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Kindle Paperwhite vs Rakuten Kobo Aura ONE

Product Comparison: Kindle Paperwhite vs Rakuten Kobo Aura ONE

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Kindle Paperwhite E-reader (Previous Generation - 7th)

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Rakuten Kobo Aura ONE

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General Specifications

Brand

Kindle

Kobo

Model

Paperwhite

Aura ONE

Origin

China

Taiwan

About the Product

Kindle Paperwhite offers Bookerly, an exclusive font crafted from the ground up for reading on digital screens. Warm and contemporary, Bookerly is inspired by the artistry of the best fonts in modern print books, but is hand-crafted for great readability at any font size.

Designed with the help of our most passionate customers, Kobo Aura ONE was crafted to deliver the absolute best reading experience, period. At Kobo, we are 100% focused on making the reading experience better for Booklovers around the world. With Kobo Aura ONE, we took it one step further. We invited a group of our customers to work alongside us from start to finish. They challenged us to push the limits on screen size, front-light technology and easier access to the stories they love. The result? An eReader unlike any other.

Key Specs

Screen Size

6 in.

7.8 in.

Screen Resolution

300 ppi

Backlit Display

Yes

Kindle Paperwhite

Rakuten Kobo Aura ONE

Kindle Paperwhite

Rakuten Kobo Aura ONE

What customers say about "Key Specs"

Kindle Paperwhite E-reader (Previous Generation - 7th)

The backlight looks great. It's a perfect size. And because it's one page at a time, you overcome another annoyance of physical books.
First and foremost, it feels so good reading one hand with it. It is perfect for one hand use: perfect weight, perfect size, perfect grip. I like the feel of it so much I just can't put a case on it. I purchased a sleeve for it when it's not in use.
The screen is beautiful. Being able to read either in complete darkness or in direct sunlight is a thing of beauty - especially coming from an iPhone.
I wish the screen had a bit more contrast. It seems like the Voyage might excel here but for the price difference I'm still satisfied.
Lighting issues - obviously, not all Kindles are made with the same tone of lights
There is no way to make a black background while having lit text. This makes reading before bed very frustrating since I don't want such a bright light shining in my face. Because this is when I do my most reading, it loses two stars for not including this basic feature.

Rakuten Kobo Aura ONE

The display is crisp and well-defined, and the backlight is even in brightness, though not perfectly consistent in color.
I love the size. I saw people complaining about the large border size. Something must have changed.... I don't see this problem.
As for The Kobo Aura One, it's the biggest eReader with a 7.8" screen and a crisp 300ppi display. This makes a HUGE difference when compared to your standard 6" reader, so much so that you will never go back, trust me.
The screen size is exactly the size I want it to be, perfect for reading technical books that have lots of illustrations.
Auto blue light dimming: Screen gets yellower as it gets close to bed-time. Makes it easy on the eyes and helps me to not stay up too late.
Response time can be laggy, and sometimes doesn't register a tap or swipe
Unable to go to specific page or percent to go to in a book, you have to use a clumsy slider. Really annoying.

Size & Weight

Height

6.7 in.

7.7 in.

Width

4.6 in.

5.45 in.

Depth

0.36 in.

0.23 in.

Weight

7.2 oz.

8.11 oz.

Kindle Paperwhite

Rakuten Kobo Aura ONE

Kindle Paperwhite

Rakuten Kobo Aura ONE

Kindle Paperwhite

Rakuten Kobo Aura ONE

Kindle Paperwhite

Rakuten Kobo Aura ONE

Features

Color

Black

Control Type

Touchscreen

Adjustable Brightness

Yes

Adjustable Font Size

Yes

Supported Media Formats

Kindle Format 8 (AZW3), Kindle (AZW), TXT, PDF, Unprotected MOBI, PRC natively, HTML, DOC, DOCX, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP through conversion

ePub, EPUB3, PDF, MOBI, JPG, GIF, PNG, BMP, HTML, TIFF, CBZ, CBR, TXT

Interface(s)

Micro USB

Battery Type

Lithium polymer

Lithium-ion

Extras

VoiceView screen reader, Amazon's largest high-resolution display, Ideal for one-handed reading, Free cloud storage for all Amazon content

Wi Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Waterproof from the inside out with HZO Protection™, IPX8 - up to 60 mins in 2 metres of water, ComfortLight PRO

What customers say about "Features"

Kindle Paperwhite E-reader (Previous Generation - 7th)

The battery lasts forever. I've had it for almost a week now, and haven't had to charge it yet. The battery is still quite full.
You can plug it into your laptop and load other books (but sometimes it won't even with some common formats)
Easier access to configuration settings, i.e. better user interface
Also appreciate the ease of changing dictionaries once the definition comes up.
The battery life has dropped from 8 weeks at ½ hour of reading per day to 6 weeks at ½ hour of reading per day (Roughly 28 hours to 21 hours). That is due to the additional energy required for the higher resolution screen and the power to render the higher resolution of text.
Swiping the screen to unlock. I have plenty of tablets that require me to swipe them to start using them. It's not something I ever wanted in a reader.

Rakuten Kobo Aura ONE

The software is reliable and speedy, and the Overdrive integration is perfect.
This reader also supports every format I've tried.
Nice weight, excellent battery life, and the light color options are perfect - i prefer a more natural/warm white than most e-readers have with their almost blue backlights
Supports multiple formats: I have many MOBI files I just don't feel like converting. It's nice to be able to have a mixture of EPUB and MOBI files and the reader handles them all just fine.
With heavy use, it requires a charge every other day.
Vertical swipes to control brightness are ineffective because too short a stroke fails to register, and too long overshoots.
No (micro)SD slot. Unlike previous Kobo ereaders, there's no exanding the storage (can't open it up and take out the flash storage device either), so you're capped at 8GB.

Warranty / Certifications

Manufacturer Warranty

1 year(s)

Certifications

FCC, CE

Other Information

Manual

Link

Download

Manufacturer

Link