Another One Bites the Dust

I’ve bought an ereader, and I like it. I thought I’d be one of the last holdouts, but there it is: I’ve become a convert. Despite being sure I’d never want one, I found myself starting to be a bit intrigued by them, may be half a year ago, and I started eyeballing other people’s readers, and looking to find a bit out about them. I asked questions. I tried some models. I read comparison charts. I’m never an early adopter or an easy sell on gadgets, frankly, when there’s a low-tech model that works, so I need to be convinced before I’ll jump in, and this past weekend, I was.

The three choices for an ereader – assuming that you don’t want to use a multi-functional device like an iPad, which I did not for reasons of backlit screen, weight, and price – are really three.

Kindle –
I chose not to go with a Kindle, though I know people who love theirs, because I am not fond of the proprietary format. I want to be able to borrow library ebooks, for example, which I hear may be in the works. Fact is, I buy some books, but mostly for kids, and I don’t want to be forced to by every book I want to read but not own! It also makes you somewhat beholden to Amazon, which I also don’t like. For those who don’t mind those things, it does have some nice features, like the little keyboard for note-taking, which is pretty sweet. It has the same 6″ eink Pearl screen as the other two, which makes the reading experience much like paper, which was vital in winning me over.

Kobo –
When I was originally looking, I didn’t love the navigation on the older version, with the big button, so I had ruled this one out for that reason. When I started looking again just recently, I found that their touch edition had been released, which is a whole different kettle of fish. I very much like that at Indigo stores, you can really try one of these out and get a feel for it, which I need to do to be convinced. I found its touch response to be different than touch screens I’m used to, but once I got the hang of that, I was impressed by the revised navigation, I liked that there is highlighting on it, and I found that the screen was quite pleasant to read. I’ve heard people complain of some ghosting, but I’ve only noticed it on occasion when switching to or from a really solidly coloured image.

Sony eReader –
I was set on this one for a while, because I liked the little row of navigation buttons, as well as the metal case, but it is $110 more than the Kobo or Kindle, which makes it a pretty hefty investment, and I wasn’t certain why it was, at first. I’ve since discovered that it has entire sets of other technology crammed in there that make the price way more understandable. It has a stylus and can take handwritten notes, and also has a headphone jack and can play music or audiobooks, so it’s really a far more multifunctional device. Lovely, if you need that, but I’m not much of an audiobook user, and if I want to listen to something, I’d prefer to use an mp3 player, as many of them are downright miniscule these days.

This all settled it – I really only needed a reader, and didn’t need to pay for the extra functions of the Sony, as sleek and sexy as its metal case might be (I’ve shown them all in black here to be fair, but I totally would have gotten that baby in silver). The navigation on the Kobo had improved enough with the touch version to make me happy with it. So! I’ve dived in.

I’ve downloaded a bunch of free ebook classics to try it out with, and even a bought a cheap title for next month’s book club. Today, I’m going to try to figure out the downloading from the library.

With this post being about how I decided on which ereader to go with, next week, Tuesday, I’ll tell you more about how the downloading and reading experience has been. Who knows, if I can be swayed, maybe I’ll convert a few of you, too!