Amazon may have defeated Barnes & Noble to win the e-reader segment, but Rakuten Kobo, a Canadian company, is demonstrating that the Kindle will not be the only game in town.
Kobo has just added two new e-readers to its growing line of well-received devices. The $260 Kobo Sage is the company’s latest flagship e-reader, and the $180 Libra 2 is a revamp of the company’s successful Libra line. Both devices may be pre-ordered now and will be delivered on October 19.
Both devices include E Ink Carta 1200 screens, as well as Kobo’s ComfortLight Pro function, which adjusts the brightness and color of the screen depending on the time of day. They also have Bluetooth support for wireless headphones, although you can only use them with the company’s own audiobook service.
The Sage has a large 8-inch (1440 x 1920) touch display with note-taking capabilities provided you purchase the company’s Kobo Stylus ($40). The Sage has a USB-C port, 32GB of non-expandable storage, and a quad-core 1.8 GHz processor. The Sage is far less expensive than Kobo’s dedicated e-note slate, the Elipsa, which costs $399.
The Libra 2 doesn’t have a note-taking capability, and it has a 7-inch display and an IPX8 water-resistant exterior, which means it can withstand 60 minutes of submersion in two meters of water. The Libra from Kobo likewise has 32GB of non-expandable storage, a 1 GHz processor, and USB-C connectivity.
These aren’t Kobo’s first e-readers, which came out in 2021. The Kobo Nia, which was only available at Walmart, was released in January.
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