Walmart is the lone distributor for Kobo in the United States. In order for Walmart to sell more ebooks, they have just launched the Kobo Aura Walmart eBooks Edition, which actually has the Kobo store preloaded on the device. The only difference between this version and regular Aura Edition 2 is the price.
The Exclusive Walmart Edition is selling for a paltry $69.00, which is sure to appeal towards a large number of shoppers. Walmart is also continuing to sell the normal version of the Kobo Aura, but it is significantly more expensive, almost double – $128.80.
The Kobo Aura Edition 2 came out in 2016, so it is getting a bit long in the tooth. It features a six inch E-Ink Carta display with a resolution of 1024 X 768 and 212 PPI. These specs make it a very basic e-reader by 2019 standards and there are plenty of similarly priced alternatives on the market, such as the Kindle Paperwhite 4, which has a resolution of 1430×1080 and 300 PPI.
Underneath the hood is a 1 GHz Freescale i.MX507 processor, and 512 MB of RAM. There is 4GB of internal memory and with no option to enhance it via an SD card for your average user.
I think for the average Walmart shopper, it is hard to pass up a $69 e-reader that you can bring to the store if anything goes wrong with it and is easy to return if you don’t like it. If you live outside of the USA, you can purchase this 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.
