What do you want in an vitamin E - reader ? If you ’re anything like me , a long - last battery animation is important , and so is an easily portable designing . These days , you might throw a color exhibit into the mixture as well . If that sound good to you , then let me tell you about the Kobo Clara Colour . Kobo is one of the veterans of the e - reader industry , having been in the business since 2010 , and its farseeing pedigree shows . The Clara Colour is its later e - reader , and at first glance , it has everything you want in an e - reader . It ’s diminished , with enough power to keep going for workweek , and , significantly , a full coloring material presentation with a sharp solving .
Kobo Clara Colour specs
300ppi ( dark and blanched )
150ppi ( color )
Kobo Clara Colour: design
E - reader design is pole apart from smartphone and tablet design , and you might think you ’ve dangle through some form of time portal when you liken the two . Instead of sleek crank and metal build , even the most premium e - reader devices are made from stout plastic . The Kobo Clara Colour is no different . It ’s clad in black recycled plastic , with a textured rear panel with a deep-set power clit . It feels tough and real despite the stuff , and it has a pleasing heft that helps it to avoid feeling crummy . The recessed power button is also a convinced , as it ’s light to find , and much better at warding off accidental pressing than the clit on the bottom of most Kindles .
Thick bezels wall the 6 - column inch einsteinium - ink exhibit , have in mind it ’s not much to look at — but that gives you plenty of field to grapple while reading . But my parole you ’re going to need that clutches , because the Clara Colour is a very tricky gimmick . The plastic is silklike and hard to keep hold of , and even the textured back panel does n’t bring home the bacon much in the way of traveling bag . It ’s fine if you ’re using it curled up on the sofa , or sitting upright , but take the gadget to bed and hold it above your face , and you start to experience as if you ’re dicing with end . Its pleasing heft becomes somewhat threatening when it ’s hovering above your face . I was sent one of the prescribed fold case along with the Clara Colour , and it became a very welcome summation .
This deficiency of grip is a job I ’ve noticed with a lot of e - readers lately . I have a2024 Kindlethat suffers from the same issue , and it ’s puzzling to me . It ’s not a problem my2018 Kindle Paperwhitesuffers from , with its soft - touch back covering , and it feels like tocopherol - readers have gone backwards where hold is concerned . for sure , it ’s easily solve with a case , but a cynical part of me wonders if case sales are exactly the ground for the transposition .
be active on to enduringness , the Clara Colour has an IPX8 rating for water - underground , which means it can survive for up to 60 minute of arc in up to two meters of fresh H2O . It ’s a great twist for reading in the bathtub or by the pool , though we would n’t purposefully take it under the water system if you do n’t have to . Notably , it has no evaluation for detritus - ohmic resistance ( signified by the X ) , so keep it away from dusty or gritty environments .
There ’s another ingredient of the Clara Colour ’s lastingness to notice here , as well — it ’s beenbuilt be repairable . Kobo has partner with iFixit to offer parts and repair guides , so that even if your equipment is out of doors of the warranty catamenia , you’re able to have a go at fix it yourself . That ’s a major full stop in its favour , and not one often seen in any machine .
There ’s not much to write home about where the Clara Colour ’s design is bear on . It ’s safe and does its chore well , but it ’s hard to describe it as anything other than boring . Yes it feels reassuringly tough and solid , but it ’s too slippery , and I wish it fare in a colour other than standard black .
Mark Jansen / Digital Trends
Kobo Clara Colour: display
The Kobo Clara Colour has a 6 - inch tocopherol - ink Kaleido 3 color touchscreen , with a 1448 x 1072 resolution at 300 pixels - per - column inch ( ppi ) for mordant and livid content . Like the Kindle Colorsoft , color content will leave out the solution down to 150 ppi , but the bead is n’t noticeable on such a small screen . And itisa small screen — at just 6 - inches , it ’s the same size of it as the standard Kindle , and a full inch smaller than the 7 - inch displays that have become stock for theKindle Paperwhiteand the Colorsoft . It makes the twist pocketable and easily enthral in a way that with child devices are n’t , but on the flip side , it also means those who prefer a declamatory blind will encounter themselves leaning towards the Kindle Colorsoft , or a Kobo Libra Colour .
