A Kobo Glo Review From An Avid Reader

I’ve had the Kobo Glo for about a week now, and I’m really happy with it. I love eink because the battery lasts longer, and I can read outside in the daylight and inside. I usually read in the dark, and the Glo feature was exactly what I needed. I previously read on my Kobo Vox, which was very sluggish and the battery wouldn’t last the whole day. I really wanted to go back to eink reading.

Most reviews that I’ve read mention that the Kobo Glo has a slight blue tint to the light. I haven’t notice this. The light is very bright when turned all the way up. I turned it down a few notches and it’s perfect. I find it more comfortable to read with it turned down a bit. I usually keep the light on during the day as well, since it gives the text a black on white feel, without the light it’s still the black text on the grayish background. The text is very sharp, and I love Kobo’s advanced text formatting which lets you darken or lighten the text, in addition to changing the font style and size. Kobo is very customizable.

The Kobo Glo comes with 2 GB’s of internal storage. Only 1 GB is available to store content. Kobo states that it will hold up to 1,000 books based on books being 1 MB per book. The reality is not all books are only 1 MB. I currently have about 300 books stored, and I’m almost full. The Kobo Glo has the option to add an additional Micro SD card, which is something that I will be adding.

The battery has been impressive. I charge it every few days. I’ve never had the battery deplete more than 50%. I prefer to see if fully charge. I’m sure I can go a week before charging. Adobe Digital Editions was very easy to set up, and downloading review galley’s was very simple. The touch screen is very responsive, and I haven't had an trouble changing pages.

Kobo is very intuitive and easy to use. The Kindle is also easy to use, but I prefer Kobo’s menu. The library displays the book covers, which I really like. I believe the new Kindle Paperwhite does as well. My Kindle 4th generation does not.

Kobo really needs to improve on their book recommendations. Most books recommended to me are in my Kobo library. I don’t take any of their recommendations seriously, and tend to just laugh at my suggestions. The Kobo awards are a nice option, but I haven’t received a new award in a long time. I think I’ve gotten most of them. I wish Kobo would introduce some new ones. Sideloading book is very easily.

(One of these does not belong in the similar books category...)

I will admit I’ve had customer service issues with Kobo in the past. In the end, I’ve been patient with them and they’ve worked through all my problems. In Canada we don’t have many options with ereaders. The Paperwhite is currently not available, and the Nook is also not available. I could order them but I would be paying more for a third party company to ship to me. Since I have over 300 ebooks purchased through Kobo, I’ve stayed with them. I’m still looking for them to improve. Their store still doesn’t have a cart and no preorders. I’m really hoping they don’t release firmware updates that fix one thing, but break something else.

I bought the Pink Sleepcover, and I love it! I wasn't really sure if I would like it. I tend to enjoy sleeves more but the sleepcover is perfect for the commuter. When I'm on and off the metro or the bus, I can close it and it turns off automatically. I can open it and it wakes up. The elastic makes sure the cover stays closed, and I can bend it back all the way if I don't feel like using both hands. The Sleepcover was 40$ and I'm really happy with it.

If you are thinking about the Kobo Glo, and you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me.

Kobo Website

Kobo Glo

Technical Specs

Ebook formatting issues Kobo issue?

I know that I've expressed my concern about ebook formatting issues that I have experienced. Here is an example of two more.

Notice the drop letter is actually dropped to the second line. This continued on EVERY page! This was only an issue on my KOBO Vox using the Kobo App, when I downloaded the DRM file to Overdrive, it looked normal.

Also, I purchased Born Wicked by Jessica Spotswood, and the cover stated "Advanced Uncorrected Galley-Not For Sale." As a blogger, I know what a galley is.

I've opened a ticket with Kobo, I'm hoping they can look into these issues.

The Control on ebooks

It seems that ebooks have changed the way publishers control their books. I feel like publishers are taking this new technology and reevaluating their control. I’ve noticed a big change in restrictions from the time I began buying ebooks to now. Initially, coupons were available for all books and now fewer publishers are allowing coupons to be applied to books. Why is this not the case in physical bookstores? Personally, I’ve figured out which publishers allow coupons and I will more than likely buy books from those publishers over the others. Kobo releases coupons almost weekly, and I will seek out the books I want from the publishers that allow coupons. The publishers who don’t allow coupons are normally put on the backburner. I do purchase from those publishers, but I’m more likely to purchase an ebook that allows a coupon to be applied.


I’ve also noticed that not all ebooks are available on purchase date at all the online ebook retailers. Some are available on Kindle before Epub or Nook books are released, or vice versa. Why would publishers want to limit their books? I wonder what the logic is behind that. Do retailers bid for these new releases?

Ebooks are still a new technology, and I keep wondering how it will evolve. I would love to be able to lend ebooks to other users, I do not have this capability on my readers. I do believe Kindle users have this feature. I’m not sure how restricted it is. I would also love the ability to have an ebook copy when I purchase a hardcopy, similar to a digital copy when buying a movie. Often I buy both the ebook version and a physical copy. How do you feel about the restrictions on ebooks?

***Update***

ECW Press is providing free ebooks, for those who pruchase hardcopies.

From their website

Buy one of our Spring 2012 books, and get the eBook for free!

We have some pretty exciting news for those of you who, like us, love print books — the aesthetic, the weight in your hands, even the smell — but also enjoy the ease of eBooks.

We are pleased to announce that when you purchase any of the books on our Spring list, you can get the eBook version for free! We're also honouring the deal for new purchases of backlist titles going forward (as long as we have the eBook files and the rights to distribute).

ECW Press co-publisher, David Caron had this to say about the free eBook promotion:

“When readers pay top price for one of our books, we feel they should be able to read it in the way that fits best with their life: a printed book in a comfy chair, an eBook on their phone on the bus, whatever. We also wanted to find a way to include bookstores that don’t sell eBooks, so that both the store’s customers and the bookseller feel that they are getting good value from an ECW Press book.”

Visit ecwpress.com/ebook for more details.

The Quality of ebooks

I can't help but wonder if ebooks go through the same type of quality inspection as print copies. The majority of books that I read are in ebook format, and I can't help but notice all the formatting issues in ebooks lately. Even with a print book, I expect to see some errors occasionally but I've actually bought a few ebooks that I couldn't read because the quality was so poor. I've noticed sentences being split half way through and placed as another paragraph, font sizes defaulting to a large unreadable size and overall many different quality issues including spacing in the middle of a word.

I was wondering if anyone else has noticed this? I've actually noticed so many issues in one ebook, that I couldn't help but bring it to the publishers attention, and they mentioned that they would have to send a new file to the retailer. These ebooks that I'm talking about are not advanced copies, they are released ebooks that are purchased. 98% of my ebooks are purchased through Kobo.com,  and I don't know if this is a retailer issue or publisher issue.

I'd love to hear what others experiences are with ebooks.

Here is an example of a size small font, that I just couldn't read on my Sony Reader. It was too large, and uncomfortable to read. I would be flipping pages constantly. I read it on my Ipad, through the Kobo App it seemed normal. This may have been an Adobe DRM file issue.

I've also seen fonts default to such a small almost unreadable font, and when expanding- it was too large.