Kobo has announced a new e-reader that will certainly appeal to a wide demographic of users. In a world where the standard electronic book reader is only six inches, the new model bucks the trend with a 6.8 inch HD screen.
The Kobo Aura HD features a 6.8 inch e-ink Pearl HD display screen with a resolution of 1440×1080 with 265 DPI. This model is one of the most impressive units on the market and the resolution really sets it apart from the competition. It also sports a front-lit screen, much akin to the Kobo Glo. You will be able to read in the dark and swipe the bar that gives you the ability to customize the illumination levels. Underneath the hood is a Freescale i.MX507 1 GHZ CPU processor and 4 GB of internal storage. The one thing Kobo has done very well is incorporate SD support to enhance the memory even further. You should be able to voraciously read to your heart’s content, because the battery life is a very solid 1 month if you read 30 minutes a day. Dimensions are 128.3 mm x 175.7 mm x 11.7 mm (6.97 in x 5.05 in x 0.46 in).
One of the big advantages Kobo has over the competition is the expanded font support. There are 10 styles and 24 different font sizes that you can employ to find the sweet spot. If you are an advanced user, you can actually load in your own fonts that come from the internet. There is also a ton of support for different languages, such as English, French, German, Spanish, Dutch, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese, Portuguese, and Japanese.
Kobo has one of the largest ebook stores in the world with over 3.4 million titles available. You will have full access to buy content in one click. If you want to load in your own books, you can do it with EPUB, PDF, JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF, TXT, HTML, RFT, CBZ, and CBR formats. People who love comics and manga will find that the CBZ and CBR formats play very nicely with the Kobo Aura HD.
“To us, the Kobo Aura HD is the Porsche of e-readers and is designed for those in the driver’s seat of their e-reading adventures,” said Wayne White, EVP and General Manager of Devices, Kobo. “It’s fast, powerful, and sleek and pushes the boundaries of e-reading the same way our readers do – together, they’ll know no bounds as they find their next great read.”
The device will be available for pre-order tomorrow on the official Kobo website and Shop e-Readers. It will be shipping out and available at the stores on April 25th. The cost is one of the most exciting factors, at a very solid $169.99. Stay tuned to our full hands on review coming in the next 24 hours.
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.