The iPad is no Kindle-killer (although buying the almost $500 DX now seems a little silly). The Kindle, and any other e-reader, will continue to be great for just reading books, with the sunlight-friendly e-ink display and the long, long battery life making for a great single-purpose device. The real Kindle-killer will be a cheap e-reader, and it just arrived: the $150 Kobo eReader.

The bare-bones reader looks very similar to the Kindle, but it is just over half the price. You get access to a store, as you do with the Kindle, in this case the Kobo International Store with around 2 million titles. And you can read these books on other devices: iPhone, BlackBerry, Palm Pre and Android all have Kobo apps.

What the Kobo doesn't have is a 3G connection. Instead you load up books via USB (EPUB or PDF) or over the reader's Bluetooth connection with a compatible smartphone. The Kobo also has less storage than the Kindle — 1 GB instead of 2 GB — but you can add up to four more with an SD card (a handful of cards and you'd be set up for years).

What we really like about the eReader is the interface. The chapter lists are big and clear, the main "I'm Reading" page gives a newspaper front-page-like overview of the newspapers and books you're currently reading, and you can even choose to display your books in an iPad-like bookshelf metaphor. When you power down, it shows the book's cover instead of those awful Kindle screen-savers (although at least the Kindle doesn't give away that you're reading Dan Brown).

We do worry about those controls. The big blue D-pad on the front looks great, but all the buttons are tucked away on the left-hand side, on the edge, not the front panel. That could prove awkward. It could also be a smart decision to keep non-essential functions away from accidental presses.

You can also, somewhat oddly, add a book-cloth "skin" that will give the front of the device an old-fashioned look and feel (the back is quilted rubber). And to get you started, the eReader comes pre-loaded with 100 public-domain titles.

It looks like a huge threat to the Kindle, and Kobo seems to have trimmed just the right features to get to this low price. Only hands-on testing will tell if it's as good as it seems, but right now we don't see much reason to buy Amazon's locked-down machine.

Kobo E-Reader [Kobo. Thanks, Meghan!]

See Also: