The Kobo Aura One and Aura H2O Edition 2 are the two e-readers that Kobo is heavily marketing and they have the distinction of being larger than a standard six inch device. They are both waterproof and offer unique value propositions depending on your needs. This comparison video will show you the primary differences between the two and give you a sense on what one is better.
The Aura One features the largest E-Ink screen that Kobo has ever produced. It is 7.8 inches and the resolution is 1872 by 1404, which works out to a crisp 300 pixels per inch. The screen is completely flush with the bezel, which gives you a wider area to turn pages in e-books or pinch and zoom PDF files.
The Aura One lighting system holds the world record of the most LED lights on an e-reader. Few are touting this fact, but the Aura One has 17 LEDs lighting up its 7.8″ screen – 9 white LEDs and 8 more RGB LED, for the night reading mode.
The Kobo Aura Edition 2 features a 6.8-inch E-Ink Carta Display with a resolution of 1430×1080 and 265 PPI. The screen is sunken, which means they are employing an IR display, instead of a capacitive touchscreen.
Odds and Ends
- Both of these devices have 8GB of internal memory and a 1GZ processor
- The Kobo Aura One has Overdrive functionally built in, the H2O does not
- They are both waterproof
- There is no SD card in either unit
- The Aura One has higher PPI, this makes a big difference when reading e-books
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.
