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Kobo Glo HD VS Amazon Kindle Voyage

By 13 Comments

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Amazon released their Kindle Voyage e-reader late in 2014 and was critically acclaimed. Many journalists said it was the best Kindle ever made, primarily due to the 1430 x 1080 resolution and 300 PPI. Six months later Kobo announced their second generation Glo, the Glo HD.

Today we compare two of the best e-readers on the market to give you a sense on the overall performance. Sure on paper they basically have the same specs, but hardware isn’t everything. We look at the e-reading experience and also how both units handle PDF files.

After watching this video you will gain an understanding the primary differences between the Amazon and Kobo ecosystem. The two companies approach the UI and software experiences in vastly different ways.


Michael Kozlowski

Michael Kozlowski is the Editor in Chief of Good e-Reader. He has been writing about audiobooks and e-readers for the past ten years. His articles have been picked up by major and local news sources and websites such as the CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and Verge.

  • Jason

    It would have been nice if you had adjusted the Kobo line spacing so that it actually looks like it can display more than a few words per page.

  • RK

    Great review, as always. Love this site and your Youtube channel also!

  • Pixilicious

    There’s one BIG difference between the two: Kobo respects their users enough to allow 3rd party software like KoReader to be installed. Amazon does not. In fact, Amazon has gone to great lengths to ensure that users cannot put KoReader on their devices.

    This is sort of a big deal because KoReader brings a whole lot to the party … like 2 column landscape, night mode, Kobo’s *complete* control over the ebook experience (as you say in the video) within KoReader, *very* easy ebook organization (KoReader understands folders so organizing a library is trivial) AND a *much* better PDF reader with text reflow.

    It is sad, however, that Kobo is abandoning the SDCard because that was one of the big reasons for choosing Kobo over Kindle. They still have KoReader, though, as well as native control of the typography. For me, that makes a big difference. That and the price.

    Personally, I’ve developed an immense dislike for Bezos and his need to dictate to his users how an ebook will be displayed. I dislike it enough, in fact, to *never* buy a Kindle again. I’m actually quite angry about it.

  • Well,we are all aware of like the super advanced things people could, but it is legitimately a very small audience. Sort of like the hardcore types that hang out a mobileread.

  • 3 cheers for RK!

  • Claude

    But it would have made the Kobo looked better, which doesn’t seem to be the intention here…

  • Reader

    Even though Amazon dominates the e-reader market in the US, thus far we have not suffered some negative consequences of such dominance- lack of product innovation due to lack of competition, along with a jacking up of prices. Amazon has improved its products, such as adding the ability to sort books into shelves, and as I paid $30 after rebate for a Kindle, I can’t complain about the price. Recent reviews of the Kobo Glow HD and the Onyx Boox i86 indicate that there are still choices outside Amazon. It is a shame that Barnes & Noble has been left in the dust, as the Nook Simple Touch was pretty good for its time, and is still my main e-reader.

  • AK

    Considering the price, will you do a comparison with the Paperwhite 2? Roughly the same price in the US.

  • jubuttib

    One thing you probably should have pointed out more clearly on the PDF test, when you zoomed in to show the face of the fire-grandpa, is that the Kindle seems to have simply MASSIVELY better greyscale reproduction than the Kobo. The difference in detail on the flames is humongous, the Kindle looks almost like it could handle nearly 50% more grey levels.

    This is a really troubling time for me. I’m looking forwards to buying my first eBook reader that would be used a lot for also handling comics on top of books. Basically this means Kobo, since they support CBR and CBZ formats, but which Kobo? The Aura has a very low resolution compared to the Glo HD, which makes a difference with images, but the Glo HD doesn’t have a microSD slot which really hurts because 3.1 GB can’t really eat up that many comics and books. And the H2O is just way above the range I’m willing to pay right now… =/

  • Excellent reading for your holiday lounging in Guadeloupe

  • Rich S.

    A totally useless review with lots of mumbling and taking over the other person.
    Since this a review for ereaders it should be assumed users actually know how to read.
    Put up a written review. A video is NOT always worth a 1000 words.

  • Ram Siva

    you can install your own microSD card in the gloHD. It’s not official but works. search youtube for tutorials.

  • Mick Blu

    What is most glaringly omitted in this review is that the Kobo is brutally slow in performing certain functions, some very critical, such as the speed of loading books. It took an incredibly long time to load 50 ePubs to the Kobo HD, not for the transfer time, but how long it took the Kobo to build the index. By contrast the Kindle is done the millisecond the transfer is complete. Both are done using Calibre (the way I store and categorize my books, nothing else will do and I always have both ePub and mobi formats on file so there’s no delay).

    Another slowness is (as mentioned I believe) the page change where the Kindle definitely is fast. Also, the ‘fabled’ setting functions on the Kobo – changing any setting is quite slow / sluggish and I found myself often pressing and then pressing again because either the touchscreen had not ‘caught’ my touch or the Glo was so slow in responding. Neither of these are issues with the Kindle.

    You know, I believe a review should be honest and meaningful, not pander to the manufacturer. I come to these sites for information, not meaningless mumbo jumbo.

    IMHO the Kindle blows the Kobo out of the water in terms of the principal functionality of an eReader – useability! Gray scale rendering quality may be of some importance to a minority of folks (if you’re interested in picture quality, use a tablet!) but book loading and page turn speed are very important. Also, try and find a book in the Kobo if you have 50 loaded (not a lot compared to how much memory can hold!) and you’ll find the Kobo’s search function slow, and once you’ve selected a book, it takes an awfully long time before the book is actually available to read, whereas the Kindle is almost instant.

    The sluggishness carries across to almost every aspect of use. Eject the reader from the PC (or Mac in my case) and wait to see how long it takes for the reader to ‘notice’ it is ejected. It took so long I landed up rebooting the darn thing, thinking it had gone up its wazoo! Kindle is snap, snap, snap.

    Hacking is nice, jailbreaking and changing operating systems too, but useability is my number one priority. After all, if the reader frustrates you at every turn by its sluggishness (it’s not just this unit, I tried an Aura and it was even a bit worse) how often will you read on it?

    To me the test is it should be unobtrusive – just like reading a physical book!