It appears that Barnes and Noble’s recent epidemic of fire sales on the Nooks is catching. Kobo is joining in on the fun by offering their Kobo Mini ebook reader for an all-time low price of $39.99 in the US and Canada from Kobo.com, Powells, Indigo, and other Kobo retailers.
The price of ebook readers just keeps getting lower and lower all the time. I can’t recall ever seeing a new E Ink ebook reader being offered for such a low price that wasn’t discontinued or really crummy.
Kobo is setting a new standard for a lower price. Previous sales on the Kobo Mini had it down to $49. But $39? That’s really a good deal for the amount of features it has.
I reviewed the Kobo Mini last November and thought it was a good ereader at the regular price of $79.
It has a 5″ E Ink screen with an infrared touchscreen, 2GB of memory, an 800MHz processor, Wi-Fi, web browser, sketch pad, some games, and it supports ePub, of course.
The biggest thing that separates the Kobo Mini from other ereaders is its small size. At 4″ x 5.2″ x 0.4″ it truly is pocketable, and it only weighs 4.7 ounces.
The Kobo Mini lacks a frontlight and microSD card slot that come on the larger Kobo Aura HD and Kobo Glo. But the software is 90% the same. The homescreen has a different layout but all the reading features are the same.
The sale on the Kobo Mini ends on July 18th, according to Kobo. Don’t forget they are also offering $20 off the Kobo Glo and Kobo Arc until the end of June.
Kobo is also offering the Mini at £29.99 in the UK. I don’t know how that translates in US or Canadian dollars but the price does include VAT of 20%.
Yup. At $40, it’s a steal. Especially as a second or travel eReader… and either they’re trying to increase adoption of the Kobo store by making it an impulse buy (with the potential to upsell people to the more full featured Glo, Aura, and Arc) or they’re clearing sticks for a new version.
Either way, I’m happy. Less text fits on a screen than with the Aura, but it’s a LOT easier to hold and use one-handed. I’ve missed the smaller readers for that reason (and pocketability), even though I’ve always liked the bigger readers for their capacity for more text on one screen.
So many e-reader sales… I have been thinking about buying one for some time now, but I just can’t seem to decide.
Sigh… Guess I will use e-reader apps on my tablet for a little while longer.
I’m going to get one!
Makes me wonder what the real cost of a Mini is for Kobo to manufacture.
The lack of a microSD slot (and its size is not a factor in the decision to omit it – smaller, more complex, and much more densely-packed smartphones can have one, after all) prevents me from buying one, even though my Kobo Touch is dying. 🙁
Kobo devices need to be factory reset too often and firmware updates can and have wiped your library. Since most of my books are sideloads, having to reload my library whenever something happens became incredibly annoying ’til I got a microSD card for my Touch.
I can’t say that I’ve had issues with firmware 2.5.1 or 2.6.1 that required a regular reset (such as the freezes during font changes present in older versions), much less a factory reset on the Aura. They’ve gotten better about that, at least. Plus, with 1.6 GB of storage, I’m not going to be carrying my whole library on it. Especially not when I’ve got a wifi hotspot to download books from Kobo (or Baen, or Tor) as required.
PURPLE OMG I need one of these too Ps love you honey badger giggle
kelly, it’s just the back cover that’s purple. your choices are black or white for the reader (i believe).
i love my mini, and while i whine about no sd cards on tablets, i can stick a few hundred books on the mini via usb with no complaints. not sure how swapping a sd card would be quicker than connecting a usb cable, as far as sideloading goes.
quick stupid story: i ordered my mini direct from kobo when they first announced direct sales. a week later it had not arrived and i had not received a ship notification email. i sent them a customer complaint, etc., but gave up and ordered one from best buy instead. the next day a box showed up via fedex with a cryptic return address and all sorts of japanese (or chinese?) characters on the package, no packing slip. my order from best buy showed up the next day. i returned my best buy purchase at my local store. 3 weeks later, another box showed up direct from kobo! wtf, i have it new in a box as a backup…..
make SURE kobo did not BILL you 2x
thanks, i checked 🙂