Kobo's new Touch device was a welcome surprise on my desk when I got back to the office from Frankfurt was Monday. Its partnership with WH Smith brings a welcome new player into the increasingly crowded UK e-reader market. Kobo's simple to use devices coupled with WH Smith's retail power positions it as the likeliest challenger to Amazon's Kindle supremacy, assuming Waterstone's don't surprise us and bring forward the release of its eagerly awaited e-reader.

Early impressions of the Touch are positive. Within five minutes of taking the device from its box, I had signed up to a Kobo account and bought and downloaded my first book. As much as possible, I tried to avoid reading the instruction manual to discern just how easy the device is to use.The Kobo boots up with a quirkly twee image of a smiling e-book reader, which I liked more than I probably should. It walks you through downloading the Kobo desktop software, where you can buy books, manage what is on your device and also read your titles on a computer.

I opted to buy David Foster Wallace's notorious Infinite Jest. I am wading my way through its 1,100 pages and copious footnotes in paperback and felt not having to lug it about the place would be a welcome change. It downloaded within around a minute and I was good to go.

I spent around an hour reading on the device last night. It's not quite the pocket sized device Kobo promise; it does fit in my back pocket but with the top of device popping out of it. However, it does fit neatly within my jacket, something Infinite Jest definitely cannot do.

Reading is simple for anyone having used a touch screen device. A tap of the left and right hand side of the page turns it backwards or forwards or you can swish your finger across the screen in the direction you want to read. The page turns are swift.

One problem for me initially was working out how to pull up the menu screen. There is only one button on the front of the device, which brings you to the homepage (as well as the power button on the top). A quick scan of the instructions (helpfully included on the device itself) left me kicking myself. All I had to do was click on the middle of the screen.

The back of the device (which in my device's case is a delightful lilac) is rippled, which makes it easy to hold the device in one hand. However, I did find myself tapping the screen and navigating with my other. By pressing on one word, you can call up the dictionary, very handy for me in the case of what I was reading. Navigating the footnotes was similarly simple. I tapped on the footnote and then was taken to its entry.

All in all, a great device and at an attractive price (£109). While my current reading demands copious note taking in the margins and flicking back and forth, I can see me using the Kobo frequently for more conventional titles. I look forward to seeing how Kobo fits into W H Smith's ever excellent Xmas TV ad campaign. I also look forward to how it measures against the Kindle Touch, when it comes across to the UK.