Kobo eReader Touch Edition

PC World - It's rare to find an inexpensive product that also introduces innovation into its category. And yet that's exactly what Kobo Books' Kobo eReader Touch Edition does. The company's third-generation e-reader, this model is the smallest and lightest 6-inch E Ink e-reader currently available. At $130 (as of June 13, 2011), it's also the cheapest e-reader with a touchscreen, besting Barnes and Noble's touchscreen Nook by $10. The Kobo eReader Touch Edition lacks the finesse of the Nook and the Amazon Kindle Wi-Fi, but it still has much to offer value-conscious book lovers.

The eReader Touch Edition feels remarkably small and lightweight in the hand. At just 7.05 ounces (0.44 pounds), the eReader Touch is 0.33 ounces lighter than the second-generation Nook--just enough to make a difference. Better still, it weighs 1.45 ounces lighter than the third-generation Kindle, a noticeable difference.

It's compact, too--the eReader Touch Edition is the same height as the Nook, but it measures a half-inch narrower, and a smidgen (0.07) of an inch less deep. Not bad places to shave off a bit of a bulk: I found that the slimmer profiles--and the resulting narrow bezel, which measures about a half-inch--made the eReader Touch Edition very natural to hold. It's the easiest e-reader to hold in one hand, and flipping pages by tapping on the touchscreen was somewhat simpler for me just because my fingers didn't need to travel as far across the bezel to tap (or swipe) to the next page.

The chassis has a smooth, rubberized feel and a quilted texture on the back (as available on the previous Kobo Wireless eReader, which now costs $100). With this model, however, you get a choice of four colors: a black bezel with a black backing, or a white bezel with either a lavender, blue, or silver backing.

To turn on the eReader Touch Edition, you simply slide the power button on the top edge to the right. The unit has just one other button: the thin, metal home button centered beneath the display. Along the left side is a MicroSDHC card slot for adding up to 32GB of storage; at the bottom is the Micro-USB port for charging and for sideloading content via a computer. The built-in battery is rated for about one month, which is one month shy of Amazon's and Barnes & Noble's promises for the Kindle and Nook, respectively.

Kobo Touch: Navigation Basics

The eReader Touch Edition boots up from sleep very slowly. The central hub is the home page, a simple interface with tabs on top for your library, Reading Life, and the Kobo Store. The home page shows the covers of up to five books, newspapers, documents, or magazines you're in the midst of reading; or, it will show new content added to the eReader. Along the bottom of the home page are three simple icons, one each for accessing the user guide, changing the settings, and syncing to the Kobo library cloud. Oddly, the syncing button is, for now, the only apparent way to change the wireless network; you'll find no way to refresh networks under the wireless-networks option in the settings--which is where you'd expect the feature.