It looks like Kobo is getting ready to release their first ereader with a color E Ink screen soon, most likely the Kobo Libra Color. My guess is they’ll announce it early next week and start shipping it later this month.
Update: As expected, Kobo has officially announced the upcoming release of the Kobo Libra Colour and two new Kobo Claras, one with a color E Ink screen and one with a traditional black and white screen.
Kobo seems to be hinting at an impending release on their social media platforms. Earlier this week Kobo greyed out all their logos and icons on their social media pages, and added a line that says, “Feeling too grey lately”.
Some people are still in denial, but between Kobo’s greyed out social media pages and the leaked product pages for a Kobo Libra Color and a Kobo Clara Color that turned up last month on an obscure website that sells Kobo ereaders, the writing is on the wall, so to speak.
The question is, will they release just one model now or multiple color models at the same time?
So far we don’t have any specific details about Kobo’s color ereaders, but going off the names we can assume the Kobo Libra Color will have a 7-inch screen and the Kobo Clara will have a 6-inch screen. It’s also a safe bet to say they will support 300 ppi for black and white content and 150 ppi for color content, as that is the current standard for E Ink’s latest generation Kaleido 3 screens.
It’ll be interesting to see what Kobo decides to charge for their color ereaders. Currently, Bigme sells a device with a 7-inch color screen with a similar design as the Kobo Libra, the Bigme B751C, and it sells for $299. Kobo will probably undercut that by a good amount since Android-powered ereaders are always more expensive. I bet they’ll sell the Kobo Libra Color for $249 or less.
Most people still seem to be skeptical about color E Ink since reading regular text doesn’t benefit from color, but I think color E Ink is good enough to warrant its own niche market at this point, as long as they keep making regular black and white models too for those that don’t care about color, which I think they will.
What do you think? Are you excited about Kobo’s first color ereader, or are you a skeptic?
Update: It looks like Kobo’s new ereaders are officially going to get announced on Wednesday, April 10th. Stay tuned!
I’m excited. I’m also tempted by the idea. I hope they can pull it off, and I’m looking forward to seeing what they came up with.
I think it’s great news for North American color e-ink enthusiasts. If you want to get a color e-reader with Android, the only option was Pocketbook, as far as I know, but now it’s more difficult to get after they left Amazon.
Maybe it will even speed up path to a color Kindle, who knows…
Correction: “an e-reader *without* Android”, of course.
I do see benefits of color e-ink for reading magazines, comics, manga, non-fiction etc. But I really can’t see anyone doing that on 6” ereader. And 7” is not that much better. To me color reader should be at least 8”.
Not a dedicated e-reader but the Boox mini tab C is 7.8″, so, close to 8″. Runs Android.
After reviewing several color ereaders over the years, I agree. 6″ is a weird size for color content. 7″ is doable but at least they’re pricing them cheaper than other brands so maybe more people will be willing to take a chance on them.
I have been looking forward to a color Kobo Libra for a long time! They have had a couple of years now to work on the current color tech, I am more interested in the processor, memory and device interface they chose than the color DPI. I am also hoping they have spent that time ironing out some of the glitches in the firmware and the touch screen. A ten inch screen would be nice, but 7 would be sufficient.
If I buy it will be to see what the hype is since you can’t see one in a store. It will then probably be returned. I just read books and do not highlight anything so it isn’t something I would want to keep. I really had hoped for a Mini or a Sage with a better battery. For those that were looking forward to a color reader, I am happy you are finally getting what you have been wanting.
I think they had four models rumored, so it’s possible there will be some new B&W units too.
The FCC paperwork shows three models. The third is a black and white version of the Clara.
There will be a white Clara?
It looks like the Libra is available in black or white again, but I haven’t seen any signs of a white Clara yet.
Maybe a Carta 1300 Clara?
The fact they aren’t available in stores in most countries is a good point. That’s going to be a big hurdle for Kobo to overcome. If people could see them in person it would help increase sales, I think.
Well, I’m also happy for the people who really want a colour Kobo.
At the same time it is really sad that ereader development doesn’t get the focus on the right areas, like replaceable battery, more quality casing, more durable screen without the exchange of readability.
More leaked info coming from Belgium (prices in euro for EU customers).
Kobo Libra Color
Kobo Clara Color
Cool, thanks. They seem pretty reasonably priced, actually. (I also cleaned up the links.)
Wow, now I regret have bought the Inkpad Color 3 if Kobo’s is more responsive, although Pocketbook’s is a very little bigg
It will be interesting to see how well-optimized these new color Kobos are. The first color PocketBook and color Boox had terrible performance and ghosting issues.
Goodereader published the leaked specs: Kobo Libra Color will support Dropbox, Google Drive and also their electronic pencil for note taking. That to me sounds like they will discontinue Sage, because Libra will get all its functionality… I won’t buy it unless they finaly add sideloaded content sync, but I guess for 230 euros it will sell very good.
All its functionality other than the glorious 8″ screen! I will be VERY sad if they ditch the 8″ screen size…
They need to hurry up. My clara is 3 seconds from dead and I can’t hold out much longer.