Gobi eBook reader from Kalahari.com any good?

F

FlashSA

Honorary Master
Joined
Oct 19, 2007
Messages
10,898
Reaction score
3,026
My wife has been bitten by the eBook bug. Is the R799 Gobii from Kalahari any good or should she go Amazon Kindle. If Kindle, keyboard or no keyboard?
 
Last edited:
Kindle is far better. Also the keyboard serves no real purpose anymore.

You can use software like Calibre to strip out the DRM and upload any content to your Kindle (or other quality ereader) :)

Wife has a Kindle and she loves it. Got the daughter the Kobo from Pick n Pay and same quality screen. Personally I will get myself the Kobo as all the books I want to read are cheaper on Kobo store.
 
OK - I see it has zero connectivity - can only trasnfer books onto it via USB - that is K A K...

So..... Kindle advice please....
 
flashsa said:
OK - I see it has zero connectivity - can only trasnfer books onto it via USB - that is K A K...

So..... Kindle advice please....
Click to expand...

Wife has older Kindle (non-keyboard) and she loves it. Uses it each night for the last two years.

The touch offers more functionality but the purpose of the ereader is to read books and not surf porn ;) unless your fetish is 80's PC porn ;)

Both Kobo & Kindle are WiFi and this is awesome for buying books online. You can also email your books to your kindle with a special email account they create for you.

I like the Amazon policey of trusting the consumer. Bought the wife a book only to discover 2 minutes later that they book and its sequel was bundled together for the same price. Did a refund/return request and it was instant.
 
No-one has mentioned the most important factor: I am open to correction, but I believe the Gobi is not a 'proper' e-reader because it has a normal backlit LCD screen, which is not as easy on the eyes for long-term reading as a proper e-ink screen, and also delivers far less battery life.
 
I still have the old kindle with the keyboard and I love it. I see no reason to upgrade it at all!
 
cbrunsdonza said:
Kindle is far better. Also the keyboard serves no real purpose anymore.

You can use software like Calibre to strip out the DRM and upload any content to your Kindle (or other quality ereader) :)

Wife has a Kindle and she loves it. Got the daughter the Kobo from Pick n Pay and same quality screen. Personally I will get myself the Kobo as all the books I want to read are cheaper on Kobo store.
Click to expand...

I have a kindle, My wife has a Kobo.

I actually prefer the kobo (more books it can read so less converting before reading).
 
Terencek said:
No-one has mentioned the most important factor: I am open to correction, but I believe the Gobi is not a 'proper' e-reader because it has a normal backlit LCD screen, which is not as easy on the eyes for long-term reading as a proper e-ink screen, and also delivers far less battery life.
Click to expand...

Yes.

Gobi = really sucks.
Criminal that they sell it as an e reader.
 
I have the Gobi.

These are my thoughts both good and bad.
Pros
Full colour - Advantage because the children books I have for my 4 year old has lots of pictures.
Plays practically anything (movies, songs etc)
Using calibre all books can be read.
Unusual pro (I found this out by accident because a russian friend could not read his russian book on a kindle), will display all languages properly.
Various zoom levels.
Reads pdf and text files without needing to convert so I can read pdf documents from work easily without conversion.
When you read and you fall asleep it automatically turns off, if you dont page for a few minutes.

Cons
Battery life shortens over period of use, but then you need to do a hard power down and recharge completely and I am back to 2 weeks battery life with around 2 hours worth of reading per day.
When you have more than 3000 books on the device, navigating the library is slow and cumbersome. You have the option to skip to a page but when you are looking for a specific author or book skipping pages does not help. So I have been loading books that I read and once there are 30 to 40 books on the device I clear them off. Rather use calibre to manage your library and load as you read. (bonus you then have loads of space to load and play music while you read).
No wifi, but you get used to it.
LCD screen but nice brightness controls.
It is a bit bulky compared to a kindle but then again it feels quite solid in your hands.

I won't say I love it but it works fine for me.

Good luck
 
In my opinion, you don't buy a reader for the tech specs. Amazon is the best here simply because they are the market leader currently, they are actively developing software for the Kindle (updates are released often), they have low price ebooks and most importantly their ecosystem is well put together.

