Kobo is gearing up to release the Kobo Libra Colour and Kobo Clara Colour e-readers using Kaleido 3 colour e-paper technology. Fnac, the largest retailer in France, released the product page earlier today, and Chapters Indigo also had a product listing before they were both taken down a couple of hours later. The Libra Colour will feature a 7-inch screen, and the Clara Colour will have a 6-inch screen. They both will have a resolution of 300 PPI for black and white and 150 PPI for colour. The Libra Colour will fully support the Kobo Pencil, so users can draw, take notes and make nightlights on books. The Libra Colour should retail for CAD 249.99 or around USD 189.99. I am not sure about the price of the Clara Colour yet.
Chapters Indigo not only leaked both e-readers, but the new cases haven’t been taken down yet. The colours for the case are Candy Pink, Cayenne Red, Misty Green, or Black.
What exactly is the new colour e-paper technology these devices are employing? It is simple: they are using the 3rd generation E INK Kaleido 3 e-paper released last year. It is a colour filter array, a gel-like layer beneath the touchscreen layer, and another gel layer for the front-light display and colour temperature system underneath it. There are lots of Kaleido 3 products on the market, such as the Pocketbook InkPad 3 Color, Pocketbook Era Colour, and myriad from Bigme, Onyx Boox and iReader. This would be the first time a company as large as Rakuten Kobo would use colour e-paper in multiple e-book readers.
Here is the text for the product listing page on Chapters Indigo for the Libra Colour before it was taken down.
- Colour your thinking. Read and mark up your beloved stories, now in colour. – Introducing our most inspiring e – Reader yet: the new Kobo Libra Colour.
- Bring magic to your margins by annotating your pages, organizing your thoughts, and highlighting inspiring lines, all in colour. With Kobo Stylus 2 compatibility, you can dive deeper into your favourite stories by marking meaningful moments and highlighting powerful passages in the eBooks you love. – Browse and read eBooks in full colour – Bring colour to your fictional and factual worlds. Experience your reading life in colour with the 7″ E Ink Kaleido 3 display’s soothing colour palette. Book covers, illustrations, note-taking, and more come to life. There is no glare in sunlight or notifications—just you and your book in full-colour bliss.
- Dive into your stories with colourful markups – With Kobo Stylus 2 compatibility, you can mark up and highlight your e-books in colour. Add depth to your reading world by underlining inspiring lines and adding personality to your pages. Kobo Stylus 2 is sold separately.
- Your journal, daily planner, book club prep and more – Whether you’re capturing a book club note, a journal entry, or an inspired thought—it’s never been easier or more fun with Kobo’s integrated notebooks and Kobo Stylus 2.
- Effortlessly share your thoughts in colour (or never lose them) with notebooks backed up on the Kobo Cloud and connection to Dropbox or Google Drive. *Kobo Stylus 2 is sold separately.
- Read comfortably, always – With an ergonomically curved form meant to fit perfectly in your hand, Kobo Libra Colour is a delight to read on with page-turn buttons, left/right screen rotation, full font size and margin customization, and landscape mode.
- Comfort – Light PRO automatically reduces blue light throughout the day for restful reading at night. – Better by design – Thoughtfully made with recycled and ocean-bound plastic and fully waterproof**, the Kobo Libra Colour is built to last. This e-reader is also repairable, so you can extend its life and replace key components.
- Meets requirements of IPX8 rating. Waterproof for up to 60 minutes in up to 2 metres of water.
- Endless ways to read, with Kobo’s signature e-Reading experience- Carry up to 24,000 eBooks or 150 Kobo Audiobooks with 32GB of storage and enjoy weeks of battery life
- Listen to Kobo Audiobooks with built-in Bluetooth wireless technology.
- Dive into the Kobo Store’s extensive collection of eBooks and audiobooks- Borrow eBooks directly from your local library with OverDrive and Libby integration⁴- Add your eBooks and documents to your Reader with built-in Google Drive and Dropbox integration- Use Pocket to save online articles for offline reading at your leisure- Adjust font size, margins, and change the font style for a customized reading experience¹1GB = 1 billion bytes. Assumes an approximate size of about 1.3MB per e-book and an average audiobook length of 6.5 hours with 28.8MB per hour. Some storage space utilized by software.
- A single charge on the e-Reader lasts up to 40 days, based on 30 minutes of reading per day, with the front light at 30% brightness and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth wireless technology off. Bluetooth wireless headphones or speakers are required.
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.