Rakuten Kobo’s lineup of eReaders have been officially available in Malaysia for a couple of years now, but their latest ones may just be their most exciting ones for book lovers around. Kobo has announced that three new eReaders will be joining their lineup, and two of them will be using colour e-ink displays, a first for Kobo.
The biggest star of the show here is the Kobo Libra Colour. While it may look similar to the Libra 2 of yesteryear on the outside, once you’ve turned it on you’ll find a new 7-inch, Kaleido 3 colour e-ink display with FastGLR and dark mode. It pushes a 1264 x 1680p resolution for a 300 PPI pixel density when viewing regular black and white content with a 150 PPI pixel density when viewing colour content. The Kobo Libra Colour also now supports stylus input, via the optional Kobo Stylus 2 that allows you to take notes and highlight text while reading.
On top of that, the Kobo Libra Colour comes with 32GB of storage and a faster dual core 2GHz processor compared to the 1GHz CPU on the older Libra 2. Another nice upgrade on the Kobo Libra Colour is that is now supports up to WiFi 5; its predecessor only supported up to WiFi 4. You’ll also find a 2050mAh battery rated for up to 40 days of daily reading, IPX8 water resistance, USB-C charging and Bluetooth wireless connectivity. And as with every other Kobo eReader, you can purchase eBooks off the Kobo store but also sideload your own eBooks in various file formats such as EPUB, PDF, CBR and more.
Meanwhile, the Kobo Clara Colour comes with a 6-inch display with a similar Kaleido 3 colour e-ink pushing a 1448 x 1072p resolution for a 300 PPI pixel density in black and white and a 150 PPI pixel density when viewing colour content. It also comes with 16GB of storage, powered by a dual 2.0GHz processor with a 1500mAh battery keeping the lights on for up to 42 days. There’s support for WiFI 5 and Bluetooth wireless connectivity too, as well as an IPX8 water resistance rating.
As for the Kobo Clara BW, this is essentially a minor upgrade for the last generation Clara 2e that we previously reviewed. From what we can tell, the Clara BW offers a newer Carta 1300 e-ink panel which should offer both better contrast as well as a faster refresh rate compared to the Clara 2e’s Carta 1200 panel. However, the screen size remains the same at 6-inches, as well as the resolution of 1448 x 1072p for a 300 PPI pixel density. You’ll also get the same 16GB of storage, a 1GHz processor, IPX8 water resistance and battery life rated for weeks at a time.
The new Kobo Libra Colour is priced at RM1,079, while the Kobo Clara Colour is priced at RM779. If you prefer a regular black and white e-ink display, the Kobo Clara BW retails for RM679. You can pre-order them now already with full availability on the Kobo website as well as select retailers nationwide beginning from 30 April onwards. Optional accessories include the Kobo Stylus 2 priced at RM319, Notebook SleepCover for RM185, Basic SleepCover for RM155 and the Kobo Clear Case for RM135. For more information you can check out the Kobo Malaysia website by clicking here.
