The time has come for a comparison review between the Kindle Colorsoft and the Kobo Libra Colour. Both have 7″ color E Ink screens with 300 ppi for BW and 150 ppi for color, but the two devices are dissimilar in a number of ways.
In general, there are a lot of differences between Kindles and Kobos, but I’m not going to rehash all of that again here. I’m going to focus on what makes them unique as ereaders with color E Ink screens.
Hardware
The Libra Colour has some hardware advantages with the addition of page buttons and stylus support. It also has a rotation sensor, and the power button is located on the back and it’s recessed so it’s hard to accidentally press.
The Libra Colour is available in black or white, whereas the Colorsort is only available in black.
The Kindle Colorsoft is essentially a Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition with a color screen, so it has the SE upgrades, which includes wireless charging and an auto-brightness sensor. The power button is located on the bottom edge and it sticks out so it’s easy to accidentally press (and it happens often).
Both have USB-C ports, with 32GB of storage space, and both devices are waterproof. Both have Bluetooth for listening to audiobooks, but only the Kindle supports text-to-speech (VoiceView).
The Screens
The Colorsoft has a flush front screen and the Libra Colour has an indented screen. Because of that I thought the Kobo would have the edge in screen clarity, but surprisingly the Kindle’s screen looks better in terms of overall clarity and color even with the added flush layer.
Amazon must’ve done a little something extra to make colors appear darker and more colorful. Ghosting (afterimage effects) is also less of an issue on the Kindle’s screen. For example, when scrolling through the library on the Kobo the cover images often overlap with previous images, but that doesn’t happen on the Colorsoft.
The frontlights are vastly different on the two units that I have. The frontlight on the Kobo is yellower at the cool setting, and darker with the warm setting. But frontlights vary so much who knows what you’ll get from one to the next, so let’s just leave it at that.
Content
Amazon has a huge advantage when it comes to color content, with a large selection of comic books, children’s books, and magazines that are formatted for Kindles. Kobo’s color content selection is pitiful by comparison, and the fact the Libra Colour downloads lower resolution versions of comics isn’t helping matters any.
However, the Kobo has the advantage of supporting comic formats (CBR and CBZ) natively, so sideloading comics is going to be a lot easier on the Libra Colour. PDFs also show color without having to jump through hoops; with the Colorsoft you have to use Send-to-Kindle to view PDFs in color, which are no longer PDFs after Amazon converts them to KFX.
Opinion
Overall, I like the design of the Kobo better with the page buttons on the side and the power button out of the way, but I think the screen and the frontlight look better on the Kindle (minus the yellow band).
The Kobo has a big advantage being able to use a stylus if you want to take notes, provided they don’t disappear when turning pages. Kobo’s stylus costs a small fortune, but cheaper MPP styli work as well.
To me, the build quality of the Kobo feels a little less nice with the cheap plastic material that Kobo always insists on using, but the flush front screen on the Colorsoft is a fingerprint magnet that always looks dirty.
If you want a color ereader both devices are good enough in their own ways, provided you’re okay with the limitations of color E Ink, and each device’s respective platforms.
The Price
At $219, the Kobo Libra Colour is less expensive than the Kindle Colorsoft, which Amazon sells for $279. However, Amazon offers 20% off with trade-ins, and they tend to take more off during sales, so you can get better deals at certain times.
Leave a Reply