Kobo is having a sale on the Clara BW e-reader and you can get a $20 discount off the list price. Kobo is selling these devices directly on their website, but the deals are also available on Amazon and their other retail partners. You can get the Clara BW for $109.99 in the United States; the regular price is $129.99. Meanwhile, the same deal is available in Canada; the regular price is $159.99 but can be yours today for $129.99.
The Rakuten Kobo Clara BW features a 6-inch E INK Carta 1300 e-paper panel 25% more responsive than the previous generation Kobo Clara 2e. The resolution is 1448 x 1072, and the system is in comprehensive Dark Mode and 300 PPI. The screen is recessed and does not have glass. Text will pop due to the exposed e-paper screen being closer to your eyes. The e-reader only comes in one colour: black. The ComfortLight PRO, adjustable brightness system, will give you both white and amber LED lights to read during the night. I have often found that the white lights at 35% and amber at 7% tend to make the screen very white, similar to the Amazon Kindle Paperwhite.
Underneath the hood is a MediaTek processor MT8113L – ARM A53 @1GHz, 512MB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage. In the past, Kobo relied on storage on SD cards; this e-reader uses EEMC storage soldered onto the circuit board. You can buy audiobooks and ebooks from Kobo. Listen to them via Bluetooth 5.0 and pair earbuds, headphones or an external speaker. You can also use the internet browser to visit websites. Pocket integration can save articles to your Kobo, and it is also compatible with thousands of libraries to browse, borrow, and read via Overdrive. Connect all these services WiFi 802.11 ac/b/g/n (i.e. dual-band, 2.4 and 5 GHz).
USB-C will allow you to transfer content to your e-reader and charge it. Kobo Clara BW has complete waterproof protection with IPX8. That means it’s always ready for unexpected spills, splashes by the sea, or a relaxing soak in the tub. If it gets wet with salt water, run it under a fresh tap for a few minutes as the salt corrodes. It is powered by a low-end 1,500 mAh battery, which would be good for a couple of weeks of reading books. However, using the lights, long reading sessions or listening to audiobooks will drain the battery quicker, so your mileage may vary. The dimensions are 112 x 160 x 9.2 mm and weighs 174 g
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
