![]() ![]() The prices ranged from 99 cents to $15.99. Kobo's store is mostly made of e-books, as we counted only 55 newspapers and 17 magazines in the store.Īs of this review, Kobo's store offered all 10 of the current e-book fiction bestsellers. By comparison, Amazon's e-book store offers 1.5 million books while Barnes & Noble's book store boasts 2.5 million. Just as with Amazon's Kindle and Barnes & Noble's Nook, you can sync your Kobo content with apps for Mac, Windows, iOS and Android smartphones and tablets.Ĭlick to EnlargeKobo boasts a library of more than 3 million e-books, comics, newspapers and magazines. Plus, you can tweak font sharpness and weight, so you can find the settings that are easiest on your eyes. The Kobo Mini offers seven font styles in 24 sizes. To get definitions, simply tap and hold a word to get a pop-up definition. We appreciated the preloaded Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. That is the longest interval available, and it matches the refresh rates of the competition. The Kobo Glo and Kobo Aura e-readers offer 1-MHz CPUs.īy default, the Mini only resets the full screen every six page turns, and that's when you notice a full second or so of inverted text flashing on the screen. When comparing page turns in side-by-side comparisons, the Kobo Mini proved to be a hair slower than Barnes & Noble Nook Simple Touch, which may be due to the 800-MHz processor under the hood. The Galaxy Note II and Nook Simple Touch both fit more the double the content on the page. However, the Kobo Mini's tiny screen only fit part of the first paragraph on a page. We also particularly appreciate the ability to tweak the font's sharpness and weight. When reading Gillian Flynn's "Gone Girl" side by side with the Barnes & Noble Nook Simple Touch, we preferred the contrast of the Kobo Mini better than the Nook. The Extras section is a catch-all of sorts for nonreading stuff, including chess, sudoku, a Web browser and the Sketch Pad app.Ĭlick to EnlargeThe extraordinarily lightweight 6-ounce Kobo Mini will never cause even the most frail person to tire from an extended reading marathon. Lefties will appreciate the ability to customize what part of the screen you touch to turn back or forward in a book. However, to update your profile, billing address or credit card details, you must go to From the settings menu, you can tweak your date, time and language change default power settings as well as manage your wireless connections. Tapping Settings opens a new screen for all sorts of apps and presets.įrom Settings, you can sign in to your Kobo and Facebook accounts. Tapping the menu button shows the wireless status, battery percentage, last date content was synced with the cloud, a help icon and a settings menu. On the top right is the battery icon and the menu button. Nor can you immediately see the percentage of a book you've read and how many hours you have to go.Īlong the top left edge of the Mini's interface is the Home button, which can be accessed from any other screen by tapping the bottom/middle of the display. But unlike the Mini's bigger cousin, the Aura HD, you cannot see your reading stats and any other recently opened apps on the home screen. From the graphically appealing home screen, you can see recently read content and get book recommendations. Overall, we found the Mini's interface easy to navigate. While the screen was accurate, we did note a second or two of flickering. Like the Nook Simple Touch, the Kobo Mini's touch screen is controlled via infrared, not capacitive or resistive technologies. The Kobo Mini does beat the basic Kindle by offering a touch screen, which Amazon does not. ![]() We imagine this helps keep the price down, but it would still be a nice feature to have. Unlike the Barnes & Noble Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight, the Kobo Mini doesn't offer a backlit reading experience. The Vizplex V110 display has 16 levels of grayscale. As a result, picking a winner here is nearly impossible. By comparison, the base model Kindle and the Nook Simple Touch offer an identical pixel density and resolutions. The Kobo Mini's resolution of 800 x 600 pixels equates to 167 dpi. The Mini's 5-inch E Ink touch screen is even smaller than the Samsung Galaxy Note II Android smartphone's 5.5-inch screen. Click to EnlargeSize is definitely the first thing you notice about this little device.
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