When I was recently contacted by Money Supermarket asking if I’d like to review a cheaper alternative to a holiday essential gadget as part of their “Inspect a gadget campaign” I just had to choose the Kobo Mini e-reader.
Every time I travel, whether it’s abroad or just catching the train in the UK, I always like to have a book (or ten) with me to pass away the time. I can easily get through one a day when I’m sat on a beach for a week so the idea of an e-reader appealed to me because it would mean saving a whole lot of space in my suitcase normally taken up by my favorite novels.
Kobo Mini Review
Kobo mini e-reader in black; C/O Moneysupermarket (via WHSmith)
One of the main things I was worried about was that the screen would be too small to read comfortably or that I'd get fed up of having to tap the screen to move the page on. This wasn't the case at all - the screen is still a decent size, the font is easy to customize to make it bigger if needed and you soon get used to all the tapping.
Setting up the Kobo desktop software was incredibly easy and within minutes I was browsing the WHSmith's website for ebooks to download. I found the Kobo software ran too slow on my ancient laptop so it was a lot easier for me to download books this way rather than try to browse the library via the desktop, not to mention WHSmith and other online stores have a lot more free books available.
Opening and reading books on the device was also really easy (once I'd worked out how to change the language from the default Dutch anyway!) I have found that because it doesn't have a back-light it can be difficult to read in low-lit places, however since this is no different from if you had a physical book in your hand I can't really complain too much!
Overall I think for £49.99 this is a really good value product and so useful for travelling not to mention freeing up more packing space for that extra couple of pairs of shoes ;-). I also love that it's small enough to fit into the side pocket of my handbag so I could even carry it around day-to-day with me if I wanted to. I'd definitely recommend it if you're looking for a cheap and simple e-reader that you can use for your travels but that's still small and light enough to fit in the palm of your hand.
Have you jumped on the Kobo bandwagon or do you own a Kobo mini? What do you think of it?
To read more about Money Supermarket's "Inspect a gadget campaign" click here.
You can get a kobo for 25 quid now at ASDA Direct, seems mad cheap.