I’ve always loved reading. As a kid, I’d walk home from school with a book in one hand and a drink from the corner store in the other. I had all the gadgets for gaming, TV, and movies, but nothing compared to the feeling of getting lost in a book and stepping into a world far, far away. There’s something magical about immersing yourself in a story - whether it’s fiction, where reality fades and anything is possible, or non-fiction, where words can transport you across the world, back in time, or deep into the lives of others.
Reading has come a long way since I was a kid, and bookworms today are spoilt for choice with the growing popularity of e-readers. E-readers have revolutionised the way we read, offering portable and straightforward access to our favourite books anytime, anywhere. One of the most beloved brands in this space, Kobo, has a wide range to suit a variety of reading preferences. Today, we’re exploring the top models on offer. If you’re a keen reader, then consider this required reading. Oh, and if you’re not, don’t worry, these little pocket libraries will have you hooked before you know it!
Before we get into the various Kobo E-Readers on offer, let’s talk about a key aspect of the transition to E-Readers – getting books! With Kobo e-readers, there’s a range of ways you can read.
Built-In Kobo Store: The built-in Kobo Bookstore can be directly accessed from your device and offers millions of eBooks and audiobooks across a wide range of genres. Discover new releases, bestsellers and personalised recommendations and download immediately.
Subscribe to Kobo Plus: The subscription service provides unlimited access to a huge library of over 1 million eBooks for a monthly fee. This is great for folks who wish to explore new authors and genres without the commitment of buying each title individually.
Borrow eBooks from OverDrive: In some countries (yes, New Zealand is one of them!), your Kobo E-Reader can integrate seamlessly with OverDrive. This free service enables you to borrow eBooks directly from local public libraries via your device.
Read online articles with Pocket: By linking a Pocket account, you can sync saved articles and enjoy them on your E-Reader in a comfortable and distraction-free format.
Sync your Google Drive or Dropbox: If you have personal documents or eBooks, some Kobo models offer the ability to sync with cloud storage services like Google Drive and Dropbox. This allows you to import and even export documents. **The only featured models to have this feature are the Kobo Sage, Kobo Elipsa 2E, and the Kobo Libra Colour.
Kobo Clara Colour – Compact, Colourful, and Convenient
As the name suggests, the Kobo Clara Colour stands out due to the vibrant reading experience that it offers. The Clara was already a beloved e-reader, so the new colour capabilities on this model have just taken the tried and trusted e-reader to new heights.
The Clara model is designed to be compact, sporting a 6” display and weighing less than 200g. It utilises E Ink Kaleido 3 technology for the display, with the new generation screen designed to impress, courtesy of its soothing colour palette and sharp visuals. The Kaleido 3 has 16 levels of grayscale and 4096 colours, offering an improved experience over the previous generation. It also utilises E Ink ComfortGaze, which aims to reduce the amount of blue light reflected off the surface, offering maximum comfort for you, the reader.
Speaking of comfort, ComfortLight PRO is also on offer, allowing you to adjust the display’s brightness for comfortable reading. Overall, this is a really nice display, and the colour capabilities and screen improvements make it an excellent screen for magazines, comics, and other enhanced reading, when necessary.
With its lightweight frame and small form factor, you can take the Clara Colour with you wherever you go, literally wherever. With no glare in sunlight, full waterproof protection and no social media distractions, this really is a great way to get lost in your collection of books.
It’s not all just great features though, the e-reader is thoughtfully designed with sustainability in mind, incorporating recycled and ocean-bound plastic into its construction.
Highlights of the Clara Colour:
- 6-inch E Ink Kaleido 3 screen for crisp text and colourful elements.
- Compact and lightweight, making it easy to carry anywhere.
- ComfortLight PRO provides a comfortable reading experience day or night.
- 32GB storage, enough for an extensive digital library. 12,000 eBooks or 75 Kobo Audiobooks.
- Weeks of battery life, for non-stop reading.
- Supports Kobo Audiobooks via Bluetooth, so you can listen as well as read.
Kobo Libra Colour – The Perfect Balance of Colour and Comfort
If you’re looking for a bit more screen real estate, the Kobo Libra Colour offers an upgrade over the Clara series with its 7-inch display. Although the Libra is definitely less compact, it provides a more spacious and comfortable reading experience. But that’s not all – it also supports the use of a stylus, which adds an extra layer of versatility, allowing you to annotate, take notes, or journal with the Kobo Stylus 2 (sold separately). While not essential, the flexibility to use a stylus makes the Libra Colour one of the more feature-rich e-readers available, combining colour, comfort, and creativity.
Like the Clara Colour, the Libra Colour boasts an E Ink Kaleido 3 display, offering the best in colour performance with 16 levels of grayscale and 4,096 colours. ComfortLight PRO is also standard here, as is Bluetooth support for audiobooks.
Build-wise, there are some differences though, most notably the shape of the e-reader, which is much wider than the Clara and, as aforementioned, less compact. The additional space makes room for physical page-turning buttons and an ergonomically curved design, which enables it to fit comfortably in your hand. You can also make the most of features like left/right screen rotation, margin customisation and landscape mode. Once again, the Clara embodies Kobo’s commitment to sustainability, employing recycled materials in its construction.
For those who do opt for the Kobo Stylus 2, the integrated Kobo notebooks make for an easy notetaking or journaling experience. It’s nice to have this addition to the usual reading capabilities of other e-readers.
Highlights of the Libra Colour:
- 7-inch E Ink Kaleido 3 display for an enhanced reading experience.
- Physical page-turn buttons, make navigation easy and intuitive.
- ComfortLight PRO for customisable brightness and reduced blue light.
