Today Kobo officially announced three new ereaders, including the Kobo Libra Colour with a 7-inch color E Ink screen. This will be the first time that Kobo has released ereaders with color E Ink screens.
The Kobo Libra Colour looks a lot like the Kobo Libra 2, and it’s available in white or black like the Libra 2, but it has some hardware upgrades in addition to the new screen, and they also added support for the Kobo Stylus (sold separately) so it can double as a notebook now too.
The Kobo Libra Colour is available to pre-order from Kobo’s website for $219.99 in the US, and it’s getting released on April 30th. It’s only $30 more expensive than the Kobo Libra 2, which seems pretty reasonable with the upgrades, and it’s $80 cheaper than the Bigme B751C with same 7-inch color E Ink screen.
In addition to the new Kaleido 3 color screen, the Kobo Libra Colour also comes with an upgraded dual-core 2.0 GHz processor, and they added support for dual band Wi-Fi. The battery is also larger at 2050mAh.
Like the Libra 2, it has a frontlight with adjustable color temperature, and the device is also waterproof (IPX8 rated). It has Bluetooth for streaming Kobo’s audiobooks, and there’s 32GB of onboard storage. It’s about 15 grams lighter than the Libra 2, and it’s also a bit thinner according to the spec sheet.
It’s interesting how they opted to use the alternate spelling of color to name the device, even in the US, but then they revert to using “color” everywhere in the description. It’s also odd how Kobo released a new black and white version of the Kobo Clara but they didn’t release a new black and white version of the Libra. Does that mean the Libra 2 is going to be phased out?
Kobo uploaded a couple YouTube videos for the Kobo Libra Colour, but they don’t really show much. I’ll post some comparison videos after the new devices get released. See here for more about color E Ink screens.
Kobo Libra Colour Videos
Kobo Libra Colour Specs
- 7-inch E Ink Kaleido 3 screen.
- 1264 x 1680 resolution (300ppi for black and white content; 150ppi for color).
- Capacitive touchscreen.
- Frontlight: ComfortLight Pro with adjustable brightness and color temperature.
- Waterproof – IPX8 rated.
- 2.0 GHz processor.
- 32GB storage space.
- WiFi 802.11 ac/b/g/n.
- Bluetooth for audiobooks.
- USB-C port.
- Battery: 2050mAh.
- Supported formats: EPUB, EPUB3, FlePub, PDF, MOBI, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, TIFF, TXT, HTML, RTF, CBZ, CBR.
- Dimensions: 144.6 x 161 x 8.3mm.
- Weight: 199.5 grams.
- Price: $219.99 USD.
Wow, I’m impressed by how cheap these models are—just a bit more than their black-and-white counterparts, and not much more than if they’d just released an ordinary new model by now!
I’m glad this Libra has stylus support. If it had it earlier, I might have gone for this instead of the Elipsa. I’m surprised they haven’t also released a black-and-white model with these upgrades though; not everyone wants a colour ereader because of the contrast issues. Especially since the Libra 2 is one of the most popular models out there (like I said, I’d have got it if it had stylus support). Do they think that people with larger screens are more likely to want to read comic books or something? I’m pretty sure there are many people who don’t and just want text on a larger screen.
I’m more of a notetaking person and often put reference images on my Kobo to draw from, so the Libra Colour sounds like it would be for me. I’m not in the market for an ereader at the moment since I recently got the Elipsa but it’s good to know there are options around!
I wonder if the same cases will fit the new models
Nah, they always change them just enough so old cases won’t fit. The new models are about .6mm thicker and 1mm taller than the Clara 2E.
Having become used to my 8” Kobo Aura One I’m the odd man out who wants flush bezels because I think that makes it easier to clean the screen, and I prefer swiping rather than physical page turn buttons. They seem to me to be be a point of potential mechanical failure.. otherwise very nice devices and despite me not being so hot on these offerings, I do prefer Kobo over any other readers offrings.
The Kobo Aura One was one of their best ereaders ever. I don’t know why they never followed it up with a new version.
I’m more excited about new Tolino readers. They were always based on Kobo hardware but had their own terrible software. Now they have Kobo software only with different font (see the picture here: https://mytolino.de/news/tolino-allianz-prasentiert-neue-ereader-generation-mit-farbdisplay/)
BUT Tolino cloud can sync your sideloaded books and progress between your readers and smartphone. So basicaly the new reader Vision Color is Libra Color with the same hardware and software, but with sideload sync. Sounds like a perfect solution for my needs 🙂
One thing I like about my libra 2 is the amazing screen, the rich contrast and the crisp text, the inky blacks. I’m tempted by this new color edition, but I wonder if that extra layer of color will diminish the contrast and the sharpness of the text like a flush bezel would. Thoughts?
I’ll post a comparison between the two next month, but I would guess the Libra 2 is going to look much better when it comes to displaying regular text. If it didn’t look better then Kobo would have no reason to release the BW Clara alongside the color model.
I hope that’s not the case but you’re probably right, makes sense. If so, I wish they would have released a 7 inch version BW with the new specs.