Kobo Libra Color and Clara Color are great color e-readers that can be blocked by locking

The issue with most e-readers is that they are probably not meant for studying books. Their objective is to promote you books. Amazon, which has the most important market share within the U.S., is especially notable on this regard, however Barnes & Noble has made the identical mistake. Kobo might be the least offensive – it integrates Pocket and Overdrive! However usually, once I discover myself fully enamored with Kobo’s attractive new colour e-reader, I am all of a sudden reminded: This factor is right here to promote me books.

That is a disgrace, as a result of Kobo’s new Libra Shade and Clara Shade are the closest we have come to an ideal e-reader just lately. The $219.99 Libra Shade and $149.99 Clara Shade are each very light-weight, but sturdy and sturdy, making them really feel snug with out being flimsy. Each function Kaleido 3 shows, which suggests e-book covers seem in precise colour. Turning pages and navigating the shop are each a lot quicker than the $249.99 Boox Web page, Palma’s bigger, slower sibling—contemplating the Kaleido 3 show is a bit slower than the extra conventional monochrome E Ink show within the Web page , which is spectacular.

I did discover myself liking the costlier Libra, as I choose an asymmetrical e-reader with devoted buttons to 1 that capabilities extra like a conventional pill. It additionally has stylus help for taking notes, which is a plus. Nonetheless, each are charming and fulfilling e-readers, and I’ve discovered myself selecting the Libra over the Boox many instances over the previous few months – to date, the Boox has been my go-to Main e-readers. I simply choose the sensation of studying it. Certain, Boox offers me all of the studying apps accessible (it is an E Ink Android pill), however Libra would not have any of the bizarre little quirks which can be typical of Android on E Ink.

Each Kobo e-readers additionally help colour highlighting of textual content, and their contact screens really feel snappier and extra responsive than the Boox Web page. These spotlight colours aren’t notably vibrant, although. The Kaleido 3 displays in each can show colours, however the colours are much like what you’d see in a newspaper unnoticed within the solar for a number of days. Plus, the colour comes at the price of a much less legible black-and-white studying expertise. It is nonetheless significantly better than earlier colour e-ink expertise, which regularly made the whole show seem inexperienced.

My actual downside with these units is not the colour show. That is lockdown.

Kobo’s e-readers really feel extra like shopping for books than studying them. They’re related to Kobo bookstores, that are backed by Japanese retailer Rakuten, also known as “Japan’s Amazon” or “Japan’s Barnes & Noble” when folks need to shortly sum up the corporate. Rakuten is excellent at shifting books, and Kobo’s built-in bookstore is comparable. It would not have fairly the identical library as Amazon; Amazon has extra self-published books and has extra area of interest content material from boutique publishers. Nonetheless, the Kobo Bookstore has a good collection of merchandise. If it is a very fashionable e-book, you could find it on Kobo.

In contrast to different non-Android e-readers, the Kobo e-reader additionally has a extra conventional library in-built by way of Overdrive. When you have a library card from a library that companions with Overdrive, you may borrow e-books. Sadly, that is whenever you begin to have Kobo’s book-selling enterprise battle with its e-reader enterprise. To borrow books, you both have to make use of your cellphone to seek out them on an app like Libby, or you must use the Uncover tab after which choose the Overdrive tab and hope you browse to the e-book you need. Or you must seek for the e-book in Kobo’s retailer, and whenever you discover the e-book, you must click on the “Extra Choices” button subsequent to the bigger “Purchase Now” and “Want Record” buttons, after which truly click on “​​ Borrow from Overdrive” button to see if the e-book is out there to borrow out of your library. It is so tragic that once I requested a usually sensible buddy to strive borrowing a e-book, she had no thought how.

You additionally can’t have a couple of lively library card on Kobo on the identical time. As an alternative, whenever you end studying a e-book and need to learn one other e-book tied to a different library card, you should log off and log in utilizing one other library card. I’m deeply aggravated that I’ve to change forwards and backwards between the New York Public Library and the Jersey Metropolis Public Library card. I haven’t got to do that once I’m utilizing the Libby app on Web page or iPad.

You may encounter the identical downside when utilizing Kobo’s built-in “experimental” internet browser. I can navigate to web sites simply nice, and if I wished to strive studying a e-book over the net, I may theoretically try this. No app required. Simply browser improvement shouldn’t be sufficient. It might be good if I may use Libra’s built-in buttons for scrolling or pagination like I can with the EinkBro browser on Android e-readers.

Getting ebooks from different shops to your system can be cumbersome. You need to plug your e-reader into your pc and drag and drop recordsdata (though the e-book administration app Caliber does make it simpler). However this downside is not distinctive to Kobo. Amazon and Barnes & Noble additionally insist that you just sideload books. However after years of the Boox ecosystem (and the iPad), it feels unusual that these techniques insist that you just comply with their bookstores so intently. This degree of lock-in appears absurd, and it feels much more absurd for Kobo’s ecosystem as a result of, in so many different methods, the corporate appears to be actually attempting to do e-readers proper.

Kobo Libra Shade and Koko Clara Shade are quick and almost excellent, making them excellent for whenever you simply need to learn. Their colour shows aren’t as clear because the iPad Mini’s LED show, and even as sharp because the monochrome E Ink show, however the colour shows convey a zest to the expertise that black and white cannot match. The truth that they even provide providers like an online browser, Overdrive, and Pocket help may be very welcome in comparison with what Amazon does. However lockdown, man. Lockdown often is the norm within the e-reader world, nevertheless it should not be.