There are plenty of reasons to like Kobo, but the most compelling small be the simple fact That the company is not Amazon.
As chief competitors like Barnes & amp; Noble and Sony have faded or disappeared altogether from the market, the plucky Canadian company (granted, they are currently owned by a giant Japanese retailer) has made it a mission, year in and year out, that offer the best e-reader money can buy .
Along the way, Kobo’s competitive streak has gone a ways toward pushing the whole industry forward, experimenting with screen size, upping the game on front-lit displays, Introducing the concept of a truly high-end devoted e -reader and even going waterproof.
For its part, the Glo HD is not an attempt to push the envelope as much as it is and play to mainstream some of the premium specs Introduced it with pricier models.
Literary genre
Kobo has never been one to shy away from exploiting and Perceived hole in the market. The company has seven models listed as currently available on its site, and as dry, the Glo HD slots somewhere between Amazon’s Voyage and Paperwhite, bringing a high-res display, small footprint, slick design, and are important secret weapon: a $ 130 price tag that undercuts Amazon’s top-tier e-reader to $ 60 (or $ 80, if you factor in the Special Offers ads).
What really set the Voyage apart Paperwhite from its predecessor was Amazon’s keen attention to hardware. Where the company has Often viewed its e-readers as content vessels, the device is appealed readers who wanted a device with a build quality rivaled That Their smartphones and tablets.
Of course, hardly Amazon pioneered the space. In April 2013 Introduced the Aura Kobo HD, a 6.8-inch e-reader with all the fixins and a – at the time – hard to swallow $ 169 price tag.
A few months later, the company Introduced the more mainstream Aura, Which knocked down the screen size and a few other key specs, while shaving $ 20 off the asking price. At $ 130, the Glo HD costs roughly the same as the current generation Paperwhite, which’ll run you $ 120 with Special Offers and $ 140 without.
A book by its cover
The Glo HD also splits the difference between Amazon’s offerings from a design perspective. I’ll admit that I’m a bit spoiled by my Kindle Voyage, but the flush screen really does make a world of difference when it comes to design language. The Glo HD utilizes the standard e-reader plastic bezel configuration, though Kobo’s made the best of it with a nice, rounded and thin bezel.
The Glo HD’s high-resolution screen is as sharp as the Kindle Voyage’s.
Image: Brian Heater / Mashable
In fact, Kobo’s managed to fit The Glo HD into a nice, footprint that’s shorter than the quite compact Voyage and only a little thicker (thanks to Those bezels). And despite the fact That the front is not one contiguous piece, The e-reader also has an extremely solid feel . At 6.3 ounces, the Glo HD is roughly the same weight as the Voyage and weighs slightly less than the Paperwhite.
There are no devoted page turn buttons – to be expected after several generations, but again, the Kindle Voyage has spoiled me on That front. Along the bottom bezel is a small, tasteful Kobo logo in black on a black background – no doubt a response to customer complaints That bright white on black provede a bit distracting.
On the bottom, smack dab in the center is a Micro USB port for charging and syncing and a small hole is its right Directly for old school manual resets courtesy of a paperclip. The e-reader’s button salts is a big, bold, silvery affair located on top of the e-reader That handles both power and sleep.
Back of the book
Never underestimate the Importance of the back. After all, if you’re the sort of person who’s going to drop $ 130 on a devoted e-reader, you’re probably also the type who reads a lot, for long stretches. The whole thing feels like a bit of an afterthought on the Voyage, with Amazon more focused on a consistency of design language across Kindles.
The back of the Glo HD, on the other hand, is a nice confluence of elements. The material is a rubberized soft touch material with a nice, comfortable feel and a texturized surface so as to avoid slippage. That surface is paired with slightly beveled sides designed it conform with the user’s fingers for better gripping.
Screen Time
The dirty little secret of the e-reader market Is That, with so few companies actually making devoted reading devices, there are even fewer making components for them. That Means, almost certainly, that for parts developed out of the house they once product picks up a cool feature, the competition is sure to follow soon enough.
The Kobo Glo HD e-reader and Kindle Voyage both with Their lights fired up.
