The Tolino Epos 3 e-reader is based on the Kobo Sage. This is because Kobo now designs the hardware for all Tolino models, so they don’t have to create an entirely new device, which takes time and money. The main difference with the Epos 3, is that it does not have any stylus support or drawing functionality. This is because Kobo initially designed their writing system for Linux, which is the operating system all their products are based on, whereas Tolino uses Android. Kobo likely did not port over their drawing engine over to Android, since its hard to make additional revenue with e-notes, other then selling nibs and replacement styluses. The Epos 3 has Bluetooth, but does not have an audiobook player, this is because all of the German stores only sell digital books, not audiobooks.
The Tolino Epos 3 features an 8-inch E INK Carta 1200 display with a resolution of 1920×1404 with 300 PPI. The e-paper is flush with the screen and protected by a layer of glass. You can easily turn pages via the physical page turn buttons The one and only smart Light ensures perfect lighting at all times on your Tolino Epos 3. The clever color adjustment can be augmented with the integrated reading light adapts automatically and changes in accordance to the time of day – switching from cool white light in the morning to warm white light in the evening. It’s perfect for your natural rhythm, especially if you like to read before going to sleep. Of course, you can individually adjust smartLight to your preferences, whether you want cool or warm light. If you are reading in bright daylight, you can also turn the lighting off completely and extend your e-readers battery life even further. Read like the printed page without any annoying reflections from the sun. You can also adjust the orientation of the Epos with the gyroscope, that will automatically display content in landscape and portrait mode, this is good for lefthanded people.
Enjoy a relaxing reading time out with new, your favorite book – whether in the bathtub, in the swimming pool or at the lake. Thanks to it’s water protection, the device is completely protected from water damage and can handle a brief dip without any trouble. So if your tolino epos 3 should accidentally slip out of your hand, just stay calm: your device will not be harmed. This water immunity is attributed to the IPX8 coating, which should be good for up to 60 minutes in fresh water.
Underneath the hood is a AllWinner B300 1.8 GHZ quad-core processor and has 1GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage. You should easily be able to house more than 24,000 ebooks on the device. All purchases from the various online bookstores are stored in the Tolino Cloud and can be accessed on other Tolino e-readers, reading apps or the online web reader. It has Bluetooth 5.1 and WIFI, although Bluetooth doesn’t really do anything yet, since the members of the Tolino Alliance have not embraced audiobooks yet. The Epos 3 is powered by a 1,200 mAh battery and the dimensions are 181.4×160.5×7.6 and weighs 232g.
This e-reader is relevant in a couple of markets. It supports English, German, Spanish, French, Italian and Dutch. There are over 3 million books available from the various Tolino Stores and are available in multiple languages. However, you are not obligated to buy anything and can elect to sideload in your own library and the supported book formats are EPUB, PDF and TXT. One of the cool features on this model is library link, which allows users to merge libraries from multiple Tolino bookstores. I think this e-reader only makes sense if you live in German, Belgium or Switzerland. It is impossible to buy it outside of Europe, since none of the Tolino Alliance members ship it to North America.
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.
