The Kobo Libra Color and Clara Color are nice colour e-readers are held again by lock in

The issue with most e-readers is that they’re not likely meant for studying books. They’re meant to promote you books. Amazon, which has the most important market share within the US, is particularly notable for doing this, however Barnes & Noble is responsible of the identical factor. Kobo is probably the least offensive about this — it’s obtained Pocket and Overdrive integration! However oftentimes, when I discovered myself completely enamored with Kobo’s beautiful new colour e-readers, I’d abruptly get slapped with the reminder: this factor is right here to promote me books.

Which is a disgrace as a result of Kobo’s new Libra Color and Clara Color are the closest we’ve gotten to an ideal e-reader these days. Each the $219.99 Libra Color and $149.99 Clara Color are ridiculously gentle, however with a sturdiness that makes them really feel comfy and never flimsy. Each embrace Kaleido 3 shows, which implies e-book covers are rendered in precise colour. Each flip pages and navigate shops a lot faster than the $249.99 Boox Web page (the larger, slower sibling of the Palma) — spectacular, given the truth that the Kaleido 3 show is slightly slower than a extra conventional monochromatic E Ink show discovered within the Web page.

I did discover myself liking the costlier Libra as a result of I desire asymmetrical e-readers with devoted buttons to ones that perform extra like conventional tablets. That it additionally has stylus assist for note-taking is a plus. But, both one is an enthralling and enjoyable-to-use e-reader, and over the past couple of months, I repeatedly discovered myself reaching for the Libra over the Boox — which, till now, has been my main e-reader. I similar to the texture of studying on it extra. Positive, Boox provides me each studying app accessible (it’s an E Ink Android pill), however the Libra doesn’t have any of the bizarre little hiccups typical of Android on E Ink.

Each Kobo e-readers additionally assist highlighting textual content in colour, and their touchscreens really feel a lot snappier and extra responsive than the Boox Web page. These spotlight colours aren’t notably vibrant, although. The Kaleido 3 show present in each will get you colour, however the colour is akin to what you see in a newspaper left within the solar for just a few days. Plus, that colour comes at the price of each making the black-and-white studying expertise rather less crisp. It’s nonetheless infinitely higher than earlier colour E Ink applied sciences, which regularly gave the entire show a inexperienced forged.

My actual challenge with these units isn’t the colour shows. It’s the lock-in.

Kobo’s e-readers really feel constructed extra for purchasing books than studying them. They’re tied to the Kobo bookstore, which is powered by Rakuten, a Japanese retailer that’s typically referred to as the “Japanese Amazon” or the “Japanese Barnes & Noble” when folks need to rapidly summarize the corporate. Rakuten is excellent at transferring books, and Kobo’s built-in bookstore is comparable. It doesn’t have fairly the identical library as Amazon; Amazon has extra self-published books and carries extra area of interest content material from boutique publishers. But, Kobo’s bookstore has an honest unfold. If it’s a remotely common e-book, you’ll discover it on the Kobo.

Not like different non-Android e-readers, Kobo e-readers even have a extra conventional library in-built by way of Overdrive. When you’ve obtained a library card from a library that works with Overdrive you possibly can borrow ebooks. Sadly, that is whenever you begin to run into Kobo’s bookselling enterprise butting heads 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 it’s important to use the Uncover tab, then select the Overdrive tab, and hope you possibly can browse for the e-book you need. Or it’s important to seek for the e-book on Kobo’s retailer, and whenever you discover the e-book, it’s important to faucet the Extra Choices button subsequent to the a lot bigger Purchase Now and Wishlist buttons after which truly faucet the Borrow From Overdrive button to see if the e-book is borrowable out of your library. It’s depressing, and once I requested a typically very intelligent good friend to attempt to borrow a e-book, she couldn’t even work out how.

You can also’t have a couple of library card lively on the Kobo at a time. As a substitute, whenever you end a e-book and need to learn one other one which’s tied to a unique library card, it’s important to log off and log in with the opposite card. I needed to swap repeatedly between my New York Public Library and Jersey Metropolis Public Library playing cards and was left deeply irritated. I don’t have to do that once I use the Libby app on my Web page or iPad.

You run into the identical challenge utilizing the built-in “experimental” net browser Kobo has. I can navigate to web sites simply tremendous, and if I need to attempt to learn a e-book over the net, I can theoretically try this. No app needed. Solely the browser is painfully underdeveloped. It will be good if I may scroll or paginate utilizing the Libra’s built-in buttons as I can with the EinkBro browser on Android e-readers.

Getting ebooks from different shops onto the machine can also be a trouble. You need to plug the e-reader into your pc and drag and drop information (although Calibre, the e-book administration app, does make it a scootch simpler). However that drawback isn’t distinctive to Kobo. Amazon and Barnes & Noble additionally insist you sideload books. However after years of the Boox ecosystem (and the iPad), it feels bizarre that these methods all insist you stick so carefully to their bookstores. It’s a level of lock-in that appears absurd, and with Kobo’s ecosystem, it feels extra absurd as a result of in so many different respects it actually looks as if the corporate is attempting to do e-readers proper.

The Kobo Libra Color and Koko Clara Color are quick and almost good for getting out of your manner whenever you simply need to learn a e-book. Their colour shows aren’t as sharp as an iPad Mini’s LED one — or perhaps a monochrome E Ink show — however the colour provides a welcome zest to the expertise that black and white can not. The truth that they even provide issues like an internet browser and Overdrive and Pocket assist may be very welcome when in comparison with what Amazon is doing. However the lock-in, man. The lock-in is likely to be the norm within the e-reader world, but it surely shouldn’t be.