Kobo1 today unveiled the details of its forthcoming e-reader device. Available for $149, it sports an e-ink screen, 1GB of internal storage, expandable storage via an SD card, and will display ePubs purchased from Kobo or downloaded from anywhere, along with support for PDF and ePub/PDF content encrypted using Adobe Digital Editions DRM.
I’ve been using an early model for the past couple of weeks and find it very nice to hold and to use. The device is slim in both physical form and in its intended feature set. It isn’t a store, it doesn’t try to do generic tasks like web browsing or games. It’s an e-reader, and the clean design of both the hardware and the software reflect this; it’s as convenient as a printed book, being small and easy to hold in a single hand. Navigation is simple and fairly intuitive.
It’s not an ever-online device like the Kindle though: synchronization happens over USB or Bluetooth, utilizing client software for Windows, Linux and the Macintosh which is available on the device. The device presents itself as a simple mass-storage device for the purpose of manually adding your own content and accessing the client software installers. Recharging is done through the USB cable, and I would imagine a standard mini-USB-to-wall-socket adapter would do the trick nicely.
Battery life has been great so far, as is to be expected from a device with no constant wireless communication drain and a low-power e-ink screen. I’ve had it for almost two weeks and the battery has used maybe 15-20% of its capacity, with me using it for a couple of hours every night.
For those who’ve not seen an e-ink screen in person (a great many I’d imagine— I’d never seen one until I started working here) it’s a strange and wonderful experience: the first reaction is to think you’re looking at a fake screen like those you see on mobile phones at Best Buy. Then someone taps a button and it all changes. The screen is perfectly visible from all angles, and the text appears to sit on the surface of the screen rather than beneath a layer of glass.
All in all, I’m looking forward to using this one. I’d thought long and hard about a Kindle, but didn’t like the small version with its tiny keyboard, and felt the price of the larger version was too prohibitive. Additionally, purchasing something that expensive sight-unseen — even with a money-back guarantee — was a bit too much for me. The Kobo eReader however will be available for purchase in household-name electronics and book stores, where you can see and touch it, and take it home for the (comparatively) bargain price of $149. Some retailers might go lower than that, too.
Overall, an exciting new product; it’s a good time to be in this industry I think, an industry which is only going to grow over the next few years.
- As noted in the sidebar, Kobo is my employer. ↩
