Now that Amazon has ticked off a bunch of Kindle users by removing the ability to download purchased Kindle books for USB transfer and backup, a lot of people are jumping ship and are looking for alternatives to the Kindle store and Kindle ereaders.
While a few ebook stores still offer ebook downloads in Adobe EPUB format, Kobo is the one company that also sells dedicated ereaders to go along with that, so naturally Kobo is one of the best options for those looking to move away from the Kindle platform.
The problem, however, is that Kobo doesn’t sell any ereaders that are directly comparable to the most popular Kindle model of all time—the Kindle Paperwhite.
Unless you’re a fan of color E Ink, your options are very limited when it comes to buying a new Kobo ereader with a traditional black and white E Ink screen.
There’s the Kobo Clara BW, a basic 6″ model that’s comparable to the entry-level Kindle, but it costs $30 more than the equivalent Kindle thanks to Kobo’s latest price hike, and it rarely goes on sale, unlike Kindles. It does add a warm frontlight and waterproofing, though, so it does have some advantages over the base Kindle.
If you’re coming from an older 6″ Paperwhite, the Clara BW might seem like a suitable upgrade, but with the cheap plastic casing and smaller screen it certainly feels like a downgrade compared to the Paperwhite 5 and 6, and it’s not even in the same league as devices like the Kindle Voyage and Kindle Oasis.
Outside of the Clara BW, Kobo’s options are limited. Kobo only sells two other BW models, and both are outdated. The Elipsa 2E is a 10″ eNote that sells for $400, and it’s still stuck with a lower resolution screen than the Kindle Scribe that came out in 2022.
The other model is the 8″ Kobo Sage. It’s a lot nicer than the Clara from a build quality standpoint, and it adds a flush screen and page buttons, with a design that’s similar to the Kindle Oasis, but it costs $270 and it was released 3.5 years ago so it’s not exactly current and it’s probably in the process of being phased out at this point. Plus it’s known for having poor battery life and an uneven frontlight, so it doesn’t exactly have the greatest reputation.
Kobo’s “best” model among their current lineup is the Kobo Libra Colour. It’s a fine device, and it has page buttons and it supports stylus input for notetaking, but Kobo no longer sells a black and white equivalent, and color screens aren’t for everybody considering the obvious drawbacks.
Kobo opted to go all in on color E Ink for their most popular model last year. I think it was a mistake for them to not release a BW version too, and they really should consider offering something directly comparable to the Kindle Paperwhite—after all, it’s the best selling dedicated ereader in the world year in and year out for a reason. Now that Kobo is in prime position to capitalize on disgruntled Kindle users, they really should be doing more to entice them over to their platform.
What if Kobo offered trade-in discounts for Kindles?
That would be great, but Kobo has never even offered discounts for trading in old Kobos so that seems unlikely.
Even if it was a 1 month promotion, where you had to somehow prove you were trading in a kindle that you were currently using… I think they’d get a big boost.
They didn’t even have to make a *new* model – just keep selling the Libra 2 for longer, maybe with a bit of a price cut.
Unfortunately, Kobo ePub support is very very bad quality. Importing books through Calibre fixes most issues though.
Explanation of why is so, here: https://standardebooks.org/help/how-to-use-our-ebooks#kobo-faq
Something should be said about it. Perhaps other reader makers do better.
That’s not really true. Standard Ebooks is known to use overly complex code in their ebooks, so yes, THEIR epubs may not work best. Most other epubs work fine on Kobos, though. Certainly it can’t be said that Kobo epub support is “very very bad quality”. It is not.
Yep, they should have kept the black and white Libra. I anticipate that there will be a large color option with 300 dpi well before fall…still won’t be a top seller(price and portability for some). Possibly in Fall we may see a 7 or 8″ b/w device.
I buy books from Kobo and read them on my Nook! 🙂
Which Nook Laura? We were gifted with a bunch of BN gift cards and there’s only so many new cookbooks my bookshelves will hold.
Agreed, I lazily checked the state of Kobo e-readers looking for a Paperwhite equivalent and was shocked to not find one. I have a Sage, I like it fine enough, but it’s not pocketable and I’m not moving 100% over to the ecosystem unless they have a decent reader (like the Paperwhite) that I can chuck in a coat pocket and go out with.
Even worse, for me, is the dire state of their app. Amazon killed it with Bookerly, and the font options are just gross on the Kobo app to where I just can’t use it. And the Android app, compared to the iOS app, is even worse, it’s barely functional and just hideous to look at. I read 50/50 on a tablet vs. an e-reader so this really crimps Kobo for me. Even the Nook app is better than it.
So annoyed that Amazon just won’t give us a new Oasis with USB-C charging. I want the page-turn buttons, it was juuuuust still pocketable, a premium device all around and I wish they’d bring it back. Or Kobo can put some effort into their app and b/w e-readers and I’ll move over there. I don’t expect either to actually happen, alas.
I had a Kindle Paperwhite and sold it to buy a Kobo Clara B&W.
I absolutely have no regrets.
I love my little ereader. So light. I may be missing 2 or 3 lines per pages compared to the Paprerwhite, because I can adjust the margins and spacing like I want.
Kobo releases at least one new ereader model every single year, so probably we can see a Libra 2 or Sage successor in the upcoming months. The Elipsa models doesn’t seem to be a popular choice, but the same goes for the Kindle Scribe… They are very expensive, so I guess that’s why they don’t really push this form factor.
What about Boox Go 6 or PocketBook Verse Pro as alternatives?
Downside with Boox could be having to deal with Android comolexity when all you need is a reader.
Pocketbook doesn’t always have best contrast b/w display but this model seems to be good. But no app store so you may need to deal with removing DRM when buying from Amazon /Kobo.