The Kobo H2O Edition 2 is now available in Australia and New Zealand. The new reader can be purchased at JB HiFi, Myer and Angus & Robertson Bookworld for $239.95. Meanwhile in New Zealand it is a bit more expensive and is retailing for $309.
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.
Underneath the hood is a Freescale 1GHz processor and 512MB of RAM, the same as you get with most new Kindles. There is 8GB of internal storage and there is no publicly available SD card. Instead, the SD card is grafted to the circuit board and powers the Linux operating system.
The Kobo Aura H2O Edition 2 is the second e-Reader to employ the new ComfortLight PRO lighting system, which comprises of nine white LEDs and eight RGB LED lights. This innovative technology was introduced with the launch of Kobo Aura ONE last year, winning the seal of approval from Colleen Carney, Associate Professor and Director of the Sleep and Depression Laboratory at Ryerson University, who said devices that eliminate blue light work well for those who enjoy reading before bed; for more from Dr. Carney, click here.
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.
