Kobo Clara HD

A different story

Kindle alternative makes for a light read

Kobo makes a full range of ebook readers that compete with Amazon’s, including the Kobo Forma (£240 from www.snipca. com/30988, see Issue 550, page 29), which competes with the Kindle Oasis. The Clara HD is cheaper, comparable to the Kindle Paperwhite (£90 from Amazon www.snipca.com/29818, see Issue 543, page 23). However, it has Kobo’s Comfortlight system, which uses extra LEDS – 13 versus the Paperwhite’s five – to give lighting of variable colour. As with the pricier Kindle Oasis, but not the Paperwhite, this lets you

SPECIFICATIONS

6in E Ink touchscreen • 8GB flash storage • 802.11n Wi-fi • Reads EPUB, EPUB3, PDF, MOBI, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, TIFF, TXT, HTML, RTF, CBZ, CBR • 160x110x8.35mm (HXWXD) • 166g • One-year warranty www.snipca.com/32586 automatically or manually make the screen look warmer (more orange) to avoid prolonged exposure to blue light.

You could mistake the Clara HD for a Kindle Paperwhite from the front. Its 6in screen has the same 300dpi resolution. The back is another matter: while the Forma has a rubberised finish, they’ve tried to add texture to this one by stippling it with small shallow holes, which collect dust. Unlike the Paperwhite, it’s not waterproof, nor does it support audiobooks. The software gives you lots of control over the appearance of text, with more fonts than Kindle, and Kobo’s library of ebooks isn’t far off the size of Amazon’s, although if you have Kindle books they’re not compatible. If not, the choice comes down to blue-light reduction or waterproofing.

VERDICT At least as good as the Paperwhite, and without Amazon’s mildly annoying ads, but don’t dunk it ★★★★ ★

ALTERNATIVE

Amazon Kindle Paperwhite £90 Waterproof and with audiobook support, but the screen lighting is a fixed colour