The Kobo Mini was unveiled today at an exclusive press event in Toronto, Ontario. Good e-Reader was live at the scene to get the full scoop on what the Kobo Mini e-reader is all about. This device should dominate the entry-level market due to its fantastic price point of $79.99 and the features it packs in.
Hardware
The Kobo Mini is a very pocket-friendly 5-inch e-reader with a resolution of 800 x 600 pixels. One of the benefits of this device is that it features a touchscreen and is very responsive to page turns and pressing various menu and settings buttons. It utilizes an older iteration of an e-Ink display with Visplex technology. Underneath the hood is an 800 MHz processor, which is enough to power your daily tasks. However, there was no mention of RAM, so I would guess it only has 256 KB of RAM.
The main selling point of the Kobo Mini is that, for the price, it gives you the full functions of a normal Kobo e-Reader. You can have complete control over your font types, font sizes, margins, line spacing, note-taking, and much more! On a hardware level, there are four different back covers you can purchase to make your reader stand out. In the past, the back of the Kobo readers had a matted, quilted grip that allowed you to hold it for a longer duration of time easily. Now, you can buy different quilted covers and swap them out on the fly. This is great for family situations where one person might want a pink one to bring to work, and then someone else can switch to a blue or black one. There are at least four or five that will be part of the launch, and Kobo has told us that the company will issue more shortly.
This device does not have audio functionality, and the only button is a power switch; all other processes are controlled via software. It has an Android-like feel, in the sense that Kobo has done away with all buttons on these new devices and has entirely gone with the software. I think the absence of the proverbial home button is a welcome change. It makes the devices seem a bit cleaner.
Software
The Kobo Mini is surprisingly feature-rich and makes a pretty good e-reader. You can do business with Kobo directly and buy over three million ebooks that are currently in its system. These are also over one million free books, so you don’t have to spend a great deal to get some great content.
The main homescreen is reminiscent of previous Kobo offerings and evolves the original “Touch” firmware into this build. Your homescreen displays the books you are currently reading, showing their cover art. Your main navigation settings are The Library, Find Books, and Wishlist.
Your library is the central hub in which you will organize all of your purchased content or ebooks you have loaded manually on your reader. You can create your collections based on genre or author. This is useful for individuals with an extensive library who need some semblance of organization. You can also create custom shelves, which go a long way in adding further customization options. The other main options under your library are the Reading Life Awards and Statistics. Please keep track of how long it takes you to read a book and all the individual facets of your reading experience. Statistics are helpful because you can challenge yourself to read faster or encourage your child to read through rewards. I know parents who have used the statistics aspect of the reader to reward their children for surpassing previous results. Reading Life is also the online nexus for rewards and achievements. You can earn a myriad of different merit badges that you can then share with your friends via Facebook.
The Kobo store allows you to procure magazines, newspapers, and ebooks. Anything you have purchased on another device will automatically be synced to your account. If you have bought books on a prior device or used their iOS or Android apps, you are good to go. When you browse the store, you can flag books as your “Wish List” for future purchases or say, “Well, if you want to buy a gift, you can buy me this!”
I was honestly surprised by how quickly this device ran. Kobo stated that the battery life will last for a few months due to the size and power requirements. This would make an ideal stocking stuffer or a great gift for someone new to e-readers who doesn’t want to spend a fortune.
Reading Experience
The Kobo Mini retains most of the core functionality from previous iterations, and the same team that worked on the Touch also designed the main UI. Book reading is robust and continues to lead the charge for most devices on the market, allowing you to enhance the reading experience. You have the flexibility and control to change your fonts, font sizes, margins, line spacing, or go with the publisher’s defaults. Whenever you make a change, it is dynamically updated so that you can find the sweet spot in your customizations.
There are plenty of built-in dictionaries for you to highlight specific words and then instantly look up the definitions. This is a valuable feature not only for textbooks, but also for younger readers who want to know the meaning of a particular word or phrase. You can also take highlights and save them to the book you are reading or make notes based on your highlights. One of the senior UI Designers at the Toronto event told us they were developing new capabilities for people to export their notes into a single file. This would, in effect, allow you to save your notes to a TXT or DOC file and transfer them between your different devices.
One of the new features I liked about the Kobo Mini was the ability to change the light and darkness of the fonts themselves. You can open up a preview window and configure the luminosity of the text. This is the only reader in the world that allows you to do this and is perfect for people who prefer dark, light, or any shade in between.
Wrap Up
The Kobo Mini is the perfect blend of portability without sacrifice. It offers a feature-rich experience at a very low price point. This would be perfect for guys who wear suits and want to carry it around in their jacket pocket. It also fits snug in any jeans or pants pockets, too. I would also recommend it for small children, who are unlikely to break it, and for new readers who don’t want a ton of features. This reader features strong social media elements, including Facebook, and allows you to share your reading awards with friends and family.
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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.