Kobo Clara BW VS newest paperwhite VS smth less popular but still good. Not interested in color. Libra 2 seems very interesting but very hard to find.
I’ve been using Kindle Paperwhite since 2013. The hardware is fantastic, but their locked down nature is less than amazing. I’m currently looking at options for upgrading and moving away from the kindle ecosystem, and the the Kobo Clara BW is a compelling option. Or maybe wait and see if a new BW Libra comes out.
I got the kobo bw. I spent a weekend downloading all 500some ebooks I’ve purchased off Amazon (which they do not make easy) to my laptop. Then I imported them into calibre, stripped all drm, and loaded them onto the kobo.
It’s great, I love it.
How easy is it to strip DRM from Kobo ebooks?
Sorry, I strip it from Amazon ebooks. There’s a plugin for calibre called deDRM that does it, it’s pretty simple once you get it setup.
Just import book, and the drm is gone.
You can even self host a calibre web instance and have it fully integrated/replace the kobo store on the device
Can you elaborate? Do you use it that way?
If you are into self hosting already, you run a calibre web instance then you can enable full integration with the kobo so Your own self hosted eBook repository becomes the ‘store’ on the kobo.
https://brandonjkessler.com/technology/2021/04/26/setup-kobo-sync-in-calibre-web.html
I use it like to to get access to all my ebooks
If you don’t already do any self hosting, then it can take a while to get the foundation of your server setup. I already had that setup so this took less than an hour for me.
Thx! How can you describe you reading experience (especially outside) ? Is device durable?
Yeah it’s amazing. It’s my go to reader for vacations, have it at the pool and beach. I don’t know about waterproof per se, but it’s resisted kids splashing me and me dropping it a bunch.
I love my Kobo Libra 2, with KoReader installed. I manage my books with Calibre.
I’ve had a Kindle Paperwhite in the past and now I have a Kobo Clara 2E (that’s the BW one).
I prefer the Clara because:
- it is not an Amazon product, and I even bought it at a local retailer
- it works with epub files for books — even if Kobos have their own kepub file extension, calibre has plugins that deal with that
- setting up calibre-web on my home server and having the Clara connect to it was very simple
They both have water resistance and warm light. The Paperwhite’s screen is a bit bigger, but the difference is not monumental.
In the end, they are similar enough both in terms of specs and price that depending on your use case you will be fine with either one, but if anything I mentioned above is an important factor to you then I hope this was helpful :)
I own the Kobo Libra H2O and the Boox Air 2, both are amazing for different reasons.
Kobo is small and portable, fantastic for reading in bed.
Boox Air 2 has pen support and runs android. Fantastic for note taking, large PDF files, and so. It is a bit big at 7in screen, pretty much a tablet.
Kobo Libra H20 owner here too then Kobo Colour!! Love both! My husband upgraded me for free because he worked with Kobo
If you can get an Onyx Boox tablet used by a first adopter that it wasn’t right for, it has the best of all worlds. Open, Android, EInk, large screen, and can be used to bang out content and read email. Other than that I would just get a downmarket but new Android Tablet and use it as a dedicated eBook and audio book/podcast device. The screen isn’t ideal but you can get a stock android tablet for $150 bucks us and use Caliber on it along with all the typical android stuff. Hell you might even be able to get a Linux tablet that would fit your needs but cost a little more. But if you go tablet the devices tend to be a bit more open to sideloading.
Pocketbook also makes great devices, not that well known outside of EU but their software has more features than Kobo and is (as of yet) not in the book selling market so no conflict of interest (and no analytics, contrary to kobo).
I’m a cheap guy, and honestly I got the cheapest Kindle (I believe 2022) and I’ve been reading books from Calibre without issues.
No other e-reader was as cheap as that, and it… Just works.
i have a pocketbook touch lux 4 and a boox page. both are good at their own thing: the book trades a bit of battery life and a higher price for being able to run any android app like tachiyomi, etc.
my recommendation is look through what e-readers are supported by koreader, the best e-reading app, and also, get something with physical page turn buttons and enough/expandable storage.I’ve been extremely happy with my boox go 10.3! Crazy long battery life (on the order of months; no backlight and i keep wifi off), amazing reading experience (looks basically indistinguishable from paper) and writing experience is good enough as someone who doesn’t write often on it.
A decade old paperwhite is plenty good jailbroken. A real bargain.
I bought a Boox Palma and I love it. I know people have concerns about privacy related to android (though a kindle and/or Kobo are just as bad IMO). I never set up an Google account and it’s been in airplane mode since I turned it on. I wanted an e-reader that I could add books from my PC without any fuss. That’s all I need and it works well for that. I love the form factor too.