Black and bloodless e - books are pinpoint abrupt , with even the small credit textual matter being easily visible .
Size away , it ’s clearly a great screen door . Kobo ’s long experience shows with the Clara Colour , as the display calculate swell . contraband and white-hot e - book are pinpoint sharp , with even the smallest credit text being easily visible . Color content does have a 150 ppi downgrade , but it ’s not noticeable , and the slightly launder out colors mean pictures tend to look like attractive watercolor . It ’s not the bold and bright color you ’d get from a tablet , but it ’s similar to that offered by the Colorsoft , and what we ’ve fall to expect from color e - readers .
Mark Jansen / Digital Trends
I did have some ghosting issue , more than I ’ve arrive to expect from a relative Kindle , but those were few and far - between , and not something that should put you off the twist . If you ’re finding your equipment ghost more than you ’d like , you may change the preferences to wedge the display to refresh more often , washing the ghosts forth more efficaciously than Dan Ackroyd . After a few hebdomad with the gadget , I give up mark them on the whole .
The smaller size may put some people off , but ultimately , the Clara Colour ’s excellent display belies a strong pedigree . This is an excellent vitamin E - ink covert .
Kobo Clara Colour: performance and battery
I doubt anyone is expecting the Clara Colour to be a powerhouse on the level of , well , any modernistic smartphone , and you ’d be right to doubt . There ’s a positively bantam small dual 2.0GHz mainframe tucked inside the Clara Colour ’s plastic shell , and while that ’s clearly an underpowered chip by most standard , it ’s worth pointing out that there is n’t all that much for it to do here .
public presentation is , on the whole , riotous and snappy . The Clara Colour is n’t a buttery - fluid swiper like theGalaxy S25 Ultra , or really , any smartphone . But it does well with what it has , and there are n’t many moments when you ’re exit marvel if a touch registered or not . That is , as long as you ’re reading in black and lily-white . Performance does slow down down when colouring material content come into fun , with the increase file size of it and prerequisite for processing power being the likely rationality behind the drop . people of colour PDFs tended to be the slowest , with a whole second of slowdown between swiping and the page actually turning . Your mileage will vary on this , depending on how large the file you graze are , but expect some slowdown if you ’re shop large colouring material PDFs .
Storage come in a single 16 GB feel , half the size of it of the Kindle Colorsoft ’s 32 G . This is a bite of a letdown . received ebooks will be just okay with this amount of storage , but audiobook lover and anyone whose ebooks contain a lot of coloring pictures will start feeling the pinch once they ’ve started piling in the titles .
Mark Jansen / Digital Trends
I ’m in person an e - volume reader , and will audiobooks on my phone , where I can choose to use either a verbalizer or headphones , but those who use an e - reader for their audiobooks may care to front elsewhere , or plainly pare down down their download titles . I also have a few large address Quran with lots of picture in ebook formats , but the Clara Colour ’s screen is too minor to really lease with these title , so it father a pass on not really having the file infinite for a draw of these .
As ever with e - reader , the battery life is measure in week , not days , and as such , it ’s often a less important metric to try a gimmick on . The Kobo Clara Colour is as impressive as its kin , with Kobo claim a assault and battery life of 42 days . That opinion include 30 minutes of reading per day , so your experience will depart depend on how much you apply it . In my metre with it , I ’ve only had to charge it once after full charging when it arrived , which assign it around Kobo ’s estimations . But even if you study an awful fate more than I do , I do n’t think you ’ll have any upshot with the Clara Colour ’s barrage life .
As suit a gimmick you ’ll charge every few weeks , Kobo does n’t make much of the Clara Colour ’s commove speed . It has a USB - C embrasure at the bottom , and while it ’s not going to be as firm to rouse as your smartphone , it ’s so effective that even ten minutes of charging the 1,500mAh cell is potential to give you enough superpower for the day . Since it most in all likelihood use the same battery charger as your phone , you do n’t even need to pile another charger for weekends away .
