A lot people like complaining about Kindles (and Amazon in general), and there are always people saying you shouldn’t buy Kindles because of some reason or another, but the fact is there aren’t very many good alternatives, and they all have shortcomings too.
All ereader brands have notable flaws, not just Kindles. Some people make it their mission to post negative comments about Kindles whenever the topic comes up, and frankly it’s annoying because most of the other options aren’t really that great either.
So for this post I’m going to list all the main disadvantages for the top ereader brands, including Kindles. Nobody is escaping this post unscathed.
Kindles
Software updates are one of the biggest problems when it comes to Kindles because they are mandatory if you keep your Kindle online. Amazon is always changing stuff around, and removing or breaking features that have worked fine for the past decade or more. They treat Kindle users like beta testers. Frankly, you could make the argument the best Kindles are the models that are no longer getting updates.
Another problem with Kindles is Amazon’s overprotective nature. They are so dead set against piracy they take things too far by locking Kindle ebooks to the Kindle platform and making it very difficult to get ebooks away from Amazon. There’s also a long-standing bug that isn’t really a bug because they would’ve fixed it by now if it wasn’t the intended behaviour that will delete all your USB sideloaded ebooks if you use airplane mode for too long.
Along a similar line, Amazon is always working to keep Kindles locked down to keep people from installing alternative software and apps like KOReader. With other brands you can easily install KOReader without jailbreaking or having to jump through hoops.
Amazon has phased out all the models with page-turn buttons, and they can’t even be bothered to add official support for Bluetooth page turners like Kobo has.
Kobo eReaders
Few choices when it comes to ereaders. They only sell one budget black and white ereader now, along with two color models, and one outdated BW eNote that should’ve been replaced 2 years ago. Plus their basic plastic casings look and feel cheap; every other brand on this list offers nicer hardware options.
Software development has slowed to a glacial pace in recent years, and the few updates that do get released are often plagued with bugs. Last year a bad software update notoriously bricked a bunch of Kobo devices.
Kobo’s ebook store is good but it’s lacking compared to the Kindle ebook store (in large part because of Amazon’s anti-competitive exclusivity requirements).
One of the things you hear people complaining about when moving to Kobo from Kindle is the fact that Kobo doesn’t offer any kind of Send to Kobo service. Some models offer cloud storage to transfer files, but there’s no syncing for sideloaded documents or ebooks.
Onyx Boox
Boox devices take a lot more time to setup and learn than basic ereaders. While the Android OS offers a lot more versatility than standard ereaders like Kindles and Kobos, there are a million different confusing settings, and a lot of things about the interface aren’t intuitive at all.
Android ereaders are more glitch-prone and ghosting is always more of an issue because 99.9% of Android apps aren’t designed for E Ink screens.
The built-in ebook store is a joke; it’s not worth even having onboard taking up space. You have to use other ebook stores through apps, and as mentioned above the apps aren’t designed for E Ink so the experience isn’t going to be as smooth as using a dedicated ereader.
The native app doesn’t support DRM at all so all your purchased ebooks have to be decrypted first, or you have to use apps from the various stores, and the Kindle and Kobo apps are inferior to Kindle and Kobo devices.
Customer support is iffy at best, and Onyx has a notoriously sketchy return policy when buying directly from their website.
Boox devices are more expensive than other brands on this list.
PocketBook
The Linux-based Pocketbook models are the slowest ereaders on this list by a good margin. For some reason the software just isn’t as optimized as other brands, and they’re using older, slower CPUs so that doesn’t help either. They also sell a few rebranded Android models, but I’m not familiar with the performance of those.
The built-in ebook store is completely useless, at least in the US. They recently launched a UK store so things might be better there, but for one of the oldest ereader brands it’s amazing they’ve gone this long without a competent onboard store. They should’ve partnered with Google or some other ebook store a decade ago.
Some common features are missing like boldness adjustment. There’s bold, which is too bold, and regular, which isn’t bold enough, and those are the only two options. Plus there are only a few layout settings, and the software is so sluggish it takes up to 10 seconds to change the settings on larger ebooks.
Nook
B&N has gone to great lengths to make Nooks unappealing to most people. It all started when they decided to lock Nook books to Nook hardware and apps, so it’s virtually impossible to get Nook books away from B&N now.
Software development is pretty much nonexistent at this point. They’ve gone years without improving anything at all. The software is slow and glitchy, and it’s missing common features that are available on other brands, like dark mode (their idea of dark mode is using a warm frontlight).
B&N’s customer support is really spotty when it comes to Nooks, as most B&N employees don’t seem to know much about them, and most stores have minimized or phased out Nook displays.
Nooks only support EPUB and PDF formats, and they aren’t great for sideloading.
They are only sold in the US.
Nice summary, and all too true, alas.
