Kindle vs Kobo Touch

Let us take a look at Kindle vs Kobo Touch so that you can decide whether to go for the comparatively cheaper Kobo or order a Kindle from Amazon.

First a side by side comparison of the two eReaders in an easy to understand tabular format. We will be following this with a detailed discussion of major comparison points.

Kindle vs Kobo Touch | Comparison Chart

Kindle vs Kobo Touch | Design Features

Kobo Touch is available in five colours – silver, black, white, pale blue and lilac.

These colours combined with its signature quilted back make Kobo distinct, perhaps even flashy and overdone. As if Kobo is trying to grab your attention from the gadgety-looking Kindle Touch, available only in its standard silver colour.

Both devices have their plus and minus points when it comes to functionality of the design elements.

1. Kindle has comparatively wider bezels, which helps in preventing accidental page turns.
2. Kobo Touch has a soft quilted back panel that makes it non-slip and comfortable to hold. In comparison, Kindle Touch has a smooth & shiny metallic looking back which makes you think for a second - is this thing slippery?.
3. Kindle Touch has its power button located on its bottom edge right beside the headphone jack. The button is less recessed which makes it easier to find and operate, but also prone to accidental power-on. In comparison, the power button on Kobo requires a sliding movement and thus less prone to accidental power-on.

Kindle vs Kobo Touch | Size & Weight

Kobo Touch is smaller and lighter than Kindle Touch, in-fact it is the same size as Amazon’s smallest and lightest fourth generation Kindle 4.

The small size and weight of Kobo Touch combined with its non-slip quilted back make it a very portable and hand-friendly gadget that is easy to carry and hold in a single hand while reading.

Kindle vs Kobo Touch | Display

When it comes to reading on a screen, E-ink makes an excellent choice due to its clarity of display that gets almost identical to printed matter, and miserly battery consumption that makes an eReader last for a month or two on a single charge.

Both Kobo Touch and Kindle make use of the latest in E-ink technology (E-ink pearl) to power their 6-inch display. Pearl is considered the best in E-ink technology and has become an industry standard used by all top ranking e-Readers.

Fonts, Text Size & Dictionary Look up

With the software update, Kobo Touch now provides a choice of 11 fonts (up from 2) and 25 different sizes to choose from. Kindle Touch offers 8 different sizes and 3 fonts styles.

Kindle Touch comes with New Oxford American Dictionary support and lets you instantly look up words by highlighting them. Kobo Touch lets you look up words in Merriam Webster’s Dictionary.

Touch Screen Interface

The touch screen interface in both eReaders is powered by infra-red technology unlike tablets which have an actual touch screen layer overlaid over their LCD display. It is an interesting technology that you can read more about in our Kindle Touch Review.

The performance of touch-screens is more or less the same in both eReaders; there is nothing really to choose between the two.

Kindle vs Kobo Touch | Storage

Kobo Touch comes with a native storage capacity of 2 GB, out of this only half (1 GB) is available for user storage and the other half is taken up by pre-loaded software and other files.

Kobo Touch also comes with an SD slot that allows you to add more storage in case you exceed 1,000 books.

Kindle Touch provides 3 times more native storage than Kobo Touch but does not provide the option for extended storage, instead Kindle provides free cloud storage for all your Amazon content.

Kindle vs Kobo Touch | Battery Life

Kindle claims a battery life of 2 months with WiFi off and assuming an average of 30 minutes reading per day. In comparison Kobo Touch claims a battery life of 1 month (unspecified usage).

Kindle vs Kobo Touch | Ecosystem

Both Kindle and Kobo have excellent choice of books. Amazon claims to have over a million books while Kobo claims 2.4 million books.

Both have lots of free content; Kobo claims to have one million free books and even comes with 100 free Pre-loaded classics to get you started.

Amazon has a better and more responsive shopping interface compared to Kobo. Also, Amazon Prime membership lets you borrow 1 free book per month and provides good value by offering free shipping on all qualifying purchases from Amazon.

Library Borrowing

Kobo Touch makes it easy to borrow books from a public library, Kobo supports the open EPUB format which is the mostly widely used electronic publishing format, supported by libraries in Canada, UK and Australia.

In comparison, Kindle has a dedicated library lending program within the United States. However, its lack of support for EPUP makes it a hassle for people outside the United States to borrow library books.

Kindle also has its own borrowing program available for Amazon prime members. This allows Amazon prime members to borrow 1 book per month including the latest bestsellers.

Kindle Touch | Extra features

Kindle offers some additional hardware and software features that are not available in Kobo.

• Dual Speakers & Headphone Jack – Good speakers that can go surprisingly loud
• X Ray Feature – Really cool feature that brings up list of names, characters and places associated with the book that you are reading. Clicking on a name will bring up more information from Wikipedia or Amazon’s own encyclopedia (Shelfari)
• Text to Speech – Kindle will read the book for you when you access this feature.
• Availability in 3G – Kindle Touch is available in both WiFi and 3G versions
• Mp3 Player – Built in music player that can be used to play Mp3 files while reading a book.
• Translation – Choose a word or section for translation by Bing Translator

Conclusion

Kindle Touch makes a compelling choice when you consider additional features like X-Ray, Dual Speakers, MP3 Player and Amazon Prime.

Kobo Touch is an equally good eReader; it is more portable and lighter than Kindle and makes a tempting buy in regions outside the United States due to its availability at comparatively lesser price.

• Most portable Touch eReader for Less - Kobo Touch
• eReader with More Features - Kindle Touch