriad of books on my Kindle which are not on Amazon, and they are not deleted. Neither does anything weird happen to them.
Wowfunhappy 2y ago
Where do you buy DRM Free books from? (I assume that's a requirement for the device to be fully offline, right?) Do you run everything through that DRM-stripper Calibre plugin?
- jjice 2y ago
  It's usually a small marketplace like Leanpub. Tilted Windmill Press (Michael W Lucas) [0] is another one I've done a good bit of purchasing from in the last six months or so. [0] https://www.tiltedwindmillpress.com/ https://www.tiltedwindmillpress.com/
- timeon 2y ago
  TIL there are DRM books. But I have never owned kindle - just Kobo and Remarkable. I buy at online site of book store or publisher.
  - hexagonalc 2y ago
    Some of the books on the Kobo store are also sold with DRM. They only mention it in small print under eBook Details at the bottom of the page, e.g. Download options: EPUB 3 (Adobe DRM)
- sourcepluck 2y ago
  Excellent list of DRM Free books here: https://www.defectivebydesign.org/guide/ebooks https://www.defectivebydesign.org/guide/ebooks
unethical_ban 2y ago
I am running a kindle voyage (2014). It is the perfect size for male jeans pocket carry, PPI is above 300 and battery works. Most important! The yoga cover is great for laying on either side, so I can toss and turn in bed and keep reading. Literally no e-reader I have seen since has a symmetrical stand-cover that can be used sideways both ways. As for Kobo, I just looked the other day and saw they have some great prices for e-readers that have similar features, plus they advertise being completely repairable! And you're not in the Amazon ecosystem. My only gripe years ago was the don't rendering on side loaded books wasn't as good as Amazon, and that Calibre couldn't De-DRM Kobo books as well as Amazon. I think the game has changed a bit, though, and I haven't tested anything in a while. If Kobo books are crackable, my next e-reader will likely take me away from Amazon. I want that USB-C in my life.
TnS-hun 2y ago
There is only a small difference in their size. Paperwhite 5: 124.6 x 174.2 x 8.1 mm Paperwhite 6: 127.6 x 176.7 x 7.8 mm
- thimabi 2y ago
  Yet Amazon has been consistently increasing the size of the Paperwhite models over time, each one a bit larger than the previous one. They remain portable, but no longer fit into one’s pockets, for instance.
  - fastball 2y ago
    I have the last gen Paperwhite and it still fits in my pocket. Admittedly I have big pockets.
  - bookofjoe 2y ago
    FWIW I weighed my Paperwhite Gen 5: 201 grams vs. 211 grams for the new Gen 6. So 5% heavier.
  - bayofpigs 2y ago
    [dead]
grakker 2y ago
I had the exact opposite experience. My kindle battery went wonky after a few years, but my kobo has gone on for a lot longer with no issues. It's made me a little wary of buying a kindle again. Aside, or on top of, not wanting to support Amazon.
- fastball 2y ago
  Did you try contacting Amazon support? If you had they probably would've shipped you a new one for free. Why don't you want to support Amazon?
  - grakker 2y ago
    I did not. It was a couple years old, and I wanted to get a bigger screen. As to not liking Amazon, they are anti-union, should be broken up, and their main stockholder is a money hoarding ghoul.
    - fastball 2y ago
      What should they be broken up into? And does Jeff Bezos hoard money or wealth? Also not sure how he is ghoulish but you are of course entitled to your opinion.
donio 2y ago
I always use my kindles in fully offline, sideload-only. My current one hasn't left airplane mode since I got it in 2018.
- sourcepluck 2y ago
  Another fully-offline, sideload-only, airplane-mode-forever ebooker here. Plus I didn't even buy it in the first place - a relation had one they said they never looked at, so I asked if I could take it off their hands. Had a funny experience once with a fellow (who was in his third year of computer science at a reputable university), where we just so happened to get on to the topic of ebooks. I told him how I operate my little machine, which I'd only started using. He was shocked, and stated clearly that he thinks it's unethical towards authors to use a "jailbroken" device like that and not get books through the Amazon store... Sigh.
  - Aeolun 2y ago
    I guess he’s never seen the kind of insane contracts people that publish on the Amazon store need to sign xD
    - ValentineC 2y ago
      As someone who has self-published a book on the Amazon Kindle store once, Amazon's cut is something like 70% + bandwidth fees (author only gets maybe ~25–28% of the selling price).
      - Aeolun 2y ago
        I find it hard to believe you’d ever earn enough on an Amazon book to make any such contract worth it.
        d0gsg0w00f 2y ago
        70% of $100k = $70k 30% of $1mil = $300k Scale makes it seem pretty straightforward to me.
mvdtnz 2y ago
I'm sick of my Kobo constantly crashing and freezing and I will never buy another one.
110jawefopiwa 2y ago