- Ergonomic and curved lightweight design, perfect for one-handed reading.
- Waterproof (IPX8), making it a great choice for reading anywhere.
- 32GB of storage, capable of holding thousands of books, comics, and documents.
Kobo Clara BW – A Classic Black & White E-Reader
If you prefer the traditional black-and-white e-reader experience, the Kobo Clara BW is a solid choice. With its distraction-free, high-quality black-and-white display, the Clara BW is the Clara Colour’s little sibling of sorts. They do share some of the same features, minus a few major things like colour capabilities, of course.
The Clara BW’s 6-inch E Ink Carta 1200 touchscreen provides sharp text and improved contrast, ensuring effortless readability. Sunlight is still no issue with a glare-free screen, and ComfortLight PRO can also be utilised to adjust brightness and reduce blue light.
Despite the focus on simplicity, the Clara BW still offers support for Kobo Audiobooks, and so if you can’t read yourself, or just prefer a soothing voice, the Clara BW can play audiobooks with its built-in Bluetooth technology.
If you’re a bookworm looking for a straightforward and distraction-free reading experience, the Clara BW brings everything you need to the table, without any of the extra frills. It doesn’t skimp on features though, with most of the same perks that can be found in the Clara Colour.
Highlights of the Clara BW:
- 6-inch E Ink Carta 1200 display for sharper text and better contrast.
- ComfortLight PRO to reduce blue light exposure.
- Ultra-lightweight and portable, making it easy to carry.
- Weeks of battery life, so you can read without frequent charging.
- Library borrowing support via OverDrive, allowing easy access to free books.
Kobo Sage – A Premium E-Reading Experience
The Kobo Sage is designed for readers who want an advanced e-reader with extra features and a touch more performance. It has a larger 8-inch E Ink Carta 1200 touchscreen, which delivers a spacious and immersive reading experience, perfect for books, documents, and note-taking.
Like the Kobo Libra, the Sage supports Kobo Stylus 2 (sold separately) for notetaking and annotations, making it ideal for students, professionals, or anyone who loves jotting down thoughts while reading.
The Sage was designed to be just that hint more premium from the ground up, with a quad-core CPU and fast dual-band Wi-Fi for the best in e-reader performance. Its ergonomic design includes page-turn buttons, letting you comfortably read one-handed as well. Still, this is a larger and wider device, like the Libra but bigger, and is great for those wanting more screen real estate as they read and take notes.
With Dropbox Support, you can add your own ebooks and documents to your Sage wirelessly, and even export notebooks which you’ve made yourself, courtesy of the Kobo Stylus.
Highlights of the Kobo Sage:
- 8-inch E Ink display for an immersive reading experience.
- Kobo Stylus 2 compatibility, perfect for notetaking and annotations.
- Bluetooth-enabled, for convenient audiobook playback.
- Waterproof design (IPX8), making it safe for use in wet conditions.
- 32GB of storage, ensuring plenty of space for your books and notes.
If you’re looking for a feature-rich e-reader that goes beyond reading, and does it all a tad bit quicker, the Kobo Sage is a fantastic option.
Kobo Elipsa 2E – The Ultimate E-Reader and Notepad
Last but not least, certainly not in terms of size, that’s for sure, is the Kobo Elipsa 2E. As the largest unit in this range, it boasts a massive 10.3-inch display, and for those who need a device that goes beyond reading, the Elipsa 2E is the ultimate choice. The 10.3-inch E Ink Carta 1200 display is perfect for reading, writing, and sketching.
It’s also the only Kobo e-reader that comes with the Kobo Stylus 2 included, allowing you to take notes directly on eBooks or create handwritten notebooks. If you’re buying an e-reader of this size and stature, it’s definitely a good idea to enhance your experience with a stylus, so having one included with the Elipsa 2E is really nice.
Speaking of the stylus, with an upgraded note-taking experience, the Elipsa 2E is more than just an e-reader, allowing you to catch up on productivity tasks and go that one step further. There are advanced features on offer here, like converting hand-written notes to text, and even being able to search within your notebooks for specific keywords.
Beyond its functionality, the Elipsa 2E is also eco-friendly, made from 85% recycled and ocean-bound plastic – once again, a testament to Kobo’s commitment to sustainability.
Highlights of the Elipsa 2E:
- 10.3-inch touchscreen, providing a paper-like reading and writing experience.
- Kobo Stylus 2 is included, allowing you to take notes and annotate books.
- 32GB of storage, great for large PDFs, books, and notes.
- Eco-friendly design, made from 85% recycled plastic.
- Supports Dropbox and cloud integration, making it easy to sync documents.
If you’re a student, researcher, or professional looking for an e-reader and digital notebook in one, the Elipsa 2E is the ultimate productivity tool.
Kobo Accessories Range
One of the other cool things about the Kobo range is the wide range of accessories that are on offer alongside their e-readers. We’ve touched a bit on the Kobo Stylus 2 and its predecessor, the Kobo Stylus. But there’s more. Kobo have got cases galore, to adorn your e-reader and keep it safe and protected. Feel free to check the cases available at PB below, including fitting colours and even a transparent case which has gained a lot of popularity recently. If you want to personalise your e-reader with stickers and show them off without risking damage to your e-reader, then the transparent cover is a great option for you!
Check out the Kobo range now!
So, what are you waiting for? With this extensive range of options from Kobo, designed to cater towards every type of reader and their needs, you can read all day long in a way that’s comfortable and convenient for you. Whether you’re looking for something small and compact, or something a little larger, that can wear multiple hats and become a note-taking aficionado as you need it to, Kobo has you covered. If you love reading, then you absolutely need to check out the Kobo range and discover the joys of an endless library of your favourite titles.
