03 December 2020

Kobo Nia


This is the Kobo Nia (6 inch screen), the most basic Kobo eBook reader. Cost SGD 149.90 from Challenger Store. (US price $99). No bluetooth, no audio playback, no page turn buttons, 8G storage, built-in adjustable backlight for night reading, WiFi. Unlike Kindles, you can't load books by sending them to an email address. e-books transfer from computer via USB cable. 

I have owned the early Kobo models, Kindle 4, Kindle Paperwhite 2 and the Kindle Oasis 2 (which cost me just under SGD 500. Crazy! Stupid to have spent that much on an e-book reader I will admit now). My early experience with the Kobo e-readers were so bad that I swore never to buy another piece of Kobo hardware again. While initially thrilled by the KO2, after a long time using it I started to miss the optimal size of the smaller readers. Also the KO2 battery life sucks. Hence the recent plunge back to the Kobo via their cheapest and most basic model, reasoning being that surely they must have upped their game after all these years.

My verdict : Love it! Fantastic! Best size for me, ability to side load my favored reading font (Amazon Ember Bold), excellent battery life. (Miss the page turn buttons of the KO2 though).  Also so nice to see cover of current book on the front when in sleep mode.

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