The following is a Amazon Kindle Paperwhite vs Kobo Aura comparison to help you choose the best e-reader. In this comparison, we’ve picked Kobo Aura Edition 2 as it’s price is similar in comparison to Kindle Paperwhite.
Kindle Paperwhite Vs Kobo Aura Comparison Table
| Features | Kobo Aura | Kindle Paperwhite |
|---|---|---|
| Size | 159 x 113 x 8.5 mm | 169 x 116 x 8.18 mm |
| Weight | 180 grams | 182191 grams |
| Display | 6” Carta E Ink | 6” glare-free |
| Resolution | 1024 x 768, 212 ppi | 1440 x 1080, 300 ppi |
| Storage | 4 GB, 3,000 eBooks | 8 GB, 16 Gb |
| Battery Life | Weeks | Weeks |
| Front-light | Built-in, Adjustable | Built-in, Adjustable |
| Fonts | 11 fonts, 40 sizes | 10 Fonts, Adjustable |
| Formats | EPUB, PDF, MOBI, TXT | AZW, MOBI, PDF, TXT |
| Network | WiFi 802.11 b/g/n | WiFi 802.11 b/g/n |
| Price | $129.99 | From $129.99 |
Form Factor
- Kindle Paperwhite – 169 x 116 x 8.18 mm, 182~191 grams
- Kobo Aura – 159 x 113 x 8.5 mm, 185 grams
Each Kindle Paperwhite and Kobo Aura have excellent build quality.
Kobo Aura comes with soft-touch quilted backing and comes in five colors. While the Kindle Paperwhite has a stunning black-colored finish, and comes with soft-touch painted back panels.
If you are in search of a smaller dimensions and portability on an eReader are likely to choose Kobo Aura, which is certainly lighter, thinner and smaller than the Kindle Paperwhite.
Display
- Kindle Paperwhite 6” Ink Pearl display 300 PPI
- Kobo Aura – 6” Carta E Ink display, 212 PPI
Each Kindle Paperwhite and Kobo Glo have similar 6 inches E ink displays, and make use of the top E-ink technology available on the marketplace.
In comparison with Kobo Aura, Kindle Paperwhite provides a significantly higher contrast as well as darker text, and it has more pixels because of the 300 PPI screen.
Note: Kobo Clara HD ($129.99) offers 300 PPI display
Built-in Lighting
Each Kindle Paperwhite and Kobo Aura come with built-in lighting, removing the requirement to purchase lighted eReader covers, or any other lighting sources from outside.
According to us, Amazon Paperwhite has an advantage in this regard and we’re not hesitant in saying that Amazon has nearly perfected the use of light within an eReader.
The lighting of Kindle Paperwhite is very much as a component of the overall display. It also helps to brighten the background and boosts the contrast.
The only downside is that the light on the Kindle Paperwhite is built to always be on and is not able to be turned off. However, Kobo Aura lets you disable the light at any moment.
Touch Screen
- Kindle Paperwhite – Capacitive Touch Screen
- Kobo Aura – Capacitive Touch Screen
Each of the Kindle Paperwhite and Kobo Aura come with touchscreens that are capacitive, similar to those seen in the popular touch-screen tablets.
Concerning user interface there’s no any difference between the two because both e-readers utilize capacitive touchscreen technology that is responsive.
Storage
- Amazon Kindle – Available in 16GB and 8GB versions and 3,000 books, as well as Free Cloud storage
- Kobo Aura – 4 GB, 3,000 books
The Kobo Aura the user can expand the storage capacity to 32GB using an SD card. Kindle Papaerwhite provides 5 GB of cloud storage free of charge with unlimited cloud storage on anything you purchase through Amazon.
We think that storage space isn’t an issue given that the standard 4GB storage capacity is sufficient to store 3,000 books. Most of us won’t need to surpass this amount.
Battery Life
- Kindle Paperwhite – 2 months
- Kobo Aura – 1 month
The battery Life for Kobo Aurais was rated to last one month when WiFi is off. the Kindle Paperwhite is said to have a longer battery life of approximately 2 months when WiFi is turned off and the lights switched on.
Supported File Formats
- Kindle Paperwhite – AZW, MOBI, PDF, TXT
- Kobo Aura – EPUB, PDF, TXT, RTF
Kobo Aura supports the widely accessible EPUB format, which means you can purchase books from anywhere and then read these through Kobo Aura.
Comparatively, Kindle Paperwhite does not support the open EPUB format and binds users to purchasing books on Amazon.
Kobo Aura vs Kindle Paperwhite | Conclusion
If you’re a fan of the Amazon ecosystem (Amazon Prime books, music, and more) it’s logical to get the Amazon’s Paperwhite.
If you do not wish to be tied to Amazon and you want to to read the books in your Local Library using OverDrive, you can choose Kobo Aura as well as pay 10 dollars additional in exchange for Kobo Clara HD.
