Two weeks ago I bought the Kobo eReader Touch Edition (black) from the WH Smith web site, and it arrived within a couple of days. I have a Sony PRS-505 and a Kindle 3G. I also read on a Blackberry and a netbook, and have had an iPod Touch in the past. Of them all, the Kobo easily comes out on top.
Physical Aspects
The size is perfect. Unlike the Sony or Kindle it fits easily in one hand and is light enough to simply rest the edge along one finger and support the back with another, leading to hours of reading barely noticing the device itself.
The 'quilted' back is really just a raised patterning on the rear and initially may seem pointless, but in fact combined with the slightly rubbery feel of the case means you never feel your grip is in any danger - unlike the smooth Kindle.
Screen
The screen refresh is great. It does some clever stuff (like the newer Kindles) whereby it only needs to do a full refresh every 6 pages so page turning is virtually instant. The Kobo lets you change that page count setting in the options.
You can have your current book's cover on the screen-saver for either sleep mode, power-off, both or neither.
Glare is virtually non-existent and lettering is crystal clear.
Reading
You get plenty of storage space plus it can take a memory card for more. It is far quicker at cataloging library/metadata changes after loading new books than the Sony.
There are a fair few fonts installed and you can apparently add your own TrueType ones though I have not done this myself. You can also change the margins, line height and paragraph spacing in the menus to suit your preferences.
Page turns are virtually instant and you can switch the touch-sensitive areas around if you are either left-handed or want more of the screen to be the hot spot. There is even an interactive progress bar available so you can drag to the page you want.
Library
Books can be sorted by title or author. There is a very good live search option to narrow things down first if you want.
You also have a great facility called a Shortlist. Add books you want to read first into your shortlist and all the library navigation options can be done against your shortlist rather than your full library. When you are done with a book just remove it from the shortlist.
You can also mark a book as Finished which makes library browsing easier - especially if, like me, you keep all your collection on your reader as a back-up copy of the ones on the PC.
PDFs
The screen is fast enough for PDFs. You can double-tap to zoom in and out and when zoomed in you can use the touch facility to drag the page around in real-time.
Software
I don't use it. I never do with the other readers either. All my books are EPUBs (apart from a couple of old PDFs) and I transfer them over with USB drag-and-drop. Or in the Kindle's case I have to convert or email them, which is annoying.
I installed the software (it needs a small download from Kobo) and it looked on a par with the others, but I cannot really comment beyond that.
Conclusion
The device feels brilliant, is just the right size and is responsive (with around 500 books on it).
The shortlist is great for handling my library.
It is quite cheap too, but doesn't feel anywhere near as plasticky as the Kindle.
No regrets.
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