Kobo will release the Libra Color, Clara Color and Clara BW e-readers at the end of April. These are the first colour e-readers that the company has ever released, and they are a huge deal. Today, I spoke with a few people at Kobo and discovered many things that nobody was discussing.
If you want to know more about the new Rakuten Kobo e-readers. Check out our preview of the Libra Color, the Clara Color, and the Clara black and white e-reader.
Kaleido 3
The 3rd generation colour e-paper, E Ink Kaleido 3, has been out for a year or so. It offers richer colours, increasing its colour saturation by 30% compared to the previous generation, E Ink Kaleido Plus, in addition to 16 grayscale levels and 4,096 colours. Kaleido 3 also uses E Ink ComfortGaze, a new front light technology that reduces the amount of blue light, with a reduced Blue Light Ratio (BLR) and Blue Light Toxicity Factor (BLTF) by up to 60% and 24%, respectively. BLR is the ratio of toxic blue to total blue light output, and BLTF is the brightness to hazardous blue ratio.
The last few generations of colour e-paper could only display 4,096 colours and 100 PPI. Kaleido 3 managed to increase the color accuracy to 150 PPI. This was accomplished by putting the Color Filter Array closer to the ink layer. The company did further updates to the print pattern; in the past, they used glass and switched to plastic. Do colours look washed out as in previous versions of Kaleido? E INK said K3 reduces the light scatter and loss of colour. LCDs using CFA do not have this issue, given that they are emissive. The trade-off is energy efficiency and eye fatigue. E INK is also using RBGW colors and not CMYK.
Kobo told me that they optimized the Kaleido 3 colour filter array at the top of the stack, resulting in more vibrant colours. Kobo acknowledged that Kaleido 3 makes the grey background darker, so they recommend keeping the front-lit display at around 10%. Since this will drain the battery faster, Kobo put larger batteries on the Libra Color to offset this; it is 35% larger. However, the Clara Color has the same battery as the 2e.
The Right to Repair
Kobo wants to extend the life of its latest generation of e-readers. The Clara BW, Clara Color and Libra Color will last a long time with a new initiative by Rakuten. Rakuten Kobo is partnering with iFixit, the leader in the technology repairability space, making it easy for customers to fix their e-readers and replace standard components.
The three new Kobo e-readers were designed to be taken apart. They will offer battery replacements, circuit boards and screen replacements. They will also send out the proper tools and adhesives. Kobo will not fulfil these replacements. Instead, iFixit will have a dedicated page on its website, which will go live on April 30th, the day the e-readers start shipping and will be available in a retail setting.
One of the big reasons why Kobo wants to repair your device is to keep it out of the landfills and do something hardly anyone else does: make your e-reader a reading tool you can use for a decade and eliminate the notion of planned obsolescence. If you keep your e-reader for a while, you eventually will get out of warranty, hence the iFixit program. “We don’t want to force people to buy a new model because their old one is broken or unreliable.”
Tolino e-readers, which Kobo develops, will not have any repair kits.
Environmental Impact
The new Kobo e-readers are made with recycled and ocean-bound plastics. This diverts CDs and DVDs from landfills and plastic bottles from the planet’s oceans. The retail packaging for this e-reader is also made with 100% FSC-certified recycled paper and is printed with soy ink. They also use recycled magnetism.
Kobo told me it was a huge challenge to make their e-readers, and it was a slow burn, as they would implement some aspects of sustainability for each generation. With ocean-bound plastics, such as water bottles and DVDs, they did not send Kobo staff to the great garbage patch; instead, they dealt with partners who salvaged them. Someone could say, “Hey, all the plastic I am sending you is legit, no.” So, to prevent this, Kobo had to hire 3rd party auditors to ensure that the recycled material was from the ocean.
E INK Carta 1300
The Clara BW is the only model in this new generation of Kobo e-readers to use Carta 1300. I was told that Carta 1300 is a minor incremental upgrade from E INK. During the construction of the Clara BW, Carta 1300 was the only one available to use, so they went with it. I was told you might not see a difference in page-turn speed or overall responsiveness if you put the Clara 2e and the Kobo Clara BW side by side. The Carta 1200 display panel was a considerable upgrade, basically an entire stack developed from scratch, and the 1300 is super minor.
This and That
- Kobo Libra Color will only have eight colours in the note-taking app to use.
- Libra Color compatible with Kobo Pencil 2 – Pencil drains battery when in use.
- The drawing experience on Libra Color is the same as Kobo Elipsa.
- Drop Box and Google Drive only available on Libra Color.
- Color Highlights on all models will have four colours.
- Clear Cases for new e-readers have never been done before.
- Their accessory (cases) now have a low tier, mid-tier and high tier (in prices.)
- Kobo said they experimented with other colour screen tech before settling on Kaleido 3.
- These will not be the only Color e-readers Kobo will release.
- Kobo did not use this generation’s SD cards for internal storage. Instead, they employed EMC storage, which was soldered onto the circuit board.
- Calibre has been updated with support for the Clara Colour and Libra Colour.
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.