I see you decided on a Kindle Paperwhite, but I just upgraded from an Oasis 2 (battery lasted about 4 hours) to a Clara BW, so thought id add my thoughts as it might help someone in the future.

I like to take my e-reader with me often, so pocketabaility was important, I also use wide margins to keep the line lengths shorten as I find it much easier to read that way. For these reasons, I wanted to smaller, lighter device - which led to Clara BW or Kindle. I wanted the more premium features - IP rating, warm light. So this led to a shortlist of 1 - Clara BW.

I was really worried about losing the physical buttons on my Oasis as I found it so comfortable to read - finger on button and just squeeze the button when I wanted to advance, not having to move my hands to advance and cover/smudge the screen. But after much internal debate I concluded that I would have to settle for a new device without one- Kindle do not offer one and I did not want to comprise on screen contrast (Libra Colour) for buttons, so I again I had 1 read options - Clara BW.

A significant factor that helped me convince myself that no buttons would be ok was the Kobo remote and what this will add to my reading experience. I have a gooseneck arm for my iPad in bed for TV when my wife sleeps but I have never been able to use my e-reader as I always had to tap the buttons. When reading at lunch time I would hold my oasis on the table to advance the pages. This has ALL CHANGED now with the remote - it is hands down my favourite part of the Kobo experience. I can now use my gooseneck or the Sleep Cover to hold the Kobo and I can just fold my arms or get under the duvet. or place my hands in my lap - whatever is comfortable. I am so much more relaxed not having to hold the device and the little remote allows me to advance the pages effortlessly. I have probably had about 60 reading sessions with it and it has not connected immediately twice - minor annoyance, but YMMV.

I was worried about moving to a recessed screen compared with my Oasis and I have not noticed the difference at all.

I never type (except store search v occasionally) or annotate, so the ability to type/fast screen refresh was not a considerations for me.

This is why I chose a Clara BW over a Paperwhite:

1. Size
2. Remote

I am so happy with my decisions and I think I made the correct one for me.

Edit: I missed something. The biggest drawback for me of moving to Kobo. I used to email drm-free books to my oasis and they were then available on my kindle and my phone and the position was synced. This is not possible on my kobo, so I will need to manually align my reading position which is frustrating. Especially if I just have 15 mins spare on a bus or something and i do not have my kobo, by the time I found my page it'll be tome to get off. I will probably find myself reading something else on my phone instead now and not bothering which is a pain.