Rakuten Introduces Two New Kobo Color Ebook Readers (And One New B&W Model)
Personally, I’m a fan of reading my books the physical way, but I’ve realized that reading the “modern” way is a lot more accessible. Phones don’t do the job the best, and that’s where e-readers come in. Rakuten’s Kobo models have always had a focus on being eco-friendly and easy to repair, and they have launched three new models, including two new color options. All of these will be available on April 30th.
The Kobo Libra Color
Rakuten is to Amazon, what the Kobo is to Kindle. The Kobo Libra Color is the big kid in the lineup, with a 7-inch color “E Ink Kaleido 3” display and 1264 x 1680 resolution. E-readers don’t work on the same design rules as smartphones or even tablets, so they don’t aim to eliminate bezels because you need somewhere to hold the device. One bezel on this is about twice the size of the others, making it very ergonomic, and it comes with two physical buttons you can use to turn the screen.
There’s no expandable storage, but you get 32GB built-in, which can hold nearly 25,000 books. The device has IPX8 water resistance, so if you want to read at the pool, you can do that without worry. It also comes with support for Rakuten’s Kobo Stylus 2, allowing you to markup ebooks (perfect for textbooks and school work) and write (in color!) like in a notebook, journal, or planner.
The battery in this is 2,050 mAh and they claim this will get you about 40 days of reading time if you’re doing just about 30 minutes of reading each day. That’s impressive. You can even use it to listen to audiobooks.
The Kobo Clara Color
The Kobo Clara Color is the second of Kobo’s new color models and is the smaller option. It has a 6-inch color “E Ink Kaleido 3” display and 1448 x 1072 resolution. As the smaller model, its storage gets downgraded to 16GB, though that will still suffice to store 12,000 ebooks (which is more than anyone needs on a single device).
The battery also takes a step down to 1,500 mAh, which thanks to the smaller screen and lower resolution, should still last you 42 days under the right conditions. You still get IPX8 water resistance, so spills and dunks in water shouldn’t phase this reader at all. There’s no stylus support here, so you won’t be able to mark anything up, though you can highlight in color with your finger.
The Kobo Clara BW
The Kobo Clara BW is basically like the Clara Color, but slightly powered down. First off, it loses the color display but maintains a 6-inch 1448 x 1072 screen. It sticks with the same storage, water resistance, and battery size — though on that last count, it gets 53 days of battery life thanks to a single-core processor and a color-free display.
Regardless of which of these tickles your fancy, Kobo offers several options for all tastes and budgets, and they’ve certainly come a very long way from earlier devices.
