Summary
Switching from Kindle Oasis to Kobo Libra Colour was the right choice, offering a better reading experience.
The Kobo Libra Colour's color screen has drawbacks and advantages.
Transitioning to Kobo allowed for more control over library organization and DRM-free book access compared to Amazon Kindle.
I loved my Kindle Oasis . I still do, if I'm being honest. Its build quality is excellent, its screen is sharp and beautiful, and reading e-books on it is, generally speaking, a total pleasure. But last month, I made the switch to Kobo, and I am not looking back.
It was the announcement of the Kobo Libra Colour in 2024 that first had me seriously considering the switch. I'd been curious about color e-ink screens for a while. The technology is interesting, but I was also curious about reading full-color comics on my e-reader. And while I knew that would come with compromises in screen quality, as well as color accuracy compared to an actual comic or a traditional tablet, like an iPad, I remained intrigued.
I am certain I made the right choice to ditch Amazon.
Finally, after months of hemming and hawing, I finally made the move and bought a Kobo Libra Colour, along with a Kobo branded SleepCover and a third-party stylus for taking notes on it. After just a few weeks of using it, I am certain I made the right choice to ditch Amazon.
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Me and my Kindle
Why I wanted out of the ecosystem
Kindle oasis
kindle oasis
Amazon Kindle Oasis
Screen
7in E Ink, 300ppi, 25 LED illumination, adjustable warm light
Storage
8/32GB
Battery
6 weeks
Dimensions
159 x 141 x 3.4-8.4mm, 188g
The 2019 Kindle Oasis is probably the best all-around e-reader Amazon ever made. It has since been discontinued, as Amazon focuses in on its regular Kindle, Paperwhite, Scribe, and recently introduced Colorsoft lines. That's too bad, as the Oasis had a specific advantage over their other Kindle products: buttons. While the rest of Amazon's e-readers use similarly excellent e-ink screens, and have many of the same features as the Oasis, they lack the Oasis's asymmetrical layout, with page turn buttons on one side.
Simply put: the Oasis is easier to hold, thanks to its shape, and clicking the page turn buttons makes for a much more enjoyable reading experience than swiping the touch screen. You can still swipe to turn the page on the Oasis, but there's no question in my mind the buttons are better.
I wanted out of the Amazon ecosystem.
I loved my Oasis, and I still do in many ways, but I slowly began feeling annoyed by it. First off, I didn't like how locked down Amazon's ecosystem was. While it was possible to sideload books, including through Amazon's send-to-Kindle function, which added syncing functionality between devices, the Oasis clearly wasn't built for that. It wouldn't be a problem if all my books were purchased directly from Amazon, but I source books from all kinds of places, including stores, the Project Gutenberg site, advanced copies, and more. Keeping all that organized on the Kindle was becoming a chore.
But there were two bigger issues for me. The first was that I wanted to be able to borrow e-books from my local library. Unfortunately, I am in Canada, where the OverDrive lending system does not work with Kindle. That was immediately a point in Kobo's favor. Then there was the simple fact that I, like many others, have become disillusioned with Amazon as a company, including their monopolistic practices within the book industry. I wanted out of their ecosystem.
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It would give two of Apple's services a lot more raison d'etre.
A dash of color
Making the move to Kobo
Kindle vs Kobo
Kobo Libra Colour-1
Kobo Libra Colour
The Kobo Libra Colour is a game changer. The Libra Colour allows users to scribble down their every thought as they read, write in a separate notebook, and access their own Google Drive.
Screen
7-inch E Ink Kaleido 3 display with FastGLR and Dark Mode (150ppi)
Storage
32GB
Battery
A single charge on the eReader lasts up to 40 days, based on 30 minutes of reading per day with the front light at 30% brightness and WiFi and Bluetooth® wireless technology off.
Dimensions
5.7 x 6.3 x 0.32-inches (144.6 x 161 x 8.3mm)
Brand
Kobo
Connectivity
USB-C
Part of the reason it took so long to make the switch to Kobo was that my Oasis was, and remains, a perfectly great device. Why should I spend the money on a whole new e-reader when I have a working Oasis already? But those issues, particularly the lack of library borrowing and the Amazon of it all, started weighing on me. And it helped that Kobo had released the Kobo Libra Colour.
The Libra 2 was already an appealing device to me, given that its layout and page turn buttons already made it a decent alternative to the Oasis. Still, it wasn't exactly an upgrade. The Libra Colour, though, marked an upgrade in a variety of ways. Better battery life than the Oasis, for example, as well as the ability to take notes with a stylus, and a faster processor for a smoother experience. Plus, of course, the color screen.
When I compare the Oasis and Libra screens directly, there's no question the Oasis is the better one, though the Libra is still very good.
Though it should be said, the color screen is not necessarily an upgrade. Because of how e-ink technology works, to achieve color, the very sharp black-and-white screen has a filter applied to it that makes the screen darker overall, affecting contrast, as well as softening text. There are many who will find the screen a downgrade, despite the color capabilities. When I compare the Oasis and Libra screens directly, there's no question the Oasis is the better one, though the Libra is still very good. And color has advantages, too, including a nicer-looking interface with color book covers, as well as color-coded highlights, and, of course, color comics.
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Kobo's new color E Ink eReaders start at only $150
The new Libra Color, Clara Color, and Clara BW models are available for pre-order now, and are launching on April 30.
A great decision
Settling on my choice
The Kobo Libra Colour sits on a gray couch.
I'll admit that I waffled a bit on whether to keep my new Kobo Libra Colour after purchasing it. It was a great device, but was it really better? And was spending that money worth it just to get away from Amazon and borrow books from the library? It didn't take long for me to know I'd made a great decision.
Just a few days after I bought the Kobo, Amazon made a big change that confirmed my move was the right one.
The first thing was getting my personal library all set up. Though Kindle books generally have DRM locking them down, I was able to download all my purchases, strip them of their copy protections, and load them into the e-book organization app Calibre. Using Calibre, I also organized all my other e-books into one large library, and I even went ahead and fixed a lot of the metadata on my books to get them all in order for syncing with my new Kobo. It's a pretty manual process, but one that has me feeling more in control of my library. Now, even when I purchase books directly from the Kobo store, I keep a stored copy in Calibre.
Then, just a few days after I bought the Kobo, Amazon made a big change that confirmed my move was the right one. The company announced that at the end of February, they would no longer allow users to download copies of their purchased Kindle e-books directly to a computer. It's bad enough to have DRM on purchased books, but not allowing users to download the files directly makes it clear that purchasing books does not mean owning them. Luckily, I'd made the switch to Kobo in time to download all my Kindle books, but others have had to scramble, looking for other ways to get access to the e-books they bought. I'm certainly glad that I was able to go through that without any headache, and be away from Amazon's closed ecosystem for good, enjoying comics on my Kobo Libra Colour.
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