The Kobo Glo HD and Amazon Kindle Voyage both of front-lit display screens. Five LED lights are on the bottom of the bezel and project light upwards. Today, we compare these two e-readers side by side to definitely answer the question, which one is better.
The Amazon Kindle Voyage has an ambient light sensor that will automatically adjust the brightness of the screen, depending on your environment. Under the shade of a tree, or a dimly lit space, this works very well. In complete darkness though, such as a bedroom with all of the lights turned off, the screen becomes too dark to read effectively. Of course you can manually adjust it to your preference using the slider bar.
The Kobo Glo HD does not have a light sensor but they do have a very novel feature. You can drag your finger down on the left side of the screen to turn the light on or off, and adjust the different levels of brightness. Alternatively you can access the main slider bar from the settings menu.
When both e-readers are at 100% brightness it is very clear from our tests that the Kindle has a background that is pure white. This makes the black font really standout. The Glo HD on the other hand has a cloudy gray background.
In the video below, we demonstrate all of the light ranges so you can get a sense on how they compare against each other. Whether you are in the Amazon or Kobo camp, or just buying an e-reader for the best time, reading in the dark is inevitable.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.