I remember the days we used to have many technological devices that catered towards one specific use. If you wanted to play music, you’d buy a CD player or an MP3 player. If you wanted to take a photo, you’d buy a camera.
Nowadays, smartphones and tablets exist, and these two devices pretty much do everything. You can surf the internet, watch videos, take photos, play music, and even read digital books. Not to mention, some smartphones and tablets are more affordable now than when they first came out.
However, I am surprised e-readers still exist as Kobo has just released its new Kobo Clara Colour device. Unlike a tablet, the Kobo Clara Colour is a dedicated reading device. All you can do on it is read eBooks or listen to audiobooks, and that’s it.
Sadly, the Kobo Clara Colour has its own dedicated digital store, so you cannot import eBooks that you may have bought from Google’s Play Store. This means you pretty much have to buy everything from scratch if you are new to the service like me.
That being said, Kobo does offer its own subscription service called Kobo Plus, and this somewhat allows you to read a ton of books for a small price of $14.99 per month. It’s kind of like Game Pass, as only some books are included, and not the whole library like on Netflix or Disney+.
Kobo Plus is pretty cool because I was able to read some Taylor Swift books, Witchblade comics, and Spawn comics too. However, like I said before, the whole library isn’t available because some of the Spider-Man comics I wanted to read were still full price!
As for the Kobo Clara Colour device itself, it’s smaller than the average tablet, but bigger than most smartphones. The device fits in the palm of your hand and has a 6-inch screen. It’s also worth mentioning that you can only read the device vertically, so you cannot rotate it horizontally like a smartphone.
The screen is glare-free so you can easily read books in most areas of the house. It also has a touch screen where you can zoom in to make the text bigger if you have bad eyesight. Not to mention, once you download an eBook, you can read it offline like on a plane.
Probably the coolest thing about the Kobo Clara Colour is that the company boasts it has a 42-day battery life. However, this is if you only use the device for 30 minutes a day at 30% brightness. Heavier use will obviously drain the battery much faster.
Another cool thing about the device is that it has 16GB of storage. This can store a massive amount of 12,000 eBooks or 75 audiobooks. The device does not have a headphone jack, but it can connect to any Bluetooth headphones.
While the Kobo Clara Colour is a neat e-reader, it isn’t without some small faults. For one thing, the touch screen isn’t as responsive as a smartphone. When I was browsing to download more books, sometimes the screen would freeze and be unresponsive.
The colours on the screen also look dark and muted compared to the OLED screen on my smartphone. I compared the same Spawn comic on the Kobo and my OPPO phone, and the latter looked brighter and much more satisfying.
The other thing that might deter some buyers is that the Kobo Clara Colour retails for $299 NZD at most NZ retailers. You could get a mid-tier phone for around the same price, which has way more features built in.
Overall, the Kobo Clara Colour is a decent device if you want to have something that read books only. However, I would not recommend this device if you’re not a heavy reader because smartphones and tablets offer more features.