> IMO, the Kindle is the premium e-reader when it comes to look and feel. It's just a fantastic experience. Interestingly, I switched from Kindle to Kobo because it was lacking various basic features that made it not feel premium. * Kobo epubs can show "pages in chapter" progress so I know how much longer there is until a nice stopping point, while Kindle only shows "minutes left in chapter" which is functionally useless. * Kobo had blue light blocking night shift before Kindle Paperwhite (I think both have it now?) * Kobo had a convenient feature where you slide your finger along the side of the screen to change brightness, instead of having to go into multiple menus to do this. It's possible these things have been remedied, but especially the chapter progress thing put such a bad taste in my mouth that I never wanted to touch Kindle again.
- MBCook 2y ago
  The kindle hardware is pretty good in my opinion, though they make choices I don’t like. The ecosystem is amazing and unbeatable. The software was fine on the original Kindles (well, I had a keyboard), and despite gaining a few features is largely the same since 10+ years ago. But don’t worry, they added ads to the device that they used to sell you books and they’ve managed not to speed it up one bit!
- ghostpepper 2y ago
  > Kindle only shows "minutes left in chapter" which is functionally useless The kindle recomputes your reading pace as you go, so unless you prefer to do that math in your head and track your own pages-per-minute moving average, I don't see how it's functionally useless
  - KTibow 2y ago
    I think they're saying that it doesn't show any info like page numbers
  - mmahemoff 2y ago
    I always find Kindle's "minutes left" too low for some reason, so I have to ignore it. I'd find it simpler - and easier to make progress - if it just showed pages read/remaining within the chapter. Absent that, I am often having to go through the distraction of using the overview feature to figure out where I am in the chapter.
evanreichard 2y ago
I've got the same generation PW and have it jailbroken running KOReader. I've considered trying other readers out, not because of issues but rather shiny new thing reasons. But at least when it comes to KOReader, it seems like the PW are the best if you can jailbreak the version you're on. (I want / need it to run KOReader because I wrote a small Lua plugin for it that syncs reading stats (words per minute, minutes read per year, etc) to a centralized server.)
sundvor 2y ago
Yeah I got the Signature Edition of the Paperwhite 11 with their black leather cover, and it's just brilliant. It was a huge step up from the 10 that went before it in every regard. The resolution and size just nails it, and my favourite feature is the warm backlighting for reading at night. Battery lasts forever, and I can just put it on my Samsung phone stand for wireless charging once in a blue moon - not once have I run out of battery. I fall asleep so easily to this, currently on the Eisenhorn 40k Omnibus book - and a 184 week reading streak. I used to be excited about new Kindle releases, have had one since the mammoth DXG - but no more, I'm good now with this, so don't see myself forking out $400 AUD for the new one (with a leather cover). Also bought one (also a SE) for my son, with a different colour magnetic leather cover. :-)
cyberpunk 2y ago
The lack of physical page turn buttons is a dealbreaker for me. I switched, begrudgingly at first from my oasis to a kobo libre colour and it’s much better. If you stick koreader on it you can even start a Linux shell from the ui which amuses me :)
andai 2y ago
>The Kobo can run in a fully offline mode Really? I had to make an account to "activate" my Kobo, but it wouldn't let me make one because I already had an old account with one of their partner websites, whose auth servers were malfunctioning, so it took like two hours to be able to "activate" the device. Is there a way to bypass that?
- zie 2y ago
  You can bypass it, but I forget the details(I just did it a year or so ago with my newest Kobo). A web search should get you there though. The mobile read forums are usually the place where trustworthy details are found.
itsrobreally 2y ago
A kobo loaded with standard e-books (https://standardebooks.org/ https://standardebooks.org/) in the kobo format is glorious. I still have a paperwhite which is ok. My favorite device right now is a boox Go6, smallish, cheap, android. I don't use many apps on it other than the reader but threw a copy of Kiwix on there, and use it as a writing deck using a bluetooth keyboard, hits a lot of semi-offline use cases for me.
DavideNL 2y ago
> The issue is Amazon and how even if you want to put your own purchased ebooks on it, you have it send it through their servers. I managed to jailbreak my "Kindle Oasis 3" and install KOreader [1] and Syncthing on it (the process of achieving this, as described on mobileread.com/forums was quite horrible by the way.) Very happy with the result though, books are just synced automatically with my Macbook via Syncthing. Hopefully somehow a similar setup will be possible with the new Kindles, if they can also be jailbroken. PS. The Kindle Oasis 3 is still great in 2024, it even automatically adjusts brightness with its light sensor. [1] https://github.com/koreader/koreader https://github.com/koreader/koreader

