It looks like the 1st gen Kobo Aura H2O has officially been phased out, as it’s no longer available on Kobo’s website.
Kobo does this weird thing when they decide not to sell a model anymore. They remove the product description page from their website entirely so it just leads to an error page.
There’s still a help page for the original Kobo Aura H2O but the main product page is now gone.
It’s surprising Kobo didn’t phase it out sooner, actually.
The 2nd gen Kobo Aura H2O was released in May 2017 so there was about a 10 month overlap with the two generations being out at the same time.
The 1st gen Kobo Aura H2O is still available from other places like Amazon and eBay, but the ones on Amazon are overpriced and the ones on eBay have to be imported from Japan.
The 1st gen Kobo Aura H2O was the last remaining Kobo ereader available with a microSD card slot for expandable storage. What used to be a common feature is now an outdated one. Kobo has the 32GB Kobo Aura One now, but it looks like the days of Kobo ereaders with memory cards is officially over.
What a shame. That was the most reliable and versitile e-reader that they ever made.
So when is the Kobo Aura 3rd gen coming out?
This model has the best screen of any E reader I have ever used. Too bad it’s a little bit bulky and blocky and the bezels are slightly large. Also a slight bit heavy for today’s standards but excellent screen Nonetheless.
Has anyone with a 1st gen Kobo (the one with the square rubber button) experienced the rubber backing melting, becoming sticky and malleable l, and smelling very mildly of epoxy glue? Pulled mine out of a drawer and thought I’d somehow spilled some kind of odourless syrup on the back of it. Tried wiping it off but the more I wipe the more it seems to melt.