Last week I posted about how Onyx keeps re-releasing the same devices over and over again, and it’s kind of the same story with Kobo.
It’s been a long time since they put any real effort into designing a new model, and whenever they do come out with something new they usually abandon it after one model generation.
If you handed the average person a Kobo Clara BW and the original Kobo Clara HD from 2018, most would think they’re the same device. The two Kobo ereaders, now 8 years apart, look exactly the same from a design perspective; the only difference is the BW has some added texture on the plastic casing. Functionally, the software between the two units is nearly identical as well. The Clara BW does have some hardware upgrades, and they sell replacement parts for it, but all the main features are the same and the overall design has hardly changed at all since 2018.
It’s the same story with the Kobo Libra Colour. Outside of the color screen, it’s almost exactly the same device as the Kobo Libra H2O that came out in 2019. The Libra Colour adds Bluetooth support for audiobooks, stylus support for notetaking, and it has a USB-C port instead of a micro USB port, but you’d have a hard time telling the two apart just going by the plastic casing and their general designs.
The other model that Kobo still sells, the Kobo Elipsa 2E, is not an original design either. They reused the oringal Elipsa’s design from 2021 and added a warm frontlight—and that was the only real change.
So Kobo hasn’t actually designed a new model since 2021 with the original Elipsa eNote. That was also the same year the Kobo Sage came out with a premium design and a larger 8″ screen. But Kobo abandoned that model without replacing it, just like they abandoned the Kobo Forma from 2018 and the Kobo Aura One from 2016, both of which had new designs for the time.
It seems like anytime they come out with something unique and new, it gets pushed aside for yet another Clara or Libra clone. How long is Kobo going to keep reusing the same general designs? At some point you’d think they’d come up with a new idea.
If you bought a Kobo Clara HD in 2018 and you decided to “upgrade” to a new model your only option in 2026 for a replacement with a black and white screen is the Kobo Clara BW, and after 8 years it doesn’t really seem like much of an upgrade at all considering it’s still using the same design and the same basic plastic housing. Under the hood there are some upgrades, but does more storage space and waterproofing really matter that much? Apparently Kobo obtained perfection with the Clara and Libra designs and now nothing ever needs to change.
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