I stopped buying anything from Kobo when the update that bricked devices came. I have a Kobo Libra 2, but I haven’t deared to update it. And in order to download books from Kobo, I have to let it update first. So no update and no new books from Kobo.
I don’t have Kobo in my country, I ordered my device from abroad. Does anyone know if it is safe to update now? I mean, it has been 6.5 months now.
Is it possible to get a new device from Kobo if it bricks? Again, no Kobo in my country.
Thank you.
You can download your Kobo books from your account on their website and sideload them to your device, if you want. Personally I use the patch that will ask my consent every time my device discovers there’s an update, so no updates unless I want to.
I had 2 bricked Kobo’s; both within Amazon’s 30-day return, so I didn’t have to go through Kobo BUT I’ve had other (really, really) unpleasant encounters with Kobo tech support for other devices so I wouldn’t get my hopes up.
Some countries, though, have (much) better consumer-protection than the U.S. so you might get help from your local agency.
TLDR: I’ve owned a LOT of devices and while most have had problems, Kindle, Kobo, & Nook are the brands that I’ll never buy again because of those problems: Boox has been the least problematic and Pocketbook’s Verse Basic — while it is far from perfect — is cheap, has a great UI which is not Android & has sd-card expandable storage. If you’re looking for a problem-free DEDICATED (Linux-based) e-reader, try the PockeBook Verse Basic. If Android is your thing, Palma (any version) and Boox Go 7 are awesome, trouble-free devices.
Slowdowns, for my PB Verse, aren’t a problem: Books under ~ 20 GB load immediately, pages turn immediately and formatting (for me) applies immediately. The ONLY slowness comes from selecting a menu item for the first-time in a reading session, which can take 2-3 seconds. After that, there’s no slowdown for it or any sub-items under it.
Pocketbook is a side-loading dream; it has a LOT of useful sideloading features others do not and it supports EVERY book format so the lack of a U.S. bookstore is a feature (no annoying ads on the homepage.) not a problem. SINCE it (more or less) requires Calibre to do that, its annoying lack of formatting isn’t an issue; I have a template in Calibre which formats every book the same before it gets uploaded to the device. I’ll buy another Pocketbook, gladly, should the Verse (and its identical still-in-the-box backup) die. Great device.
For me, Kobo’s biggest problem is its firmware instability: Bugs are abundant and I’ve even bricked 2 of the newer (Libra & Clara) models while just sideloading books. I won’t buy another.
Kindle’s flaws are way too numerous to mention but their hostility to users — bordering on contempt, especially for sideloading — and continual firmware bugs stand out. Won’t buy another Kindle, either.
Nook is just sad; offering all the problems of the other brands combined: Hostility to users, (real bad) slowness in selecting UI items and bugs. They were the best, back in the day; now they aren’t. Won’t buy another.
I’ve not experienced any problems with my Boox Palma & Go 7, except for the whole Android thing, which is annoying for an e-reader: I just wanna read a book and there’s way too much UI in the way of that. Still, the form-factors and the sd-card storage will keep me coming back to them.
For me, Pocketbook Verse is out, because it’s 6″ and I want 7 0r 8″. Pocketbook Era is said to have poor contrast. I don’t need or want an expandable storage, but I do want font weight adjustment and Pocketbooks don’t have that. My favorite font is not particularly thick or dark without some added weight. And I don’t really like KOReader, so that’s out too.
I have had few issues with my Kobos and have never bricked one, even though I sideload everything.
Pocketbook’s antipathy towards anywhere outside mainland Europe has also been frustrating, Yes there’s a new uk bookstore but there’s nothing special about it. Worse, I think it uses the currently unbreakable LCP DRM.
They do provide a great range of form factors but you’re right that they need to use faster SOCs and software. I’m not sure why they don’t. Maybe the war in the Ukraine is limiting their development?
Kobo’s lack of a real dark mode is a flaw for me – their dark mode only applies to the reading screen, not the home or library screens.
And I can’t say it’s a flaw for Kobo, but I do miss Kindle’s full-text search of all items on the device.
Those two things don’t outweigh all the things that are better on Kobo than Kindle, but I do miss them.
Sometimes I feel like nothing really changes. My first e-reader was a Palm device; books were plain TXT and easy to install, whereever you sourced them from.
My second ereader was a RocketBook, soon upgraded to the REB1100. Like Kindle, that platform tried to lock you into only reading only their books on only their hardware. It was soon jailbroken, and when I stopped using this device I had a local “media server” running that let me put books from any source onto it.
Then I started getting Kindles. I have a collection of them now, a Kindle 2 (with physical keyboard), a Kindle Paperwhite (2016 version) and a Kindle Oasis (10th Generation), bought last year from woot. I have jailbroken each of them, yet I’m still unable to DeDRM my most recently purchased Kindle books, nor did I ever get KoReader working on the Paperwhite or the Oasis. I intend to try again when I get around to it. Reading native EPUBs with KoReader would be a dream.