by jjice 2y ago

thimabi 2y ago

> The issue is Amazon and how even if you want to put your own purchased ebooks on it, you have it send it through their servers. You can sideload your books over USB too, using Calibre for instance. I own a few Kindle models and a Kobo Forma as well. The Kindles do have some quirks and bugs (e.g., disappearing books, issues with sideloaded fonts…). But my Kobo Forma’s battery completely died after a couple years of usage, and the device became completely unreliable. After that experience, I’ve resigned myself to live with the Kindle’s problems.

__float 2y ago
Whenever I’ve converted books to mobi in Calibre it seems they fall back to a slightly worse experience - using “location” markers instead of real page numbers as official Kindle books display, cover art is tricky to get working on the lock screen, etc. Is this a poor Calibre configuration or are there real limitations to reading books side-loaded on Kindles?
- thimabi 2y ago
  You can find Calibre plugins to convert the books to KFX, Amazon’s native format. There’s also a plugin to recover actual page numbers rather than loc markers in the books. It’s not very intuitive, but it’s doable given the options Amazon gives us.
- danhon 2y ago
  You sideload them as epubs and they're fine on my Oasis at least. Calibre does a good job of fixing metadata like covers.
- Tijdreiziger 2y ago
  It’s been a few years since I’ve had to do this, but I think that (at least back then) Calibre defaulted to MOBI for the conversion. However, you could manually select KF8 (AZW3), which is essentially EPUB with a different file extension.
soco 2y ago
Why do you need a few Kindles and also a Kobo? Are you keeping them in different places and don't move them? I only have the first Paperwhite which I carry along, it's 11 years old already and it still does the job. The battery keeps up and I was probably lucky to not have noticed any hiccups.
- thimabi 2y ago
  I read several types of books, multiple hours per day: reflowable fiction books, PDFs, books generated from my Markdown notes… I’ve got a Paperwhite, a Scribe and a Kobo Forma, but I’m still searching for the perfect e-reader. The Paperwhite is too small for PDFs, but great for fiction and portability. The Scribe is excellent for PDFs, but it makes my books disappear sometimes, and it does not work well with sideloaded fonts. The Forma is a middle ground in terms of portability, but its battery died after a couple years and nowadays I only use it near a power outlet.
  - jacurtis 2y ago
    I use a combination of a Kindle Paperwhite Signature for novels and mainstream books. THen I use a Remarkable Tablet for PDFs, research papers, my own notes, etc. I find it to be a good combination. Like you said, the paperwhite is amazing for laying in bed at night (really like the backlight) or on the couch or traveling to read. But it is too small for PDFs or serious notetaking. The Remarkable is perfect for those things. The remarkable also gives you full control over your files to do whatever you want. You can connect it to Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, etc and/or just manage files directly on device (plug it in via usb-c and it shows up as a USB mass storage device). The two tools compliment themselves nicely. Just my 2 cents.
    - chrisweekly 2y ago
      Similar 2-device story here. Love my Kindle Oasis for reading books, and rely on my reMarkable 2 tablet for writing / notes -- driven by a hyperpaper-based daily planner (its navigable pdfs are a game-changer).
- 2y ago
htamas 2y ago
My Kindle had this "bug" where my side loaded books randomly disappear. As a workaround, I have to keep it in flight mode at all times. Not a big issue since that’s what I would do anyway, but in case my Kindle would break, I wouldn’t think long to buy an alternative
- andwaal 2y ago
  This happend to my kindle to! After keeping in in flight mode for years I put it online again in order to buy a few new books from the kindle store, poof suddenly my entire library of side loaded books was gone, with progress and everything. I could see random metadata files related to the books on the drive, be books was gone. Super annoying as many of the books I didn't have locally anymore and to loose the "archivement" of finished books sucks big time. I can see this may be implemented by amazon to counter piracy, but alot of these books was perfectly legal. So the result of this is that I will never put my kindle online again and just stop buying from the Kindle store.
  - heelix 2y ago
    Same, though I don't think it is going to help Amazon the way they hope it does. I moved books over to my kindle and had it nuke my humble bundle collections when I added a purchase from Amazon. I've not connect it again until I figure out how to backup and restore MY metadata.
    - mcmcmc 2y ago
      Won’t help with restoring metadata, but if you add books by using the “email to kindle” feature it will keep them in your library through syncs
  - throwaway48476 2y ago
    I had an issue exactly like this with my iPad.
  - gullevek 2y ago
