Rakuten Kobo’s first-ever colour e-readers – the Kobo Libra Colour and the Kobo Clara Colour – have arrived on the scene.
Both e-readers take advantage of faster 2Ghz processors, colourful E Ink Kaleido 3 displays and IPX8 water resistance, making them a great choice for reading the latest bestsellers and BookTok picks next to the pool.
However, there are also a handful of differences to note. Keep reading to learn more about how these vibrant Kobo e-readers compare.
The Kobo Libra Colour has a bigger screen
When it comes to their respective displays, the most obvious difference lies in the size. The Kobo Libra Colour features a larger 7-inch E Ink Kaleido 3 display with a 1264 x 1680 resolution, while the Kobo Clara Colour has a smaller 6-inch E Ink Kaleido 3 display with a 1448 x 1072 resolution.
Despite these differences, both e-readers boast a sharp 300ppi output when displaying content in black and white, along with a 150ppi colour output for bringing illustrations and book covers to life.
Both e-readers also support ComfortLight Pro for reducing blue light throughout the day and a dark mode for more comfortable reading in low-light environments.
The Kobo Libra Colour is compatible with the Kobo Stylus
If you like the idea of scribbling in the margins of your favourite books, annotating texts for class, or jotting down ideas in a digital notebook, the Kobo Libra Colour is the model for you.
The e-reader is compatible with the Kobo Stylus 2, making highlighting texts and planning your day feel more natural.
The Kobo Stylus 2 is sold separately, meaning you’ll want to factor in an additional £69.99 to cover the cost of the pen. This will take your total up to £269.98 – almost twice that of the £139.99 Kobo Clara Colour.
The Kobo Clara Colour has a longer battery life
Despite its smaller 1500 mAh battery, the Kobo Clara Colour actually boasts the longest battery life of the two e-readers, allowing it to last for up to 42 days on a single charge.
This is based on 30 minutes of reading per day with the front light set to 30% brightness and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth switched off.
The Kobo Libra Colour has a much larger 2050 mAh battery for provides up to 40 days of battery life with the same settings.
The Kobo Libra Colour includes more storage
The Kobo Libra Colour has a higher storage capacity, meaning you can download more books and save all of your notes to the e-reader.
The Libra Colour comes with 32GB of storage which equates to about 24,000 books. The Kobo Clara Colour features half that capacity at 16GB, allowing you to save around 12,000 books.
Regardless of their differences, 12,000 is still a huge library of books to carry around on one device.
Meanwhile, notes written on the Libra Colour can be backed up to the Kobo Cloud and easily accessed on other devices using Dropbox and Google Drive. The Clara Colour includes no integrated cloud storage.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