Mark Jansen / Digital Trends
Kobo Clara Colour: reading experience
Enough about the ancilliary stuff ; how is it to in reality read on ? As you ’d hope , it ’s middling darn good at it .
Everything we ’ve mentioned in the previous section really comes into gambling here ; the sharp presentation mean text is snappy and clear , and the strong performance means there ’s lilliputian lag when you ’re moving between page . While you ’re learn a Bible , you nobble to turn the varlet , or you’re able to tap on the left or good to turn the page that room . Tap in the middle of the pageboy to commit up the interface , which allow you to jump forwards in the book , change the luminance , font option , and gives access to your indication stats and other configurations .
open up the options and you could custom-make a large amount of how this works . you may enlarge the tap - to - turn area for both right and remaining Sir Frederick Handley Page turns , instead of have adequate amount of screen fourth dimension for either , and change where to tip to trigger the interface . There are other small change you may make , but the one I really like is the choice to switch the brightness by sliding up and down the left edge of the screen .
you’re able to listen to audiobooks too . You ’ll needBluetooth headphonesor aspeakerto heed though , as there ’s no phone jack or progress - in utterer . That ’s received for these sorts of e - reader , though it may be dissatisfactory to those who have used magnanimous e - ink tablets with their own loudspeaker .
The audiobook experience is somewhat standard . There are controls to hurry up or slow up down the recital , and the skip buttons go forwards and backward by 30 arcsecond . It ’s a trivial canonic , and it lacks the ability to alter how far the skip buttons go . The time dilatation options also only increase by 0.25 growth , and only go as low as 0.75 - times the initial pep pill , which is a little lacking for those who like to fine tune their listening experience . Still , it works well enough , and it has the same stats button as the reading material interface , showing you how long you have left in the book , and even which chapters are the farsighted .
The volume option is a little nettlesome . There ’s no hardware push button to control the mass , so you may only control it using a slider on the screen door . I would have sleep together to have seen an option to have the mass slider work in a like manner to the luminosity , perhaps by slide along the right boundary . Audiobooks do n’t seem like a focus here though , which explains the lack of cultivation .
The audiobook experience is a minuscule limited , but the Kobo Clara Colour really shinny when you load it up with atomic number 99 - Word .
Kobo Clara Colour: software
Kobo uses its own proprietary software on the Clara Colour , and it ’s operational , if nothing particular . The main plate page shows you a selection of book or audiobooks from your program library , links to the Kobo Store , and an advert for Kobo Plus , Kobo ’s bounty subscription . Along the bottom , you’re able to get at My book , the Discover page , which is basically just the computer memory in all but name , and a More option . More opens approach to the options , optional Beta Features , your Activity Thomas Nelson Page , the Wishlist , and other extra stuff . It process , but there ’s nothing particular . There are a duo of interesting Beta Features , like adding web web browser , large print mood , and a sketch tablet option , but otherwise , it ’s a moderately unornamented operating system . Do n’t get me wrong , it work well at what it needs to do , but do n’t go in expecting anything groundbreaking .
One orbit Kobo require to do better is in importing young Holy Writ . you could purchase new books from the Kobo store , signal up to your public subroutine library using OverDrive , or you could hook a USB - vitamin C cable to your computer and manually transmit your Scripture . I have a wealth of atomic number 99 - books and PDFs on my data processor , and candidly , needing to dig behind it to plug away in a cable and lean it to the Clara Colour is unforgiveably archaic . The bad part is Kobo acknowledge better ; theKobo Elipsa 2Elinks with Google Drive , so you may add Indian file simply by lay them in a specific folder in your Google Drive . It ’s quick , easy , and should be on the Clara Colour — so why is n’t it ? Even Amazon has an upload tool to wirelessly commit due east - books to your Kindle , so Kobo insisting on a pumped connection feels bad .
finally , the Kobo Clara Colour ’s software program is nothing special , but outside of the want of wireless Es - script transmission , it does n’t need to be . It ’s quick and easy to get into a book , and I rarely felt lost while using it . It ’s simple and efficient .
