Kobo’s new color e-readers add some saturation to your reading

If you’re not tuned in to the e-reader world, you might not know that Kobo — the Kindle rival that just keeps getting more popular with its great selection of e-readers — has been on the verge of announcing something for the past week. On April 2 it began posting black and white images on its Instagram account. At the same time, its bio was changed to “Feeling too grey lately” followed by four grey hearts. Over the next four days, the black-and-white heart emoji were switched out for color versions one at a time. Two days ago, Kobo shared today’s date on its Instagram, and today, we finally have the deets on the three new e-readers Kobo is releasing into the wild.

Enthusiasts have known that Kobo has had something in the works since last October when it certified a new device with the FCC. In January a second filing was made public, and in February a third one dropped, leaving Kobo stans beside themselves with speculation and excitement. Today, the speculation has ended and preorders are open until April 29 for the Libra Color, the Clara Color, and the Clara BW.

Bring on the new lineup

There’s a lot to talk about with three new e-readers being released at the same time, so let’s delve into each one and see what makes them special.

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Kobo Libra Color

We covered the Libra 2 back in February and had a lot of good things to say about it. The Libra Color has exactly the same dimensions, but packs a bit more under the hood. The color screen is a Kaleido 3 which is the standard for color e-ink at the moment. The battery is beefed up from 1420mAh to 2050mAh, but the new device still manages to trim 15 g of weight, bringing it down to 200 g. The processor speed has also been doubled from from 1GHz to 2GHz. The biggest surprise of course is that the Libra 2 is stylus-compatible, although you’ll have to buy it separately. The Libra Color will cost $220.

Kobo Clara Color

We reviewed the Clara 2E in February as well, and even though we liked it a lot, this new one looks like it will outclass it. Like the Libra Color, the Clara Color will have the same dimensions as the previous model with the addition of the Kaleido 3 color screen. The biggest change besides that is the 2GHz processor replacing the old 1GHz version, but other than that, it looks to be identical with the same 1500mAh battery. It only weighs 3 grams more at 174 g. The Clara Color will cost $150.

Kobo Clara BW

The black-and-white version of the new Clara is virtually identical to its predecessor with the same processing speed, battery, and storage. What sets it apart from nearly every e-reader on the market is the E Ink Carta 1300 screen which is so new that E Ink doesn’t even talk about it on its website. Basically, it has a faster refresh rate and better contrast than nearly every other e-reader. The other thing working in the Clara BW’s favor is the price point of $130, lower than the Clara 2E.

All of the new devices have USB-C, WiFi, and Bluetooth connectivity, along with the ability to play audiobooks from Kobo. All three devices will also be IPX8 compliant, meaning that they can (theoretically) survive a prolonged dunk in the pool or your bathtub. Kobo’s ComfortLight PRO frontlight tech is also present on all devices.

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Why this is kind of a big deal

Kindle has been the king of the e-reader market since it established the market back in 2007. With this triple launch, Kobo could elbow out even more market space from Kindle. To borrow a naval metaphor, this isn’t so much a warning shot across the bow as it is a full on broadside. Color e-readers are nothing new, but until now, none of the major players (Kindle, Kobo, Nook) have made one. On top of that, this completely undercuts the color e-reader scene. The cheapest Kaleido 3 e-reader up until now was either the iReader Color 7 or the PocketBook InkPad Color 3, both of which cost $330 and the Clara Color will cost less than half of that. I wouldn’t be surprised to see these fly off the shelves, so get in on that preorder action when you can. And if you need some help organizing your e-books, take a look at Calibre.