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Kobo Glo review

Our Rating :
Price when reviewed : £100
inc VAT

A great hi-resolution screen, excellent store and built-in light make this an excellent eReader, but the Kindle Paperwhite is better

Kobo has done staggeringly well since it launched in 2010, providing the main competition to Amazon with its excellent hardware, store and smartphone apps. The great Kobo eReader Touch kept pace with the Amazon Kindle Touch last year, and Kobo has done the same this year with its Kobo Glo.

SCREEN

As the name suggests, this model has integrated LEDs (called the ComfortLight) to light up the screen in a similar way to the light used on the Amazon Kindle Paperwhite. Not only that, but Kobo has also opted for the same touchscreen E Ink Pearl screen as Amazon with a 1,024×768 resolution, up from the 800×600 screen of last year’s models.

Spec-for-spec, then, the two devices seem pretty well matched. In isolation, the Kobo’s screen looks fantastic. The higher resolution makes text that little bit sharper than before, letting you use the smaller font sizes without straining your eyes. We really like the built-in light, too, which means that you can read under any lighting condition.

Compared side-by-side with the Kindle Paperwhite and we have to say that Amazon’s device is slightly better. We found the contrast better and the text that little bit darker. The lights may use similar technology but they don’t work the same way. While the Paperwhite’s light is always on (you can adjust the intensity but not turn it off) and helps boost contrast, by making the background look brighter; the Kobo Glo’s version is more of a traditional reading light, designed for when it’s too dark to read normally.

Kobo Glo full brightness The Glo’s light is certainly bright

Next to the Paperwhite, the Glo’s light is definitely brighter, but it’s not as well distributed and there’s a clear strip of light at the top where the LEDs are. With the light turned on the Glo’s screen is easy to read, but the text looks a little more washed out.

Kobo Glo power and light buttons You can turn the light off using the dedicated button on top, next to the power slider

Kobo has fitted a dedicated button to turn the ComfortLight on and off, and there’s an on-screen slider to change the brightness. There’s no information on-screen to show you the level that you’ve set it at, as with the Paperwhite, so you have to judge the setting by eye.

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Details

Price£100
Detailswww.kobobooks.com
Rating*****

Hardware

Viewable size6.0in
Native resolution1,024×768
Touchscreen y/nyes
Capacity2,048MB
Memory card supportMicro SD
Size114x165x10mm
Weight184g
Battery and charge optionsLi-ion, USB
Wireless networking support802.11n
3G?no
Portsnone

Format Support

eReader TXT supportyes
eReader HTML supportyes
eReader RTF supportyes
eReader PDF supportyes
eReader ePub supportyes
eReader MOBI supportyes
eReader Amazon AZW supportno
eReader Microsoft Word supportyes
Audio MP3 playbackNo
Audio WMA playbackNo
Audio WMA-DRM playbackNo
Audio AAC playbackNo
Audio Protected AAC playbackNo
Audio OGG playbackNo
Audio WAV playbackNo
Audio Audible playbackNo
Image BMP supportYes
Image JPEG supportYes
Image TIFF supportYes

Buying Information

Price£100
Warrantyone year RTB
Supplierhttp://www.whsmith.co.uk
Detailswww.kobobooks.com

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