Kobo Clara Colour: Kobo store
Kobo runs its own store , and that ’s where you ’ll likely buy most of your new ebooks . The Kobo store used to bet 2d fiddle to the Kindle memory , and while that ’s still somewhat rightful — there ’s nowhere quite like the Kindle store for ego - published books and content — the Kobo memory board now has a monolithic mountain range of ebooks , magazines , manga , and more .
The Kindle store also has an reward in bluff loudness of pile , but Kobo has a scorecard up its sleeve to facilitate deal with that . If you come up an ebook anywhere else for cheaper than the Kobo store , Kobo will give you the difference back , plus 10 % on top . That ’s a keen guarantee , and while it can be a faff to submit a claim each time there ’s a Kindle cut-rate sale on , it helps to sugar the pill importantly .
If you show multiple books a month , or even week , then there ’s also theKobo Plus subscription serviceto consider . It ’s similar to the Kindle Unlimited subscription , in that it offers a wide compass of books , comic strip , and audiobooks starting from just $ 8 a month .
While the Kindle computer memory remains the unquestioned king , the Kobo store is far more than a sick impersonation now . It ’s easy to practice , and it was rarefied I fail to find something I wanted .
Kobo Clara Colour: price and availability
TheKobo Clara Colouris presently available for purchase , and it costs $ 160 . There ’s only one variate , and it comes with 16 GB of storage . It do in just one colorway , black — but you’re able to buy the SleepCovers in a number of different colors including Misty Green , Candy Pink , Cayenne Red , and unvarnished black . you could order the Kobo Clara Colour from the Kobo fund , Amazon , Target , Walmart , and other storehouse that sell einsteinium - readers .
When you conceive what you get for your money , there ’s no computer hardware cause to buy anything other than a Kobo e - reader .
When you consider what you get for your money , there ’s no hardware reason to buy anything other than a Kobo e - reader . The only genuine understanding to buy a Kindle is because of the Amazon store it ’s impound to , and any be depository library you might have . There ’s no webstore quite like Amazon , and it ’s a genuine rationality to think twice about stepping away from a Kindle due east - reader . But if you ’re willing to give it up , or you ’ve long avoid Amazon , then you should buy the Kobo Clara Colour .
Moving from Kindle to Kobo
Some people may be upgrading from a late Kobo e - reader , or will be looking at buying their first e - lector , but many will be look at swapping over from the Amazon Kindle . So , how easy is to move from a Kindle to Kobo ? While buying a young e - reviewer is easy , it ’s very potential you ’ll require to go away your Amazon volume behind .
This was always , de jure , run to be the typeface . It ’s important to mention that , as far as Amazon is refer , the ebooks you buy are essentially leased from them , and you have buy the rightfulness to view them for as long as Amazon wants to allow you . Amazon can , at any time , move out your ebooks without notice , or make edits to them .
So the unwelcome news is you ’re , legally utter , go to have to leave whatever you buy on Kindle behind when you move to Kobo .
Should you buy the Kobo Clara Colour?
It ’s a yes . An emphatic yes , in fact .
It is n’t much to expect at , butKobo ’s Clara Colourhas draw it where it count . It ’s an first-class e - reader , and reflects Kobo ’s secure lineage and prospicient experience with precisely these type of devices . The display is excellent , the smaller size of it means it fits into pockets and bag with ease , and the weeks of battery life means you could forget about battery anxiousness . The software program is simple but in effect , and while I like it had more storage and an easier style to send them to the gimmick , these are n’t dealbreakers by any way . If a color e - ink screen is a must , then this is utterly the tocopherol - lector to buy . It can go bollocks - for - blast with the Kindle Colorsoft , and saves you $ 100 you may pass on e - books alternatively .
If you ’re looking for a gravid screen , then there are better options , like the Kindle Scribe or Kobo Elipsa 2E. But if you ’re wait for a great colour eastward - referee to read or mind to Scripture , then there are n’t many grounds not to bribe the Clara Colour . If the Kobo Clara Colour had been closer to the Kindle Colorsoft in price , then this would be a arduous passport . But , as it is , the Kobo Clara Colour offer everything that make the Colorsoft keen , at a significantly low terms . This is the due east - lecturer you should grease one’s palms in 2025 .
