Yup, Kobo convert here too.
I initially got in to eReaders with the Sony PRS-505 way back when. It was pretty good too (if a little slow), but I opened the cover one day to find the screen had mysteriously broken.
So at that point, I bought my first (and only) Kindle. It was the old Kindle Keyboard 3G, with the free wireless. Really liked it, and used it for years. It never cracked on me, but eventually just… died. It went to sleep and never woke up. At that point it was years out of warranty.
I realised at this point that I was quite heavily tied in to the Amazon walled garden, so took the plunge and switched to the original Kobo Aura HD, using Calibre to manage my books (and strip the DRM!)
Unfortunately, while the device looked great, the screen was probably the most delicate screen I’ve had in an eReader. I was pulling it out of its case one day to reset it, and hadn’t touched the screen itself, only to discover that somehow the screen had broken during the act of removing it from the case.
So at that point, I switched to a Nook. Hey, it was a quick and cheap replacement!
That actually lasted me for ages, and was really robust (if lo-res). I thought I didn’t even need a case for it. Then one day I bent down to open a shutter, forgetting I had it in my pocket, and it cracked.
So I then went back to Kobo and am now the happy owner of two Kobo H2O readers (I thought I’d lost one at one point, so bought a replacement; I found the original when I moved home).
I have my problems with them, for sure. I’m pissed off that no-one’s really interested in developing a really rugged eInk screen. And my current Kobo requires a full shutdown and reboot every 3-4 readings, as the touch screen stops responding.
I much prefer hard buttons for page turning and simple device management, in part because I’m so nervous about touching a screen I know to be deleicate.
But other than that, the Kobo’s easy to read, displays the cover of the book I’m reading while asleep, and is very open compared to other manufacturers’ devices. And forcing me to use Calibre has made me more careful with my digital library and its management. It also means my entire library is easily ported to another device should the one I’m currently using break.
