Double App review: Aldiko vs. Kobo
I recently finished reading two books on two different book readers. So I've decided to do a comparative review here to give you some idea of how Aldiko, a downloadable app, compares to the stock app, Kobo, which can be found in the readers hub already on your phone.
Since I started reading on Aldiko, here are my top 5 highlights of use from it:
• Access to a few online book shops via the app, some specializing in free ebooks. (free stuff rocks)
• Allows you to search for books that may be saved on your phone or sd card but don't yet show up on your book shelf.
• Great night mode.
• No pestering ads when you open it while online.
• And best of all, no forcing updates on you.
My top low lights, or rather bottom:
• Page animation sucks.
• After the beautiful opening, the interface just goes downhill from there.
• Having to zoom in and out is a real pain, I want to feel like I'm reading a book, not a strange pdf.
Thats the worst of it thankfully. I personally enjoyed using Aldiko even with all it's pitfalls.
So my top 5 highlights of Kobo go like this:
•A beautiful interface. I like the shelf view, very modern touch to it.
• Page animation is very graceful. It mimics the page turning, motion of an actual book.
• It places a realistic virtual bookmark at your last read page which I think is a nice touch.
• Each page is resized and fitted to your screen nicely. The font is readable so there is no need for fighting with the zoom.
• Lets you know what page of the chapter you are on. For me this made the task of reading a book of 27 chapters, of 40 pages each, less daunting.
And the low lights:
• Each time I am online all the books on my shelf suddenly start "downloading" again. I know they aren't really but it's rather disturbing.
• When I'm offline, I am constantly reminded that I am not connected each time I enter the readers hub. It might seem petty but see how you like it having to press cancel first everytime you want to read.
• It doesn't recognise pdf files. Some of my books are in pdf format so you see the problem here.
• Not enough options on how to order your books, on the shelf in my opinion.
Over all, it's not bad at all for a stock product. I enjoyed reading my book on it and I can't wait to start the next one in the trilogy.
Having never actually had the patience to actually finish a book digitally, I must say my galaxy has finally converted me. I love it, though it won't replace my actual paper based reading, it's a good option to have for those times when I just can't find a book in the bookshops.
TouchToTouch.End
Since I started reading on Aldiko, here are my top 5 highlights of use from it:
• Access to a few online book shops via the app, some specializing in free ebooks. (free stuff rocks)
• Allows you to search for books that may be saved on your phone or sd card but don't yet show up on your book shelf.
• Great night mode.
• No pestering ads when you open it while online.
• And best of all, no forcing updates on you.
My top low lights, or rather bottom:
• Page animation sucks.
• After the beautiful opening, the interface just goes downhill from there.
• Having to zoom in and out is a real pain, I want to feel like I'm reading a book, not a strange pdf.
Thats the worst of it thankfully. I personally enjoyed using Aldiko even with all it's pitfalls.
So my top 5 highlights of Kobo go like this:
•A beautiful interface. I like the shelf view, very modern touch to it.
• Page animation is very graceful. It mimics the page turning, motion of an actual book.
• It places a realistic virtual bookmark at your last read page which I think is a nice touch.
• Each page is resized and fitted to your screen nicely. The font is readable so there is no need for fighting with the zoom.
• Lets you know what page of the chapter you are on. For me this made the task of reading a book of 27 chapters, of 40 pages each, less daunting.
And the low lights:
• Each time I am online all the books on my shelf suddenly start "downloading" again. I know they aren't really but it's rather disturbing.
• When I'm offline, I am constantly reminded that I am not connected each time I enter the readers hub. It might seem petty but see how you like it having to press cancel first everytime you want to read.
• It doesn't recognise pdf files. Some of my books are in pdf format so you see the problem here.
• Not enough options on how to order your books, on the shelf in my opinion.
Over all, it's not bad at all for a stock product. I enjoyed reading my book on it and I can't wait to start the next one in the trilogy.
Having never actually had the patience to actually finish a book digitally, I must say my galaxy has finally converted me. I love it, though it won't replace my actual paper based reading, it's a good option to have for those times when I just can't find a book in the bookshops.
TouchToTouch.End
So you preferred using Aldiko?
ReplyDeleteI preferred Aldiko for my pdfs and the general appearance, but for the actual reading I preferred Kobo, you dont have to battle with page resizing.
ReplyDelete