Tolino has just announced three new e-readers the Shine, Shine Color and Vision Color. These devices are the same, hardware-wise, as the new Kobo Clara BW, Clara Color and Libra Color. This is because Kobo does all of the hardware of the Tolino brand, but the software is quite different. Kobo uses Linux as the primary operating system, but Tolino has always used Android.
The Tolino Shine Color features a six-inch E INK Carta 1300 and Kaleido 3 colour e-paper screen with FastGLR and
Dark Mode. The black and white resolution is 1448×1072 with 300 PPI, and the colour resolution is 150. The e-reader only comes in one colour: black. It has a ComfortLight PRO adjustable brightness and colour temperature for blue light. Reduction. There are no physical page-turn buttons, and users must interact with swipes, taps and gestures with the capacitive touchscreen display.
Underneath the hood is a MediaTek processor MT8113T – dual-core ARM A53 @ 2.0 GHz, 1GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage. It has WIFi to connect to the bookstore and Bluetooth 5.0 to use wireless headphones or earbuds to listen to audiobooks. This e-reader should be immune to coffee or tea spills, thanks to the IPX8 rating – for up to 60 minutes in 2 meters of water. It has USB-C to transfer data and charge it. It is powered by a 1500 mAh battery, has 112 x 160 x 9.2 mm dimensions, and weighs 174g.
The Tolino Shine features a 6-inch E INK Carta 1300 e-paper panel. The resolution is 1448 x 1072 resolution with Dark Mode and 300 PPI. The screen is recessed and does not have glass. Text will pop due to the exposed e-paper screen being closer to your eyes. The e-reader only comes in one colour: black. The ComfortLight PRO adjustable brightness system will give you both white and amber LED lights to read during the night.
Underneath the hood is a MediaTek processor MT8113L – ARM A53 @1GHz, 512MB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage. Listen to audiobooks via Bluetooth 5.0 and pair earbuds, headphones or an external speaker. USB-C will allow you to transfer content to your e-reader and charge it. It is powered by a low-end 1,500 mAh battery, and the dimensions are 112 x 160 x 9.2 mm and weighs 174 g
The Tolino Vision Color features a 7-inch E INK Kaleido 3 colour e-paper display with a black and white resolution of 1264×1680 with 300 PPI. The colour panel’s resolution is 150 PPI. There are manual page-turn buttons, which help use the device one-handed to turn pages rapidly; you can also elect to use the capacitive touchscreen display to do it, pinch, and zoom. Read during the day or night, thanks to the ComfortLight PRO adjustable brightness and colour temperature for blue light reduction.
Underneath the hood is a MediaTek MT8113T – dual-core ARM A53 @ 2.0 GHz processor, 1GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage. It is certified IPX8 for up to 60 minutes in 2 meters of water. There is a USB-C port for charging and transferring data and wifi to connect to the internet. Bluetooth 5.0 can be used to listen to audiobooks purchased from Tolino. It is powered by a 2050 mAh battery, and the dimensions are 144.6 x 161 x 8.3 mm and weighs 199.5 g.
One of the significant advantages of the Tolino brand of e-readers is that you can choose which bookstore you want to do business with. If you previously bought audiobooks or ebooks, all prior purchases are synced via the Tolino Cloud. You can buy books from Thalia, Weltbild, Bucher, Hugendubel. There is also compatibility with downloading books from various public libraries all over Europe. All Tolino products can display the standard eBook formats (ePUB, TXT, PDF) with and without copy protection. All Tolino e-readers have access to the HotSpots of Deutsche Telekom AG, offering you free access to the Internet at numerous locations in Germany.
Tolino has no pre-order links or pricing yet; they just put the products up earlier today. They said they will be available sometime in June, 2024. Here is a link the press release for our German audience.
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.