Kobo has started accepting pre-orders for their new limited edition Kobo Aura One with 32GB of storage space.
Technically pre-orders are only open to Kobo’s VIP members, which costs $10 per year, but it seems anyone can order if you know the secret “VIP access” code.
The 32GB Kobo Aura One is expected to get released on December 6th, so there’s really not much point in pre-ordering anyway.
The new limited edition model sells for $279 USD, $50 more than the standard 8GB model.
Apparently Kobo only plans to sell it in the United States and Japan.
Aside from the boost in storage space, all of the other specs are identical.
However, there’s one interesting detail on the product page for the 32GB Kobo Aura One. It talks about a new enhanced page-turn feature that lets you quickly scan through a book.
It’s unclear if this new feature will be available on other models through a firmware update or if it’s exclusive to the new 32GB Aura One. It doesn’t really make sense not to include a feature like that on the other models, so I’d expect it to show up at some point.
Ordered one yesterday. My previous KA1 enjoyed a short life of less than 6 months when its USB died. Apparently, Kobo considers that my fault and *that* made me think twice about ordering this one (total cost with shipping was $308, ouch) but I haven’t enjoyed reading (on an Oasis2) since it died so …
What was especially irritating is that this isn’t available in Canada so there was no exchange-rate discount to the US (my first KA1 cost $170 from Indigo with that advantage).
It’s hard to buy from another countries, like Colombia. For this, only can buy from China.
Honestly I just don’t get why you need 32 GB unless you really ton of Manga.
Indeed. And it would be virtually impossible to navigate a library with several thousand books on a Kobo. I seriously doubt Kobo’s software could manage 1\4 of the estimated 28,000 ebooks without imploding.
I’ve 5,000 on my Aura One, all tagged automatically via Calibre by genre; it’s not impossible at all and there’s no noticeable slowdown. It is trivial to locate a book in a specific genre that I want to read next.
With Kindle, I’d agree with you since they have *specifically* prevented automating the tagging of sideloaded books. In fact, they went out of their way to block this ability.
The number of books isn’t the important part of expanded storage; it’s the ability to add books without concern *about* storage.
Good to hear it can handle that many books at once, at least. More than I could ever read!
5,000 books? Be honest, did you pay for all those?
BDR, I agree that Calibre helps organize the Kobo. I wish that organizing books on the Kobo wasn’t so slow & clumsy. We shouldn’t need a third party app to remedy this shortcoming.
To be honest, I’m happy to see Kobo identifying a subset of its customers and producing a device that specifically caters to them.
I’m also happy to see them releasing it in a manner that doesn’t leave the Kindle Oasis product release unanswered.
Good on them. Disruptive tactics like this are why I ran to Kobo instead of Amazon.
After this though I’d also like to see them develop a device that gives current customers a compelling reason to upgrade from earlier models, even if that means returning to features that have been discarded in newer models, ie. sharp infra-red screens and micro-sdcard ports.
Think about it, this limited edition that hasn’t even been released yet, has less storage and thereby gives the user less control over storage than the original H2O released waaay back in 2014. That device, while only shipping with 4GB of memory (which really, is pretty adequate for most users) also had a microSD card slot that empowered the user to choose exactly how much more storage they needed, even if they wanted more than you can get from this KA1-LE, a device that isn’t even released yet.
Look, I like that Kobo is expanding internal memory. But how hard/expensive would it be to release a device with decent storage, 8GB lets say, and a microSD card port under a rubber plug? And then with the standard IPX8 USB port common on all current models?
Similarly, how hard would it be to release a Kobo waterproof reader with these features, decent storage and a protected microSD card port, and a modern comfort-lit high-res high res screen that was also infra-red instead of capacitive? Of Course Overdrive integration is expected.
Seriously, how hard could this be? All of these features have previously been offered in Kobo readers, just not in one single reader. None are particularly challenging to include.
I realize they all cost money to include, but really, you’re competing with Amazon, you aren’t going to beat them by trying to make your hardware cheaper. That is a Sisyphean feat. It can’t be done.
What you can do is offer a range of hardware, from minimally priced Kindle equivalent devices to premium power-reader devices, all supported by a competitive ebook store (as currently exists).
I guess what I’m saying is the only obtainable market left is the one catering to power-reading geeks. Give us the devices we want and you’ll at least have us in your garden.
I was going to pre-order this but lost the code somehow.From this report sound like to big deal.Must admit I don’t really need the larger screen but I desperately want the OverDrive integration and I despair of seeing on the H20
Just FYI, the enhanced page turn is simply the KA1 LE’s ability to turn comic pages almost as fast as text pages. It works best with tapping, though swiping works as well. It’s just a bit more work.. Just rapidly tap on the side to advance the pages, and they fly by quickly. I can rapidly turn 3-4 pages before my KA1 LE skips a beat while turning pages. I’ve tested it on my KA1 vs my LE. The page turning is extremely fast comparatively. On the KA1, rapid tapping is likely to invoke zooming, and the pages take a bit to render. On the KA1 LE, zooming is only invoked by pinching/spreading like on an iPad. This frees the reader to zip through as many pages as you tap. It’s quite impressive.
Hey D.R.Cootey,
are there any other differences between KA1 and KA1 LE in terms of loading books and other usages? I’m a bit torn between the two, it does make me feel more secure by the fact that LE has more storage but I will mostly use the reader for reading books and borrowing books from the online library. I have a different reader with a micro sd slot that I will use for reading comic books.
Thanks in advance!