Slick ebook reader reviews

Kobo Aura 2 Review. Frontlight, load custom fonts , small and light, cheap. Kobo Clara HD Review. Light bleed issue, no page buttons and same basic Kobo design. Nook GlowLight 3 Review.

InkBook Lumos Review. Kindle Oasis 3. Kobo Forma Review. Frontlight issues , unusually wide design, rotation sensor finicky. Kobo Aura One Review. Kobo Aura H2O v2 Review. Likebook Mars Review. Open Android 6. Built-in reading app not very good, screen could refresh better with 3rd party apps.

Onyx Boox Nova Pro Review. Onyx Boox Note Nice screen, Android 6. Onyx Boox Max2 For some, of course, the Mini's more compact size may be a problem.

A lot of folks like to blow up the font size on their e-readers, and when you're dealing with a smaller display, you can end up with only a few lines of text per page. But if you're willing to read using a medium to small font, the Mini is quite usable, though you will end up turning pages more often. Entry-level specs From a specs standpoint, The Mini is something of a model -- it sports an older x Vizplex V e-ink display along with the aforementioned MHz procesor.

The Kobo Glo and Amazon Kindle Paperwhite both feature a higher-resolution 1,xpixel e-ink display. It works well; the screen was generally responsive to my touch. At the top of the device you'll find a power button, and there's a Micro-USB connection at the bottom of the device for charging you get a cable in the box but no AC adapter and transferring files.

It's also worth mentioning that there's no headphone jack, since the Mini, like all of the latest e-readers, doesn't have any sort of audio option. Cosmetically, the device comes in white or black, and Kobo sells interchangeable back covers that come in red, purple or teal, if you feel like swapping out the one that shipped with your device.

Features Kobo's done some interesting things with the fonts on the device. You can really customize how the text is displayed on the screen, with the ability to change the margins and justification, as well the sharpness and "weight" of particular fonts. I didn't find the contrast incredibly good -- the letters aren't inky black but more of a dark gray -- but after some adjustments, the text looks quite decent, even without the benefit of the higher-resolution display found on the Kobo Glo.

The other unique customization feature is the ability to adjust how often the screen refreshes -- that is to say, flashes -- to clear the ghosting inherent to e-ink. You can have it refresh every page turn or less often, down to every six page turns the setting is found under "Reading Settings". For those who don't like the flashing, you'll want to stick with six.

But if you don't mind the flashing and are more irritated by the ghosting artifacts, you can set it to refresh more frequently. Kobo's Reading Life social-reading features, and Kobo Picks, which makes reading recommendations based on your feedback and preferences, are also included, along with standard features such as a built-in dictionary with 13 different language options.

Yes, the Glo is an international device, so you can change its "base" language to one of several options. You can also highlight words and sentences and add annotations. Standard fare for an e-reader these days, but it's there. The same goes for library e-books: they have to be manually transferred over to your device. In contrast, many libraries now allow you to send files directly to other e-readers such as the Kindle. Kobo does have apps for Android and iOS, so you can sync books bought via the Kobo Store across multiple devices just as you can with the Nook, Kindle, and Sony Reader.

However, the Kobo Store simply isn't on par with the Kindle or Nook e-book stores and Kobo doesn't have an e-book lending option or anything like the Amazon Kindle Owners' Lending Library, which allows Prime members to check out certain e-books for free one book title per month. Amazon also has other small but useful features such as "Send to Kindle" plug-ins for browsers that you can use to send articles directly to your Kindle.

Finally, in the Mini's Extras section you'll find a couple games chess, sudoku , a sketchpad, and a basic Web browser that works but not well. Performance In December of Kobo released a firmware upgrade that offered some small performance tweaks and a updated home screen.

Over time, e-readers manage to improve slightly through software upgrades, and the Mini is no exception.