I've not tried the latest ones, but the earlier ones just had a distinctly unfinished and rushed vibe to them. Kind of neat, but hacked together.

It doesn't help that I'm in the Canadian market, and for a while Kobo existed simply as an e-reader to take advantage of the fact it was more easily available here than the Kindle, so I think we were exposed to rougher versions of the initial product than elsewhere.

I've had horrible luck with Kobo: my first died after 6 months, it took 5 weeks for Kobo to get me a replacement on warranty, and the replacement died after 1 month.

I'd strongly recommend sticking with Amazon, if only for the fast replacement turn-around.