    Keep mine in Aeroplane mode. Download books I buy on Amazon directly from amazon and drop them into calibre. Amazon doesn't get to touch my Kindle ever. Thinking hard if I ever want to get another Kindle when Amazon can just screw around with what I put on my Kindle ...
andrepd 2y ago
So you got one bad battery and you decide to ditch their devices? Seems weird. Fwiw I have an 11-year old Kobo that's still going strong lol. Opted for a pocketbook this time though. Physical buttons and small 6-inch form factor? And respect for your privacy? Count me the fuck in!
- thimabi 2y ago
  I decided to ditch their devices because of the support I got — or lack thereof. First they refused to talk to me, because, for privacy reasons, my device was unregistered. I ended up registering it, and even so they offered just a 10% discount on the purchase of a new device. Sadly, Amazon’s support is not far behind, considering its inability to fix certain persistent Kindle bugs. But I’ve never seen the hardware itself fail.
  - msh 2y ago
    I had a kindle that died. Amazon support was top notch
  - MostlyStable 2y ago
    If it makes any difference (although I fully agree it does not excuse past bad behavior), for the current gen devices, Kobo has partnered with iFixit to offer user serviceable parts and guides, including replacing batteries [0]. Although iFixit has had partnerships in the past that have fizzled, as long as user-repair is pretty easy, things like batteries are probably generic enough that they can be sourced even if Kobo doesn't end up sticking with it. If the screen fails though, then yeah, you'd better hope they have committed to maintaining stock of OEM parts, which, even with an iFixit partnership, is in no way guaranteed. [0] https://www.ifixit.com/Device/Kobo https://www.ifixit.com/Device/Kobo
    - thimabi 2y ago
      That’s news to me, thanks for the information! I’ve considered replacing my Kobo’s battery, but the issue seems firmware-related, so I never thought it was worth the hassle.
dml2135 2y ago
I recently picked up a refurbed Kobo Forma, and I absolutely love the device -- with the caveat that, like you mentioned, the battery has been completely unreliable. Multiple times I have picked up the device to find it completely dead, while it was at full battery less than a day ago. I haven't quite narrowed down the cause yet -- since I did install KOReader and Nickel right after getting the device, it's not running stock software, so I'm not certain if the issue is hardware or software related. It definitely seems to be doing something in sleep mode that's draining the battery, even with wifi turned off. This really shouldn't be the case -- I'd expect close to 0 power being used when not actively refreshing a page. I've recently turned to mitigating the issue by setting the device to turn off completely after an hour... which is not ideal, but having to wait for the thing to boot up is definitely preferable to waiting for it to charge. It's annoying because otherwise this thing is pretty close to perfect for me -- the form factor is excellent, extremely lightweight, and I can connect to my Calibre-web server and download any ebook I have on demand. I'd seriously consider buying an extra one to crack open and install my own battery if I knew that would fix the issue. Edit: Lastly, I have a sneaking suspicion that "refurbished" does not mean "replaced with a new battery", which, honestly, should probably be illegal to advertise a device that way vs "used".
- thimabi 2y ago
  My biggest problem with the Forma is that, even when completely turned off, the battery dies and refuses to charge for days on end. One day, the device says it is charged to 100%; the following day, it dies without an apparent reason. I’ve calibrated the battery many times, but the issue remains. I agree that if it didn’t happen, the device would be excellent.
jjice 2y ago
Sorry, you're absolutely right. The overhead of it was more than I cared to do (needing to use Calibre instead of a drag and drop of a file), especially since Amazon would then report my newly loaded books back to themselves. That's the part that I really didn't like. Shame to hear about your Kobo's battery. FWIW, they have great repairability (in newer models at least). That said, the Kindle's battery does smash the Kobo's in my experience as well.
- galleywest200 2y ago
  You can drag-drop the file from the file explorer, at least on my Kindle (2022). I think the OP mentioned Calibre because sometimes you need to convert the file for Kindle if you have a bespoke format.
  - tstenner 2y ago
    FWIW epub is the standard almost every ebook reader supports. AZW3/KFX is the Kindle-only format you mean.
RMPR 2y ago
> But my Kobo Forma’s battery completely died after a couple years of usage, and the device became completely unreliable. After that experience, I’ve resigned myself to live with the Kindle’s problems. Funny that I got the exact same issue but with Kindle instead. I swore I would never buy a Kindle again https://x.com/_paulmairo/status/1453485148490674177 https://x.com/_paulmairo/status/1453485148490674177

