The Rakuten Kobo Libra Colour is coming out at the end of April, and this device has lots to be excited about. It employs the latest generation of E INK Kaleido 3 e-paper. What are the major selling points? It can take notes and write on books with an optional Kobo Pencil 2. The colour filter array is at the top of the stack and has a hollow screen, so the colour accuracy is better than most other devices on the market. By its nature, Kaleido 3 screens have grey screens that are darker than pure black and white e-readers, so Kobo increased the battery life by 35% since you will always want to have the front light on to get the best experience.
The 3rd generation colour e-paper, E Ink Kaleido 3, has been out for several years. 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 toxic blue to total blue light output ratio, 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 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 Kobo Libra Colour features a 7-inch E INK Kaleido 3 colour e-paper display with a black and white resolution of 1264×1680 with 300 PPI. The colour panel’s resolution is 150 PPI. There are two colours of the Libra to purchase: black and white. There are manual page-turn buttons, which help use the device one-handed to turn pages rapidly; you can also elect to use the capacitive touchscreen display to do it, pinch, and zoom. Read during the day or night, thanks to the ComfortLight PRO adjustable brightness and colour temperature for blue light reduction.
Underneath the hood is a MediaTek MT8113T – dual-core ARM A53 @ 2.0 GHz processor, 1GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage. The Libra Colour does not use an SD card for storage. Instead, it uses EMC; Kobo told me this is faster. Although the Libra Colour can’t swim, it is certified IPX8 for up to 60 minutes in 2 meters of water. There is a USB-C port for charging and transferring data and wifi to connect to the internet. You can use the Kobo browser to visit your favourite websites or Overdrive to borrow colour content from your local library. Internet connectivity is due to the onboard WiFi 802.11 ac/b/g/n (i.e. dual-band, 2.4 and 5 GHz). Bluetooth 5.0 can be used to listen to audiobooks purchased from Kobo. It is powered by a 2050 mAh battery, and the dimensions are 144.6 x 161 x 8.3 mm and weighs 199.5 grams.
In addition, for every reader who is also a journaler, in-the-margins note-taker, or page-decorating BookTok’er, Kobo Libra Colour is also Kobo’s most affordable stylus-enabled e-reader with the addition of a Kobo Stylus 2 (sold separately), with colour handwriting, highlighting, and notebooks. Building on the success of Kobo Sage and Kobo Elipsa 2E handwriting experiences, the new Kobo Libra Colour brings stylus-based writing and Kobo’s patented write-anywhere ebook annotations to their popular 7” format. The Kobo Libra Color will only have eight colours in the note-taking app.
Kobo Libra Colour is 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.
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 Libra Colour is designed to be taken apart. Ifixit will offer battery replacements, circuit boards and screen replacements. They will also send out the proper tools and adhesives. Kobo will not fulfill 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.”
On the software side, Kobo uses Linux as the core operating system. It has a Pocket, which is a read-it-later system. You can install Pocket apps on Chrome or Firefox and save articles, which can be read on your e-reader. Overdrive is built right in; this is the most popular digital distribution system for most public libraries. Enter your card number and pin code, and then your local branch’s name will be at the top. Browse, borrow and read right on the Libra Colour. If you have books on cloud storage, this e-reader also has DropBox and Google Drive.
Reading in full and vibrant colour is one of the main reasons to buy it. You can read books; the full-colour cover art will be in your library and home screen. Shop for books, purchase them and read them on the Libra. If you have your digital book collection, it supports 15 file formats supported natively (EPUB, EPUB3, FlePub, PDF, MOBI, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, TIFF, TXT, HTML, RTF, CBZ, CBR). You cannot sideload your audiobooks; you must buy them from Kobo.
I like how the Libra Colour has it all. Physical page-turn buttons, note-taking, book reading, and it can even listen to audiobooks.
Kobo Libra Colour retails for $249.00 CAD/$219.99 USD. The Kobo Stylus 2 is available and retails for $89.99 CAD/$69.99 USD. Pre-orders will be available on April 10. The devices will be available in stores and online as of April 30, 2024, in Canada, the US, the UK, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand, Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan and Turkey. You can also order it from the Good e-Reader Store.
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.
