Practicality and superb value in an eReader? Border's Kobo may be the answer!

eReader Review HQ brings you a review of the Kobo eReader by Borders.

Mega bookstore Borders launched its Kobo eReader many months ago as a practical choice to its customers at a wallet pleasant price starting at $119.99. But there's much more, because it comes preloaded with a hundred public-domain ebooks. We're all for a no-frills device due to the fact there are particular products better suited for our other requirements. Occasionally what you want in an eReader is simply to be able to load your eBooks in it and hit the ground running.

The Kobo is easy to carry, because of its book like dimensions of 4.7 x 7.2 x 0.4 inches and light weight of less than 8 ounces. Its external shell is all plastic and sports two tones, white at the front end and a grey non-slip quilted back (we love this particular feature). The battery lasts 2 weeks or around 8000 pages before it requires charging and thank heavens for a simple 4 way D-Pad and center select navigation.In addition there are 4 buttons on the left side (Menu, Home, Back and also Display). The only thing we don't like in regards to the navigation system is that it is not intuitive for left-handed people, as the D-pad is at the lower right hand side of the Kobo.

They do employ E Ink technology meaning, unlike the ipad there isn't any glare or reflection that may hinder reading outdoors. Another feature we love is that it is already pre-loaded using the desktop app for Borders in order to instantly download content from your PC to your Kobo using a USB cable. You are able to increase the Kobo's 1GB (about 1,000 titles) memory to 4GB via an SD card slot. This can carry a lot of books but some still would like what other eReaders can provide which is 32GB SD card. It supports several file formats namely Adobe DRM, ePub and also PDF so you have a little flexibility with which files you are able to download.

Some would likely feel that since the Kobo has no 3G or WI-FI features it immediately shall be dismissed from ones' Christmas list but we believe otherwise. Were you that strict in your specifications when you were buying old fashioned literature? The fact is a great eReader is simply designed to deliver that functionality of being able to store information as well as let the owner read several books in a tiny unit. We think that the Kobo delivers on that fundamental need and then some for $120. If you?re looking for an alternative to the Kindle 3, the Kobo is worth a look.

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