Baby eReader (aka, adventures in purchasing a kobo mini)

Have I mentioned that I like small things?  Well, a few weeks ago, a friend showed me his new teenie tiny 5-inch e-reader, and I immediately fell in love.  Ok, not quite, but you get the picture.  I had received $250 worth of Christmas money, and didn't plan on spending much of it on myself, but this I had to have!  (I know, that sounds really familiar with me and technology toys, but really, I don't plan to spend the rest.)

So, I started doing my research.  It was indeed the smallest e-ink e-reader currently available.  It would fit in my pocket, for goodness sakes!  And for those of you out there happily reading on your high definition tablets, I'm sorry, but e-ink is still indeed the only electronic form of reading that feels like reading a book to me.  I look forward to the day that screens can switch back and forth between e-ink and LCD, or when e-ink is in color, or whatever the next great step is.

My friend scored his little kobo mini at Best Buy on sale for only $50 (the white version), and I just can't bring myself to spend much more than a sale price I've heard about.  But, everywhere I looked, the price for the following two weeks was always right around the list price of $79.  What's a tech gadget loving girl to do?

I did find that Family Christian was selling their version with three free Bibles included, which seemed like a justification for spending some extra funds.  There were review complaints of not actually being able to download the Bible versions, but I was confident I'd figure it out.  So, off I went to my local Family Christian store after ok'ing the purchase with my other half.

First, I look around the store, but don't see kobo e-readers anywhere.  Then, I ask the friendly sales associate.  He ends up having to go in back, but emerges with a sealed white kobo mini in it's tiny little box:

Next, I asked him about the 3 free Bible offer, but he couldn't find anything about it when looking on his computer, so he asked the manager.  She said something like, "Oh, we're not supposed to sell those anymore because of people having problems with them.  That's why they were only in back."  I must have looked very dejected, because they said they'd go ahead and sell it to me.  Next, I asked if they had any coupons, mostly because I saw some sitting right by his register.  Sure enough, he dug around and scanned a coupon, and gave me 30% off!  That meant I only had to spend $55 plus tax rather than $79.  Woo hoo!  Now my baby e-reader could come home with me.

Here's a spec comparison of my daughter's Kindle 2 (originally mine), my Kindle Paperwhite, and the kobo mini:

	Kindle 2	Kindle Paperwhite	Kobo Mini
Color screen	Pearl E-ink, 16 grayscale levels	Pearl E-ink, 16 grayscale levels	Vizplex V110 E-ink, 16 grayscale levels
Pixels per inch	167 ppi	212 ppi	Unknown
Lighting	None	Built-in frontlight	None
Screen size	6-inch	6-inch	5-inch
Overall size	8 x 5.3 x 0.36 in	6.7 x 4.6 x 0.36 in	4 x 5.2 x 0.4 in
Weight	10.2 oz	7.5 oz	4.7 oz
Touchscreen	None	Yes, capacitive 2-point multi-touch	Yes, capacitive
Book/text supported formats	Adobe PDF (pdf), Plain text (txt), HTML pages (html), Microsoft Word (doc), Mobipocket (mobi, prc), Other	Kindle Format 8 (AZW3), Kindle (AZW), TXT, PDF, unprotected MOBI, PRC natively; HTML, DOC, DOCX	Books: EPUB, PDF and MOBI; Text: TXT, HTML, XHTML, and RTF
WiFi/3G	WiFi, Free 3G	WiFi, Free 3G	WiFi only
Internal storage	2gb	2gb	2gb
Charging/syncing	Micro USB	Micro USB	Micro USB
MSRP	$359	$179	$79

One thing that strikes me is how prices have come down on e-readers.  This of course has been pushed by Amazon's willingness to lose money on their devices in hopes that their content sales will make up all the profit they need.  That seems to be working fairly well for them.  One thing I don't like about Amazon's content is the DRM, or copy protection, that is baked so heavily in.  I really don't mind paying for e-books, and I certainly don't want to distribute them to others without paying.  But, I would like to be able to keep e-books that I purchase on various devices without always being tied to a Kindle app.  For instance, it should be easier (and legal) for me to move my Amazon-purchased e-books over to my kobo mini.  But, I stick with Kindles because in my opinion, they are the best e-readers available for your money.

Here's a quick photo comparison of the Kindle 2, Kindle Paperwhite, kobo mini, and my Galaxy S3 phone:

For now, this kobo mini holds the title of smallest, lightest e-reader on the market, but that won't last long, I'm sure.  Just take a look at this upcoming product:  http://us.txtr.com/beagle/

I love living in a time when technology is moving so quickly.  Don't you?  And if you don't like keeping up as much as I do, feel free to look for my used electronics on eBay ; )