I’ve had my Kobo Aura for about a week and a half now, and while there has been a lot I have loved about it, it hasn’t been a 100% positive experience. The industrial design is great – I love the bezel flush with the screen and the device is very light and thin. The new UI looks good and the Pocket integration is fantastic. Tor.com often has great snippets of upcoming books on its website and I find it awesome to be able to click a button and have those on my Kobo. Kobo often touts its handling of PDFs, and in all fairness it’s probably better than that on the Kindle. However, I tried to read a PDF book I have and gave up after a few pages. I found manoeuvring around the document very cumbersome even with Kobo’s navigation tool. For PDFs, tablets rather than eReaders are definitely the way to go. Searching on the Kobo reader – or the website for that matter – is completely hit or miss. For more common books or authors there is no problem. However trying to search for Anne Robillard for example brought up every Anne under the sun except Robillard….
Kobo held a press event today entitled “Beyond the Book.” in which it announced three new variations of its popular Kobo Arc tablet and a new version of its eInk Kobo Aura. I hadn’t been expecting a refresh at this point as both their eInk readers (the Aura) and their tablet offerings (the Arc) were refreshed earlier this year. For me, the Kobo Aura seems very interesting. It retains the HD pixel density of the 6.7 inch Kobo Aura HD released earlier this year but reverts to the traditional 6 inch screen. It is priced at $150 as opposed to the original’s $169. I have placed my order – it took a while as the devices are newly up for preorder. The Aura will be delivered on the 11th of September. In addition to SD and HD 7 inch Kobo Arcs, the company is now offering a 10 inch tablet. The specs are higher on the new version. Check out http://goodereader.com/blog/ for full details. Personally, I won’t check out the tablet – I adore my Kindle Fire HD and see no need for another. Additionally, the company is also launching value added content with Beyond the Book, which will include links…
The Kobo Aura is the new premium ereader from Kobo. It is marketed as follows: The eReader, Re-Imagined. Kobo Aura HD is the only premium eReader, offering an unprecedented immersive reading experience for the book lover. Unlike other eReaders, Kobo Aura HD elevates the reading experience by combining the most advanced, highest resolution, extra-large screen with a book-inspired design that feels natural and comfortable to hold. The Aura is an eInk reader with a 6.8 HD backlit screen. Comparing its specs with those of the Kobo Glo and the Kindle Paperwhite we see the following: Kobo Aura 6.8″ Custom WXGA+ Pearl E Ink Screen ClarityScreen+: 265 dpi, 1440 x 1080 resolution 240 g (8.4658 oz) 1 GHz; 20% faster processor than other leading eReaders 4GB internal storage Kobo Glo 6″ XGA Pearl E Ink touchscreen; 1024×758 resolution; 16-level grey scale 185 g (6.5 oz) 1 GHz 2GB internal storage Kindle Paperwhite 212 ppi, optimized font technology, 16-level gray scale 7.5 ounces (213 grams) 2GB internal storage So, the main improvements you get for an extra $40 is the larger screen – 6.8 inches compared to 6 inches and higher resolution. Kobo has also made a change to the standard padded…