It's possible to have too much of a good thing.
The $279.99 Kobo Forma, the largest mainstream e-reader, is just a little bit too much for most readers.
It's terrific for large print and manga, but its extra-wide form factor makes it unwieldy enough that we recommend smaller, less expensive devices, like Kobo's own Kobo Clara HD, for most folks.
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Design
The Kobo Forma has a flat front marked by an 8-inch, 1,920-by-1,440 E Ink Mobius screen.
There's a handle next to the screen with physical page-turn buttons on it; the back is textured.
The whole thing is very light and slim at 6.29 by 6.97 by 0.33 inches (HWD) and 6.95 ounces.
Like other Kobos, the Forma has a color-changing backlight you can manually slide from blue to yellow, or have it change automatically throughout the day.
The big screen can be used in left-handed portrait, right-handed portrait, or even landscape mode.
Kobo offers a $49.99 leather cover, in black or purple, that puts the device to sleep when it's closed and wakes it up when it's open.
Kobo says the Forma's screen is extra-durable, but I'd still put a cover on it, just as I'd put a case on any phone I carry.
Scratches are distracting.
Reading on the Kobo Forma
Kobo's quest to make this big e-reader feel light and slim makes it feel less premium than Amazon's competing $249 Kindle Oasis.
Kobo framed this to me as a positive choice.
Using a plastic-backed E Ink Mobius screen makes the device more durable and flexible, so it can be knocked around in a bag without a case.
But the textured, soft-touch plastic back feels almost a little greasy, and the all-around soft-touch body just feels less firm, less classy, and less luxurious than the Oasis's gunmetal-gray aluminum.
Kobo's physical page-turn buttons are a little mushier than the Oasis's super-snappy buttons, too.
The Forma's width makes it harder to carry and use than competing e-readers.
It's just a little too wide to fit in my inner coat pocket, unlike the Kobo Clara HD or every Kindle.
Holding it one-handed on the subway, the weight distribution felt like it was shifted just a little bit further from my hand than I prefer.
I read a bunch of books and manga on the Forma over two weeks.
Manga tend to have trouble on smaller e-readers because some of the English annotations can be quite tiny, but even the tiniest text in a CBZ version of Kiyohoko Azuma's Yotsuba&! (a family-friendly book about a cheerful, possibly alien five-year-old) was totally readable.
Full-sized American comics pages are also readable where they aren't on smaller devices, although reading American comics in grayscale means you lose something in the transition.
I couldn't see the advantage of the big screen for ordinary books, though.
Renting Scott Hawkins' The Library at Mount Char through Overdrive (a non-family-friendly book about an abusive, possibly alien group of siblings) I got to read more per page flip, sure, but the 4:3 aspect ratio didn't feel quite right.
Actual books come in a bunch of different sizes and aspect ratios, but they're often a little taller and narrower in shape than this.
I don't read with a very large typeface, though, and I can see how large-type readers would appreciate the additional space here.
Battery life is not a concern.
Mount Char, about a 400-page book in paperback, used about 20 percent of the battery with the backlight at a mellow 25 percent.
I'd expect to get through three to five books on a charge, which is just fine and on par with other e-readers.
Hardware, Software, and OS
Kobo has a bookstore, which has pretty much everything you'd expect that isn't published by Amazon.
The device supports a wider range of formats than Amazon's or Sony's e-readers—not only ePub and PDF, but Mobi, HTML, RTF, CBR, CBZ, and various image formats.
The 8GB of storage is fine unless you're into heavy PDFs and CBRs.
There's no microSD card slot.
You transfer files through a standard micro USB cable and mass storage mode.
The device also has 2.4GHz-only 802.11n Wi-Fi, for connecting to its online store.
Kobo's true strength comes in public library lending.
Kobo's parent company also owns Overdrive, the software most US public libraries use.
Your Overdrive account appears as a native store on the Kobo, and lending and holds happen effortlessly.
If you put a book on hold, for instance, when you get the notification that the book is available, all you have to do is sync your device for it to appear.
Books in your library have their return dates clearly marked, and when you finish a library book you have an option to return it early.
This is by far the best library experience on any e-reader, but it's common to all Kobos, so you don't need the Forma to get it.
The Kobo software experience is otherwise a bit more basic than on the Kindle.
Of course, you can access and jump to chapters.
There are 11 different fonts in a range of sizes and thicknesses.
You can search within books and access a dictionary.
Unlike on the Kindle, you can read articles stored through the Pocket app on your phone, as well.
But Kobo doesn't offer the character-and-plot-summarizing functions of Amazon's X-Ray, integrated audiobook syncing with Audible, or Amazon's Goodreads integration.
That's fine for me; I don't consider those to be core reading features.
Conclusions
While manga fans will adore the Kobo Forma for being big enough to show the smallest text on a page, most readers will be better served by Kobo's less expensive Clara HD and Kobo Aura H2O models.
They save you money, fit better in your pocket, have similar screen density and backlighting, and the Aura H2O is waterproof.
Deciding between a Kobo and Kindle is harder.
Amazon's store is America's default, Amazon is now a large publisher that keeps exclusives to itself, and Amazon's Kindle Unlimited subscription service basically functions as a privatized public library for people who don't have a good library in their town.
Amazon's new Paperwhite, at $129, is the least expensive waterproof e-reader by a good $50.
As we've said before, go with Kobo if you intend to use its broad file format support, or if you mostly read books from an Overdrive-powered library system.
For everyone else, there's Kindle.
Pros
View MoreThe Bottom Line
Kobo's top-of-the-line ebook reader is great if you feel other options are too cramped, but it's more device than most people need.