kjhughes 2y ago

> As for the new Colorsoft, I'd really like to see some reviews. Here's a hands-on Kindle Colorsoft review, Amazon's first color Kindle is the e-reader of my dreams, https://www.tomsguide.com/tablets/e-readers/kindle-colorsoft-review https://www.tomsguide.com/tablets/e-readers/kindle-colorsoft... submitted earlier: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41858947 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41858947

loeg 2y ago

> you have [to] send [books] through [Amazon's] servers. No, you can sideload books using USB mass storage. It's pretty easy. Kindle Paperwhite is still a great experience even without using the Amazon book ecosystem.

jestersarmed 2y ago
You are correct, you can sideload, but as soon as you open them in your Kindle, they get an Amazon-DRM; so you can't read the very same files on another e-reader. And - as soon as you go online with your Kindle - said DRM is checked and all non Amazon books deleted. At least, that was the case 10 years ago: I still own a Paperwhite 1st Gen which is now basically defunct. I switched to a Poke 5P (Onyx) and was surprised at the tons of features. No ads, no DRM and reads basically all formats. Win. I downloaded all my Amazon-bought books, so I can still read them on PC, but otherwise I'm done with their product.
- loeg 2y ago
  I've literally never run into the problems you are describing. It might be true (it seems implausible but I don't know), but it is not a significant factor in day to day ergonomics. Text crispness, page turning speed, battery life, physical dimensions are all much bigger factors in an ereader IMO.
- WillPostForFood 2y ago
  you can sideload, but as soon as you open them in your Kindle, they get an Amazon-DRM; so you can't read the very same files on another e-reader. Not true and never has been. The Kindle will make no changes to sideloaded files.
  - adhamsalama 2y ago
    Other than deleting them.
- carlosjobim 2y ago
  What you wrote is completely untrue. I have myriad of books on my Kindle which are not on Amazon, and they are not deleted. Neither does anything weird happen to them.

Wowfunhappy 2y ago

Where do you buy DRM Free books from? (I assume that's a requirement for the device to be fully offline, right?) Do you run everything through that DRM-stripper Calibre plugin?

jjice 2y ago
It's usually a small marketplace like Leanpub. Tilted Windmill Press (Michael W Lucas) [0] is another one I've done a good bit of purchasing from in the last six months or so. [0] https://www.tiltedwindmillpress.com/ https://www.tiltedwindmillpress.com/
timeon 2y ago
TIL there are DRM books. But I have never owned kindle - just Kobo and Remarkable. I buy at online site of book store or publisher.
- hexagonalc 2y ago
  Some of the books on the Kobo store are also sold with DRM. They only mention it in small print under eBook Details at the bottom of the page, e.g. Download options: EPUB 3 (Adobe DRM)
sourcepluck 2y ago
Excellent list of DRM Free books here: https://www.defectivebydesign.org/guide/ebooks https://www.defectivebydesign.org/guide/ebooks

unethical_ban 2y ago

I am running a kindle voyage (2014). It is the perfect size for male jeans pocket carry, PPI is above 300 and battery works. Most important! The yoga cover is great for laying on either side, so I can toss and turn in bed and keep reading. Literally no e-reader I have seen since has a symmetrical stand-cover that can be used sideways both ways. As for Kobo, I just looked the other day and saw they have some great prices for e-readers that have similar features, plus they advertise being completely repairable! And you're not in the Amazon ecosystem. My only gripe years ago was the don't rendering on side loaded books wasn't as good as Amazon, and that Calibre couldn't De-DRM Kobo books as well as Amazon. I think the game has changed a bit, though, and I haven't tested anything in a while. If Kobo books are crackable, my next e-reader will likely take me away from Amazon. I want that USB-C in my life.

TnS-hun 2y ago

There is only a small difference in their size. Paperwhite 5: 124.6 x 174.2 x 8.1 mm Paperwhite 6: 127.6 x 176.7 x 7.8 mm

thimabi 2y ago
Yet Amazon has been consistently increasing the size of the Paperwhite models over time, each one a bit larger than the previous one. They remain portable, but no longer fit into one’s pockets, for instance.
- fastball 2y ago
  I have the last gen Paperwhite and it still fits in my pocket. Admittedly I have big pockets.
- bookofjoe 2y ago
  FWIW I weighed my Paperwhite Gen 5: 201 grams vs. 211 grams for the new Gen 6. So 5% heavier.
- bayofpigs 2y ago
  [dead]

grakker 2y ago

I had the exact opposite experience. My kindle battery went wonky after a few years, but my kobo has gone on for a lot longer with no issues. It's made me a little wary of buying a kindle again. Aside, or on top of, not wanting to support Amazon.

fastball 2y ago
Did you try contacting Amazon support? If you had they probably would've shipped you a new one for free. Why don't you want to support Amazon?
- grakker 2y ago
  I did not. It was a couple years old, and I wanted to get a bigger screen. As to not liking Amazon, they are anti-union, should be broken up, and their main stockholder is a money hoarding ghoul.
  - fastball 2y ago
    What should they be broken up into? And does Jeff Bezos hoard money or wealth? Also not sure how he is ghoulish but you are of course entitled to your opinion.

donio 2y ago

I always use my kindles in fully offline, sideload-only. My current one hasn't left airplane mode since I got it in 2018.

sourcepluck 2y ago
Another fully-offline, sideload-only, airplane-mode-forever ebooker here. Plus I didn't even buy it in the first place - a relation had one they said they never looked at, so I asked if I could take it off their hands. Had a funny experience once with a fellow (who was in his third year of computer science at a reputable university), where we just so happened to get on to the topic of ebooks. I told him how I operate my little machine, which I'd only started using. He was shocked, and stated clearly that he thinks it's unethical towards authors to use a "jailbroken" device like that and not get books through the Amazon store... Sigh.
- Aeolun 2y ago
  I guess he’s never seen the kind of insane contracts people that publish on the Amazon store need to sign xD
  - ValentineC 2y ago
    As someone who has self-published a book on the Amazon Kindle store once, Amazon's cut is something like 70% + bandwidth fees (author only gets maybe ~25–28% of the selling price).
    - Aeolun 2y ago
      I find it hard to believe you’d ever earn enough on an Amazon book to make any such contract worth it.
      - d0gsg0w00f 2y ago
        70% of $100k = $70k 30% of $1mil = $300k Scale makes it seem pretty straightforward to me.

mvdtnz 2y ago

I'm sick of my Kobo constantly crashing and freezing and I will never buy another one.

110jawefopiwa 2y ago

> IMO, the Kindle is the premium e-reader when it comes to look and feel. It's just a fantastic experience. Interestingly, I switched from Kindle to Kobo because it was lacking various basic features that made it not feel premium. * Kobo epubs can show "pages in chapter" progress so I know how much longer there is until a nice stopping point, while Kindle only shows "minutes left in chapter" which is functionally useless. * Kobo had blue light blocking night shift before Kindle Paperwhite (I think both have it now?) * Kobo had a convenient feature where you slide your finger along the side of the screen to change brightness, instead of having to go into multiple menus to do this. It's possible these things have been remedied, but especially the chapter progress thing put such a bad taste in my mouth that I never wanted to touch Kindle again.

