this post was submitted on 25 Sep 2025
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I think it was 10? years ago when I grudgingly tried a kindle because it was so ridiculously cheap and the people around me loved theirs.
The Kindle was an Ad bomb. After engaging internet only, no TV, no ads, since, 2003? (Whenever xfiles, Buffy, DS9, and Firefly were done.) The kindle hit like a sledgehammer with the native ads system. I returned the failed tablet to Amazon.
I don’t know how people live with that level of ad consumption and I grew up with TV commercials. Libby on iPad mini. It’s fine.
The not-ridiculously-cheap Kindles do not have any ads. Yes it's scummy and gross to sell something with built in ads, but I expect most people who "loved theirs" did not have the cheap ad-supported one, they had the more expensive models. The ad-supported cheap versions are not representative of the general quality or experience of a more common and typical Kindle.
That said, it is still a locked down piece of shit. There are much, much better options. Kobo is great hardware that is as straightforward to "hack" as copying a file into a directory, as it's running a stripped down Linux basically. Kobo with KoReader is all I need.
Boox is even easier than kobo, all you need to do is....nothing at all. It just accepts all formats with no lockdown out of the box.
They were my first choice, but like this user I found they were quite fragile, arguably poorly designed, and either way you'll get no sympathy from customer support. Two different models, both in cases, both screens broken, one within days of receiving it. Very disappointing.
Granted, I torture my devices. I read in bed and almost every morning I find the ereader has fallen on the floor at some point during the night. It takes a pretty beastly device to withstand the abuse I put it through, and my Kobo does that without breaking a sweat. That's why I recommend them.
Interesting I have had the exact opposite experience with my leaf 2. I've had it for almost 3 years now, never in a case, just drop it in my bag loose with everything else. Not a scratch on the screen at all and it just works. But yeah, since I've had literally zero issues I cannot speak to the quality of customer service, I haven't needed them.