Earlier in the week, I posted about bundle packages and cases for Kobo’s new ereaders turning up online at Walmart and Amazon, but most of the listings where removed soon after because apparently they were listed too soon, as the new Kobos don’t officially get released until April 30th.
Now the listings are back and the new Kobos are also available to purchase individually through Amazon and Walmart, except the Kobo Libra Colour is still only available with bundle packages on Amazon (I’ll update this post when the non-bundle listings show up). Updated: The Libra Colour listings are live now but they’re not in stock yet.
As mentioned in the last post, the new Kobos are being sold by BlueProton on both Amazon and Walmart. BlueProton is Kobo’s official retail partner in the US, and they’ve been selling Kobo ereaders for a long time now so they are legit.
Currently the shipping estimates are faster on Amazon by almost a week, even though BlueProton is shipping them in both instances.
I’ll be posting reviews and comparisons of all three new Kobos over the next few weeks so stay tuned to The eBook Reader Blog for more info.
Here are the links to the product pages for the three new Kobo ereaders at Walmart and at Amazon:
Amazon Links
Black Kobo Libra Colour Bundles
White Kobo Libra Colour Bundles
Walmart Links
Black Kobo Libra Colour Bundles
So far the reviews don’t seem very positive. it seems that the color version is a lot darker and suffers from Crispness and contrast versus the Libra 2 according to many YouTube videos. Blacks not as deep and many issues with outdoor reading due to the darker screen. Can’t wait to see your take on it. Color is a bonus to me as I don’t read comics and 99% of books don’t make use of color. I’m mean I would like it, but not at the expense of crispness and deep blacks
Yeah, that’s the nature of color E Ink with these Kaleido screens. I’ve been saying they are darker and contrast isn’t as good for the past 4 years, and regular E Ink looks better when it comes to displaying text so there’s no surprise there. When you’re not comparing them side-by-side the Kaleido screen looks fine for text—it’s not like they are hard to read at all, but that’s going to continue being a talking point moving forward. Some people would rather have color and acceptable contrast, and others prefer a clearer, lighter screen with better contrast over having color.
I am too used to the speed at which c3rd party cases come out for phones. Gonna be a bit before there are any for the new kobos, if there ever are any.
So does the Kobo color have an mp3 player? Or is it hidden and hard to get to like the Clara 2e? It was so hard to find on the Clara2e I never did get to see a screen of it before mine broke. I would now require an mp3 player. Not just some pie in the sky, yeah it’s there but. . .
Kobos all have the same software so it’s not going to be any different than the Clara 2E. The last time I tried to use the MP3 player it didn’t work well and I could see why it’s not an official feature.