Kobo announces its first-ever color e-readers. Dubbed the Kobo Libra Colour and the Kobo Clara Colour, are currently up for preorder now and will reportedly be available at the end of the month.
Kobo Announces Its First-Ever Color E-Readers
Rakuten Kobo is stepping into the world of color e-readers with the launch of its latest offerings: the Kobo Libra Colour and the Kobo Clara Colour. Both devices utilize E Ink’s latest Kaledio color screen technology, which delivers subtle pastel-like hues.
However, the color display does come with a trade-off, dropping from a 300ppi grayscale resolution to 150ppi when viewing content in color.
While I haven’t tested the e-readers yet, they appear to be incremental upgrades to Kobo’s existing lineup. Nonetheless, this isn’t necessarily a drawback. The Kobo Libra 2, for example, stands out as one of my favorite e-readers outside of Amazon’s ecosystem.
It boasts a seven-inch screen, IPX8 waterproof design similar to the Kindle Paperwhite, physical page-turning buttons, the absence of lockscreen ads, and ample storage.
Price Of the New Colour E-Readers
Priced at $219.99, the Kobo Libra Colour maintains all of these features and adds compatibility with the Kobo Stylus 2 (sold separately for $69.99), akin to the Kobo Elipsa 2E. However, it comes with a $30 higher price tag compared to the Kobo Libra 2.
On the other hand, the $149.99 Kobo Clara Colour offers some notable enhancements over its counterpart, the $139.99 Kobo Clara 2E. It retains the six-inch display and IPX8 waterproof design but doubles the storage to 16GB and features an improved processor.
This improvement is particularly promising, addressing one of the key drawbacks of the Kobo Clara 2E — sluggish performance.
Additionally, Kobo has unveiled an upgraded version of its black-and-white e-reader, the Kobo Clara BW, priced at $129.99. This device also benefits from the storage and processor upgrades introduced in the Clara Colour.
Availability and Launch Date
All of these devices are available for preorder starting today and are scheduled to ship on April 30th.
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