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Rakuten has three new Kobo e-readers, including the company’s first two with color displays. The company announced Wednesday the monochrome $130 Clara BW, as well as the $220 Kobo Libra Color and $150 Clara Color. You can pre-order today ahead of its release on April 30th.
Kobo Libra Color is 7 inches. E ink kaleido 3 The display is a noticeable improvement with 16 levels of grayscale, 4,096 colors, and 30% more saturation than E Ink’s previous generation technology. The Libra Color is the only one of Kobo’s new e-readers with stylus support for annotating and highlighting e-books. However, to enjoy this, you’ll need to add the $70 Kobo Stylus 2 (also compatible with Elipsa 2E).
The device has a curved “ergonomic” design with page-turning buttons. It supports portrait and landscape reading and has 32GB of storage (good for about 24,000 ebooks or 150 audiobooks). Rakuten says the battery will last up to 40 days on a single charge, based on 30 minutes of daily reading with the front light at 30 percent brightness and wireless off. (If you read more than that or turn on the radio and increase the brightness, your expectations will be lower.)
Meanwhile, the 6-inch Kobo Clara Color and Clara BW omit the Libra Color’s page-turning button and stylus support in favor of a more affordable price point. The Clara BW differs from its predecessor, the Clara 2 (Engadget’s pick for the best e-reader), with a faster processor, more storage (16GB), and the latest E Ink Carta 1300 display technology.
Rakuten says the Clara Color and Clara BW will last up to 53 days on a single charge, but that’s with 30 minutes of reading per day, brightness set to just 10%, and WiFi/Bluetooth turned off. This is what happens when you do this.
All three devices feature ComfortLightPro, which automatically adjusts blue light. It has an IPX8 water resistance rating, making it suitable for poolside or bathtime reading. The e-reader uses recycled ocean-bound plastic for its construction materials, and Rakuten has partnered with iFixit for self-repair.
You can purchase individual covers (made from recycled materials) with built-in stands for all three new devices. Libra Color has a standard $30 SleepCover and a $40 NoteBook SleepCover with a magnetic stylus slot. Clara Color and Clara BW have a $30 sleepcover and a less expensive $20 basic sleepcover.
You can pre-order the new e-book reader below. rakuten kobo Starting today. The Kobo Libra Color costs $220, the Clara Color costs $150, and the monochrome Clara BW costs $130. All three devices will arrive on April 30th.