Image: Brian Heater / Mashable
That goes double for displays . E Ink is pretty much the only game in town these days, and sure enough, the Glo HD wore the same Carta display that this year’s e-reader party (how embarrassing) as the Voyage, sporting a stellar 300 pixels per inch (PPI) . Means That, at least on this front, there’s not a lot to distinguish These devices. It also Means, however, that you’re in for a nice, high-res display e-reader whichever you end up choosing. The new screen Means sharper text, better images and the ability to read smaller font-sizes. For most e-readers, the Increased resolution will not have a huge impact on reading.
E Ink is pretty easy on the eyes across the board and Continues to be a better solution for reading plain text on the page, PARTICULARLY in daylight than a tablet’s glass screen. Moving ahead, it’s hard to Imagine That Increased screen resolution will continue to be on the battlefield Which e-reader Future Wars Will Be Fought – after all, we’re pretty darn close to the same resolution as real ink on paper.
Kobo’s also gotten pretty good on the “glo” front, as well. The company’s been producing good, evenly-distributed lighting front. Though, once again, the light does suffer when compared to the Kindle Directly Voyage, with a yellowish hue and some blotchy distribution near the bottom bezel from Which the light originates.
Under the cover of
Image: Brian Heater / Mashable
The Glo HD and Voyage share some key similarities inside, as well, namely 4GB of storage and a 1GHz processor. Sadly, there’s no expandable storage this time-out. Cloud storage / syncing has lessened the need for dry things, but it’s always a handy feature both for adding more books to the library and for loading your own digital documents and books manually – it’s also something that’s helped Kobo distinguish itself from the competition.
Strangely, in spite of the standard 1GHz processor, my unit felt a bit sluggish. There was a noticeable lag when performing simple tasks like opening up books. Despite the fact that I’ve been using the Voyage for several months now and have loaded the thing up with books, Amazon’s e-reader consistently opened books faster – sometime by a second or two. It does not sound like a lot, but it’s a nuisance That adds up to.
The Glo HD has the Wi-Fi standard on board – as ever, 3G is strictly the realm of the Kindle, Which isn ‘t likely to be an issue with most users. The battery, meanwhile, is listed as “up to two months, the” standard fare for Kobo.
Software
Not much has changed on the software front since last year’s H20. In fact, Kobo’s UI has been pretty consistent for a few generations now. On the front page, is a series of squares, featuring the most recently read titles and a link to your library.
Like Amazon, the company has also integrated Recommendations Directly onto the home page – after all, selling books is a huge part of how really These companies generate revenue. At the top is a search bar for finding titles specifically among the four million or so in the company’s e-book store, as well as more more additional links to the store at the bottom.
The Kobo Glo HD (left) versus the Kindle Voyage (right).
Image: Brian Heater / Mashable
I personally prefer Amazon’s carousel method of organizing books, as well as its quick link to cloud storage, but that’s little more than personal preference. Both companies have been tweaking the software Their long enough to have perfectly serviceable offerings.
As ever, Kobo distinguishes itself by supporting a number of different file types, Including PUB, EPUB3, PDF and MOBI, Which can be loaded Directly onto the e-reader when connected to a computer via USB. And it’s not quite the X-ray, but the company does offer some detailed stats on your reading habits, as well as Those Xbox-style “Awards,” if you’re looking for a way to motivate yourself toward That New Year’s resolution of reading more this year.
A fine mainstream e-reader
Kobo’s scattershot approach to the market has resulted in a handful of devices have felt fairly That gimmicky. There’s the uber pricey Aura HD, the pint-sized Mini and, of course, last year’s waterproof H20. The Glo HD, however, is a legitimate mainstream e-reader.
It has a nice design and a high-end screen – and best of all, it undercuts the Kindle Voyage by a margin significant_coeff_flag
Beyond the display, there are not a heck of a lot of bells and whistles present, even though expandable storage has been removed. But the Glo HD has just about everything most users want from a current-gen e-reader, and for many users the mere fact That the company is continuing to provide your an alternative to the Amazon stranglehold is reason enough to want it around.
Kobo Glo HD
The Good
The high-resolution screen • Compact design • Significantly cheaper than the Kindle Voyage
The Bad
Sluggish performance • No expandable storage
The Bottom Line
The Kobo Glo HD brings nice design language and a hi-res screen is a quality mid-tier e-reader.
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