Kobo lastly found audiobooks! Your public library’s favourite e-reader now is available in two fashions which have Bluetooth help for audiobook playback, one thing Amazon’s competing Kindles have achieved since 2009.
The Kobo Libra 2 and Kobo Sage produce other issues going for them, however Bluetooth audio help is the largest change. It is fairly primary; it solely helps Kobo’s proprietary audiobook format and would not have something like Amazon’s read-along Immersion Studying characteristic. Nevertheless it’s a begin.
In any other case, the principle impetus for releasing the Libra 2 seems to be a next-gen display screen from E Ink. The E Ink Carta 1200, launched in July, improves response time by 20% and distinction by 15%. The Kobo Elipsa was the primary e-reader to make use of it, and now it is coming to the cheaper fashions. The Libra 2 is waterproof, weighs 7.5 ounces, and has a 7-inch, 300ppi display screen.
The Sage is an 8-inch e-reader that pulls a monitor that Amazon’s Kindle Oasis cannot match: it is stylus-compatible. At 8.46 ounces, this can be a extra manageable various to Kobo’s bigger Elipsa, or for that matter the Exceptional note-taking pill. The Sage additionally helps a brand new “PowerCover” case, which has a secondary battery that costs the e-reader when it is not getting used. (There is a comparable case for the Oasis.)
Each fashions have color-changing front-lights (from white to yellow(, 32GB of storage, and IPX8 waterproofing.
Like different Kobo fashions, these have two primary benefits over the extra standard Kindles. First, your native public library can normally be put in as a Kobo’s default bookstore through Overdrive, which is a bit more handy than going through the library website for Kindles. Kobo e-readers additionally natively help a spread of codecs: EPUB, PDF, CBR and others, and have built-in Dropbox integration. Meaning you may extra simply drag and drop books from different sources right into a Kobo, whereas Amazon typically requires awkward transcoding for non-Amazon books.
The Sage prices $259.99 and the Libra 2 prices $179.99. They’re each somewhat dearer than the ad-supported variations of Amazon’s rivals, the Kindle Oasis ($249.99) and the new Paperwhite ($139.99).
The brand new Kobo readers go on pre-order right now, and on sale Oct. 19. We’ll assessment them quickly.
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