MBCook 2y ago
The kindle hardware is pretty good in my opinion, though they make choices I don’t like. The ecosystem is amazing and unbeatable. The software was fine on the original Kindles (well, I had a keyboard), and despite gaining a few features is largely the same since 10+ years ago. But don’t worry, they added ads to the device that they used to sell you books and they’ve managed not to speed it up one bit!
ghostpepper 2y ago
> Kindle only shows "minutes left in chapter" which is functionally useless The kindle recomputes your reading pace as you go, so unless you prefer to do that math in your head and track your own pages-per-minute moving average, I don't see how it's functionally useless
- KTibow 2y ago
  I think they're saying that it doesn't show any info like page numbers
- mmahemoff 2y ago
  I always find Kindle's "minutes left" too low for some reason, so I have to ignore it. I'd find it simpler - and easier to make progress - if it just showed pages read/remaining within the chapter. Absent that, I am often having to go through the distraction of using the overview feature to figure out where I am in the chapter.

evanreichard 2y ago

I've got the same generation PW and have it jailbroken running KOReader. I've considered trying other readers out, not because of issues but rather shiny new thing reasons. But at least when it comes to KOReader, it seems like the PW are the best if you can jailbreak the version you're on. (I want / need it to run KOReader because I wrote a small Lua plugin for it that syncs reading stats (words per minute, minutes read per year, etc) to a centralized server.)

sundvor 2y ago

Yeah I got the Signature Edition of the Paperwhite 11 with their black leather cover, and it's just brilliant. It was a huge step up from the 10 that went before it in every regard. The resolution and size just nails it, and my favourite feature is the warm backlighting for reading at night. Battery lasts forever, and I can just put it on my Samsung phone stand for wireless charging once in a blue moon - not once have I run out of battery. I fall asleep so easily to this, currently on the Eisenhorn 40k Omnibus book - and a 184 week reading streak. I used to be excited about new Kindle releases, have had one since the mammoth DXG - but no more, I'm good now with this, so don't see myself forking out $400 AUD for the new one (with a leather cover). Also bought one (also a SE) for my son, with a different colour magnetic leather cover. :-)

cyberpunk 2y ago

The lack of physical page turn buttons is a dealbreaker for me. I switched, begrudgingly at first from my oasis to a kobo libre colour and it’s much better. If you stick koreader on it you can even start a Linux shell from the ui which amuses me :)

andai 2y ago

>The Kobo can run in a fully offline mode Really? I had to make an account to "activate" my Kobo, but it wouldn't let me make one because I already had an old account with one of their partner websites, whose auth servers were malfunctioning, so it took like two hours to be able to "activate" the device. Is there a way to bypass that?

zie 2y ago
You can bypass it, but I forget the details(I just did it a year or so ago with my newest Kobo). A web search should get you there though. The mobile read forums are usually the place where trustworthy details are found.

itsrobreally 2y ago

A kobo loaded with standard e-books (https://standardebooks.org/ https://standardebooks.org/) in the kobo format is glorious. I still have a paperwhite which is ok. My favorite device right now is a boox Go6, smallish, cheap, android. I don't use many apps on it other than the reader but threw a copy of Kiwix on there, and use it as a writing deck using a bluetooth keyboard, hits a lot of semi-offline use cases for me.

DavideNL 2y ago

> The issue is Amazon and how even if you want to put your own purchased ebooks on it, you have it send it through their servers. I managed to jailbreak my "Kindle Oasis 3" and install KOreader [1] and Syncthing on it (the process of achieving this, as described on mobileread.com/forums was quite horrible by the way.) Very happy with the result though, books are just synced automatically with my Macbook via Syncthing. Hopefully somehow a similar setup will be possible with the new Kindles, if they can also be jailbroken. PS. The Kindle Oasis 3 is still great in 2024, it even automatically adjusts brightness with its light sensor. [1] https://github.com/koreader/koreader https://github.com/koreader/koreader