Any colour you like... as long as it’s read!
Kobo bids farewell to black and white with its excellent e-readers
THE page has finally been turned on black and white electronic ink after Kobo revealed the first mainstream affordable colour e-readers to hit the market.
It’s a revolution – and it’s been a long time coming in the e-reader world.
Kobo e-readers are made by Canadian company Rakuten, which has a great pedigree for making some high-quality monochrome devices.
E-readers that use electronic ink are favoured by those who read a lot as they are much easier on the eye than the light-emitting screens you find on phones and tablets. They use considerably less power, too, leading to long battery life.
Rakuten is one of Amazon’s main competitors in the space, and has stolen a march on Kindle by getting its colour readers out first.
The two new devices – the Libra Colour and Clara Colour – offer different features for different use cases, with the Libra being the more sophisticated of the two.
Building on the success of Kobo’s black and white digital notebooks, the Libra Colour is Kobo’s first 7” device to support Dropbox and Google Drive.
The new colour electronic ink Kaleido
3 display offers full support for Kobo Stylus 2, meaning users can now annotate text, organise their thoughts in digital notebooks, and highlight inspiring lines, all in colour.
The device has a curved design that fits readers’ grip – with page-turn buttons and the option to read in landscape mode. Kobo Libra Colour also offers 32 GB of storage and can store up to 24,000 e-books or 150 audiobooks, with a battery that lasts for weeks. A single charge on the e-reader lasts up to 40 days, based on 30 minutes of reading per day with the front light at 30% brightness and wi-fi and Bluetooth off. Accessories for the Libra Colour include the Notebook SleepCover with stylus holder, which is designed to make taking notes on the go easier than ever, storing the Kobo Stylus 2 in a magnetic slot. Kobo Libra Colour wakes automatically when you open the cover and sleeps when you close it. Additional SleepCovers for Kobo Libra Colour are designed
The Clara, left, and Libra, above, have colour displays and you can make notes on the Libra model
with magnets inside the case to snap it into place effortlessly, and a two-way stand to keep the e-reader upright for hands-free reading in both landscape and portrait orientations.
The Clara Colour is a more streamlined device, with a 6in screen and no note-taking capabilities – this is just for reading.
One handy feature that is carried over from the Libra Colour is the ability to highlight text in colour, which you can do using your finger.
Alongside the Clara Colour, Kobo is releasing an updated version of its black and white Clara e-reader – both devices can store up to 12,000 e-books in the 16GB of storage, and have batteries that last up to 53 days – Kobo says this figure is arrived at based on 30 minutes of reading per day with the front light at 10% The rear of brightness and wi-fi the Clara and Bluetooth turned off.
There is also a new set of SleepCovers for the new Clara devices, and they come in a range of bright colours.
Rakuten is also boasting about all three of its new devices’ ecocredentials — they’re made of recycled plastics, and more easily repairable than previous models.
In addition to all that, the three e-readers are also fully waterproof with an IPX8 rating, meaning they can survive up to an hour in water two metres deep.
The three new e-readers from Kobo will be released on April 30, and can be ordered now from uk. kobobooks.com.
The Libra Colour comes in two colours — black or white — for £199.99, with the Clara Colour in black coming in at £139.99 and the B&W Clara costing £119.99.