Beside Vox tablet, Kobo has created some
quality device, but it’s unable to create a big dent in the electronic reader
market (e-reader). In case of the Glo front-lit electronic reader ($129), Kobo can
be interfered by the unlucky choice of time. Though the company has a leap in
everything in the last round with Kobo Touch, Glo still trails behind similar
devices which are Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight and Amazon Kindle
Paperwhite. But, can this reader be able to have the essential things to
convince the Kindle and Nook owner to take a jump of faith? Let’s find out.
Kobo
has created some quality device, but it’s unable to create a big dent in the
electronic reader market (e-reader)
Hardware
The more things change, the more similar
they are – or, in electronic reader market, the more things change, the more
identical they look like. When the dependent readers continue to go down the
path to the button-free touch-screen devices, it will be hard to distinguish
the competition. It’s clear that Kobo doesn’t do much in terms of radical
design change since the time of Touch, but it has some changes for the device’s
front; remove the home button on the bottom bezel and replace it with the logo in
lower case. These changes are enough to make the device the death knell for the
recently released Kindle Paperwhite, especially if you buy it in the black
version.
It’s
clear that Kobo doesn’t do much in terms of radical design change since the
time of Touch, but it has some changes for the device’s front
However, at a closer look, there’re some
important differences. First, it’s the fact that Kobo has succeeded in offering
a thinner, shorter form factor, with 6.4x4.5 inches (down from 6.5x4.5 inches on
Kobo Touch). It’s comparable to 6.7x4.6 inch of Paperwhite, though it has the
thickness of 0.39 inch compared to 0.36 inch of Amazon. More impressive is the
fact that Kobo has reduced the weight of the device; it has the same way of 6.5
ounce as Touch – not too bad compared to Paperwhite 7.5 ounces and Simple Touch
with GlowLight 6.95 ounces. When you’re holding a device like this for a long
time, each ounce is important. But while Kobo scores for keeping the device
lightweight, this reader doesn’t have the same built quality as rivals.
All of the physical buttons do not sit on
the device. There’s a switch for power/waking the device from sleep mode.
Sitting on its side is a small rectangular-shaped night light button. Kobo has
promoted the trend by combining 1 physical button to turn on/off the front
light. It’s hard to tell which method is better. After all, on the whole is
personal habit – we can’t say that we prefer this thing to that thing. We prefer
having the physical page-turning button of the Simple Touch line, but Kobo has
abandoned these buttons several generations before. While you use the physical
button to turn on/off the light, the blurring process still appears on the
entire touch screen. Nearby is a small notification light which will emit green
light when the device starts up.
On the left of the device, you have a microSD
slot, allowing you to expand the 2GB pre-installed storage of the device to 32GB
max. Such problem can be debated in this era of cloud that appear almost
everywhere (in this case is Kobo Everywhere), but it’s always be a welcome
feature. On the underside, there’s a micro-USB port. Naturally, the back still
keeps the diamond pattern – it won’t be a Kobo device for not having that.
However, it’s a little softer here, which makes it equal to other new devices
of Kobo. (It doesn’t provide much friction to prevent sliding capability). The
interesting thing is that the back cover can be prayed, if you need to change
the battery or see the components inside. In our case, we have tom pry it open
to find out why the device has strange rattle sound. It turns out that the
battery has been dislodged during shipping process.
On
the left of the device, you have a microSD slot, allowing you to expand the 2GB
pre-installed storage of the device to 32GB max.
The entire device is covered with a kind of
soft material you expect on the electronic readers and other devices. Kobo is
selling the device with black and gray, as well as light pink and green. We’re
quite satisfied with the classic black, but selections will be attractive to
some customers. In general, there’s not much to be exciting in terms of
hardware design – especially because we have the similar- looking Kindle
Paperwhite. Most of our concerns we had about the form factor of Paperwhite are
brought over here – no device is as good when holding as the Nook line of Barnes
& Noble. However, Kobo scores for attempting to reduce the weight.
The
entire device is covered with a kind of soft material you expect on the
electronic readers and other devices
Screen
When Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight was
offered early this year, we’re quite impressive. The device shows promise with
the front-lit E Ink screen in the way we’ve never seen before. When Kindle
Paperwhite was released just after several months, the exclusive tech of Barnes
& Noble seems to be outdated. The front-lit method of Amazon, rumored to
take 4 tears of researching, provides illumination what is more evenly
distributed and whiter all over the screen. So, how does Glo do after the
appearance of those 2 rivals? We have to admit that the company has been
successful in the first ever try.
The
device shows promise with the front-lit E Ink screen in the way we’ve never
seen before
Glo even has a lot of commonalities with Paperwhite
in that term, with excellent light distribution all over the screen, there’s no
uneven array. According to Kobo, that’s thanks to “nano-printed fiber-optic
film” – a tech that sounds pretty familiar to the one that is deployed by
Amazon. When turning on, it’s hard to say accurately where the light comes from
(if you tilt it and have a close look at it, you can see that the light source
is under the bottom bezel). In summary, that’s an innovation that is bigger
than the easy-to-detect light source of Nook. And similar to Kindle, there’s no
blue color appears on Simple Touch with GlowLight. If you’re finding faults,
there’s a yellow color that is slightly recognizable here, which you can see
when placing the device in front of Paperwhite. In general, the page seems to
be whiter than e-ink standard with max brightness.
However, though the front light is
interesting, there’s a huge disadvantage for the performance of Kobo – the text
contrast is remarkably affected. When reading with the light off, there’re not
much differences between Paperwhite and Glo – however, turn the light on, it
becomes much perceptible. Though the text contrast seems a little compromised,
the company has added some features that allow you to adjust the sharpness and
the size of the text. If it’s too dark, the text quality is downgraded,
especially when comparing to the default settings of Paperwhite. We have
realized some circumstances that have text shade, but in general it’s not too
bad. By default, you will have a complete refresh every 6 pages. The
interesting thing is that there’re options to change the frequency, though we
can’t imagine anyone who wants Kobo refresh more frequently.
However,
though the front light is interesting, there’s a huge disadvantage for the
performance of Kobo – the text contrast is remarkably affected.
