Rakuten Kobo launches its first color e-readers, Kobo Libra Color and Kobo Clara Colour. Both use E Ink's newer Kaleido color display technology, which features accurate, pastel-like colors and drops from a grayscale resolution of 300 ppi to 150 ppi when viewing content in color.
I'll be testing both e-readers soon, but so far, they seem like small upgrades to Kobo's existing e-readers. That's not a bad thing, though! The 7-inch Kobo Libra 2 is my favorite e-reader outside of the Amazon ecosystem, offering the Kindle Paperwhite's IPX8 water-resistant design but with extras like physical page-turn buttons, no ads on the lock screen, and more storage.
The $219.99 Kobo Libra Color retains all of these features but is now also compatible with Kobo Stylus 2Just like the Kobo Elipsa 2E. However, it's $30 more expensive than the Kobo Libra 2, and you'll have to buy the pen separately for $69.99.
The $149.99 Kobo Clara Color is a little more premium than its closest sibling, the $139.99 Kobo Clara 2E. It offers the same 6-inch display and IPX8 water-resistant design, but now comes with 16GB of storage, as well as an improved processor. I hope so; The Kobo Clara 2E's sluggish performance was one of my main complaints.
Kobo also offered the Kobo Clara BW in black and white, with the same storage and processor upgrades, for $129.99.
All devices are available for pre-order starting today and will ship on April 30.
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