Pros and Cons of Ereaders – Review of the Kobo Ereader

God    Gadgets     Calibre, chapters, ebook, ebook managament, epub, ereader, gadgets, kobo, pdf

To be successful you have to constantly upgrade yourself. I read a lot of books and with all the hype I figure I’ll get an ereader. I didn’t need anything special I just wanted to read, so I got the bare minimal one, the Kobo ereader from Chapters. Since I’ve bought it I haven’t really used it much, still finishing my paper books. Here are the pros and cons of the Kobo reader:

Cons:

1. With the decades of reading on paper my mind can still read a lot faster from a paper page than from the ereader. One reason is because of the lower contrast from the black text to the grey background compare to black text on white paper.
2. Turning pages on the Kobo is slow so there is time wasted between pages and lost of continuity. My friend told me that it’s faster on other ereader such as his Sony ereader.
3. Hard to reference certain pages to go back and forth.
4. Long time to start up, takes about 30 seconds to start up and find your book and start that up.
5. I don’t have all the books I want on the ereader.
6. You can use Calibre to convert your pdfs to epub for the reader but certain pdfs still don’t show up good on the reader such as the manual for my Canon DSLR camera.
7. Images are hard to see.

Pros:

1. It’s easier to carry than books. You can fit so much more in it a book. Great for minimal packing.
2. Easy to handle and able to handle with one hand. I bring this on the subway and it’s easy to hold with one hand and don’t need to turn pages.
3. Holds more books. This is helpful when you are traveling and is not sure what to bring with you.
4. You can convert and load PDFs using Calibre ebook management software (free). Very easy to use.
5. Save money on buying ebook rather than the physical ones. Personally I like to still purchase real books because some of the cons listed above.

If you travel a lot and read books on the subway or bus than an ebook reader is right for you. For all the other occasions I would stick with good old paper.

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