Kobo is making quite a stand in the eBook market but I think they've already lost against Kindle because of the way Amazon operates. Kindle isn't actually profitable yet. Similarly Amazon didn't make a profit last year because of investment on Fulfilment by Amazon & AWS expansion. That is what they do, they spend a crap load of money to make their platform the best and operate on a loss until they are on top. More importantly their customer centric focus, in my opinion, makes them a better candidate platform to buy into.

Don't get me wrong tho, the Kobo is also an awesome reader and I think that company is working hard to compete, just not sure they are the better overall package.

Kalahari, LOL, just no. Kalahari's platform is just terrible. They are in it for a profit. Anything that isn't profitable is cut. They are selling eBooks currently, but those days are numbered by how much longer they will be profitable.

They haven't upgraded their readers in forever and I doubt they are working on them anymore. You have limited amount of downloads, Adobe (blegh) DRM, just terrible product.
 
I tried to use a Gobi once but the screen is so bad I started to develop a headache after 5 mins - wife reported the same. Viewing angles are horrible and forget about daylight use even in the shade.

I would much rather read on my phone (HTC OneX) simply because it has a proper screen.

Honestly if you have a smartphone already there's really no point in buy a e-reader with an lcd screen. There really is no advantage that I can see.

E-ink is different story as its easier on the eyes and don't interfere with sleep if used too late. I plan to buy a Kobo next time its on sale simply so I can read in bed before sleep.
 
My wife had her Gobii for 6 months before it started with it’s problems. It just boots and reboots in an infinite loop. Kalahari did come collect it and returned it two weeks later. On the job card it said that the device was not faulty but had a software glitch (uhm how is that not faulty?). They updated the firmware and said we must keep it on charge for 6 hours.

After the 6 hours when she switched it on it did not reboot but as soon as we uploaded the first book the same thing happened again. Kalahari will probably collect it again this week.

My wife likes the backlit screen because she can read in the babies room in the dark.

If the gobii gets returned with the same issues we might look at rather getting one of those Alcatel tablets from Edgars.
 
dade said:
My wife had her Gobii for 6 months before it started with it’s problems. It just boots and reboots in an infinite loop. Kalahari did come collect it and returned it two weeks later. On the job card it said that the device was not faulty but had a software glitch (uhm how is that not faulty?). They updated the firmware and said we must keep it on charge for 6 hours.

After the 6 hours when she switched it on it did not reboot but as soon as we uploaded the first book the same thing happened again. Kalahari will probably collect it again this week.

My wife likes the backlit screen because she can read in the babies room in the dark.

If the gobii gets returned with the same issues we might look at rather getting one of those Alcatel tablets from Edgars.
Click to expand...

Get a kindle with a lighted cover or a backlit kindle ;)

Also, 2 replaced kindles from Amazon so far (I have had 3 kindles and paid for 1).
Average time from complaining to replacement kindle in my hands is about 4 days, from America.
 
AstroTurf said:
Get a kindle with a lighted cover or a backlit kindle ;)

Also, 2 replaced kindles from Amazon so far (I have had 3 kindles and paid for 1).
Average time from complaining to replacement kindle in my hands is about 4 days, from America.
Click to expand...

Over what period?
I've had my Kindle for 23 months now and not a single problem hey.
 
froot said:
Over what period?
I've had my Kindle for 23 months now and not a single problem hey.
Click to expand...

I am not a gentle user :o
First one lasted me just under a year, same as the 2n'd.
My current one is about 2 months old.
This time I got it a cover and screen protector :whistle: :o
 
AstroTurf said:
I am not a gentle user :o
First one lasted me just under a year, same as the 2n'd.
My current one is about 2 months old.
This time I got it a cover and screen protector :whistle: :o
Click to expand...

I've dropped mine a few times... barely a scratch on the corner. I put it on my bedside table and between keys, coffee mugs and whatnot, the screen is still better than my cellphone screen :D
 
froot said:
I've dropped mine a few times... barely a scratch on the corner. I put it on my bedside table and between keys, coffee mugs and whatnot, the screen is still better than my cellphone screen :D
Click to expand...

First one (somewhere on mybroadband) ended up soaking in raw egg for around 2 hours.
That broke the typing key. it lasted another 8 or 9 months then I decided to "fix" it.

2nd one was in my pocket, someone rammed into it with a trolley.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X