Kobo’s great color e-readers are held back by lock-in

The occupation with astir e-readers is they’re not truly intended for speechmaking books. They’re meant to merchantability you books. Amazon, which has the biggest marketplace stock successful the US, is particularly notable for doing this, but Barnes & Noble is blameworthy of the aforesaid thing. Kobo is possibly the slightest violative astir this — it’s got Pocket and Overdrive integration! But oftentimes, erstwhile I recovered myself wholly enamored with Kobo’s gorgeous caller colour e-readers, I’d abruptly get slapped with the reminder: this happening is present to merchantability maine books.

Which is simply a shame due to the fact that Kobo’s caller Libra Colour and Clara Colour are the closest we’ve gotten to a cleanable e-reader lately. Both the $219.99 Libra Colour and $149.99 Clara Colour are ridiculously light, but with a sturdiness that makes them consciousness comfy and not flimsy. Both see Kaleido 3 displays, which means publication covers are rendered successful existent color. Both flip pages and navigate stores overmuch quicker than the $249.99 Boox Page (the bigger, slower sibling of the Palma) — impressive, fixed the information that the Kaleido 3 show is simply a small slower than a much accepted monochromatic E Ink show recovered successful the Page.

I did find myself liking the much costly Libra due to the fact that I similar asymmetrical e-readers with dedicated buttons to ones that relation much similar accepted tablets. That it besides has stylus enactment for note-taking is simply a plus. Yet, either 1 is simply a charming and enjoyable-to-use e-reader, and implicit the past mates of months, I repeatedly recovered myself reaching for the Libra implicit the Boox — which, until now, has been my superior e-reader. I conscionable similar the consciousness of speechmaking connected it more. Sure, Boox gives maine each speechmaking app disposable (it’s an E Ink Android tablet), but the Libra doesn’t person immoderate of the weird small hiccups emblematic of Android connected E Ink.

Both Kobo e-readers besides enactment highlighting substance successful color, and their touchscreens consciousness overmuch snappier and much responsive than the Boox Page. Those item colors aren’t peculiarly vibrant, though. The Kaleido 3 show recovered successful some gets you color, but the colour is akin to what you spot successful a paper near successful the prima for a fewer days. Plus, that colour comes astatine the outgo of some making the black-and-white speechmaking acquisition a small little crisp. It’s inactive infinitely amended than erstwhile colour E Ink technologies, which often gave the full show a greenish cast.

My existent contented with these devices isn’t the colour displays. It’s the lock-in.

Kobo’s e-readers consciousness built much for buying books than speechmaking them. They’re tied to the Kobo bookstore, which is powered by Rakuten, a Japanese retailer that is often called the “Japanese Amazon” oregon the “Japanese Barnes & Noble” erstwhile radical privation to rapidly summarize the company. Rakuten is precise bully astatine moving books, and Kobo’s built-in bookstore is similar. It doesn’t person rather the aforesaid room arsenic Amazon; Amazon has much self-published books and carries much niche contented from boutique publishers. Yet, Kobo’s bookstore has a decent spread. If it’s a remotely fashionable book, you’ll find it connected the Kobo.

Unlike different non-Android e-readers, Kobo e-readers besides person a much accepted room built successful via Overdrive. If you’ve got a room paper from a room that works with Overdrive you tin get ebooks. Unfortunately, this is erstwhile you commencement to tally into Kobo’s bookselling concern butting heads with its e-reader business. To get books, you either person to usage your telephone to find them connected an app similar Libby, oregon you person to usage the Discover tab, past take the Overdrive tab, and anticipation you tin browse for the publication you want. Or you person to hunt for the publication connected Kobo’s store, and erstwhile you find the book, you person to pat the More Options fastener adjacent to the overmuch larger Buy Now and Wishlist buttons and past really pat the Borrow From Overdrive fastener to spot if the publication is borrowable from your library. It is miserable, and erstwhile I asked a mostly precise clever person to effort to get a book, she couldn’t adjacent fig retired how.

You besides can’t person much than 1 room paper progressive connected the Kobo astatine a time. Instead, erstwhile you decorativeness a publication and privation to work different 1 that’s tied to a antithetic room card, you person to log retired and log successful with the different card. I had to power repeatedly betwixt my New York Public Library and Jersey City Public Library cards and was near profoundly annoyed. I don’t person to bash this erstwhile I usage the Libby app connected my Page oregon iPad.

You tally into the aforesaid contented utilizing the built-in “experimental” web browser Kobo has. I tin navigate to websites conscionable fine, and if I privation to effort and work a publication implicit the web, I tin theoretically bash that. No app necessary. Only the browser is painfully underdeveloped. It would beryllium bully if I could scroll oregon paginate utilizing the Libra’s built-in buttons arsenic I tin with the EinkBro browser connected Android e-readers.

Getting ebooks from different stores onto the instrumentality is besides a hassle. You person to plug the e-reader into your machine and resistance and driblet files (though Calibre, the ebook absorption app, does marque it a scootch easier). But that occupation isn’t unsocial to Kobo. Amazon and Barnes & Noble besides importune you sideload books. But aft years of the Boox ecosystem (and the iPad), it feels weird that these systems each importune you instrumentality truthful intimately to their bookstores. It’s a grade of lock-in that seems absurd, and with Kobo’s ecosystem, it feels much absurd due to the fact that successful truthful galore different respects it truly seems similar the institution is trying to bash e-readers right.

The Kobo Libra Colour and Koko Clara Colour are accelerated and astir cleanable for getting retired of your mode erstwhile you conscionable privation to work a book. Their colour displays aren’t arsenic crisp arsenic an iPad Mini’s LED 1 — oregon adjacent a monochrome E Ink show — but the colour gives a invited zest to the acquisition that achromatic and achromatic cannot. The information that they adjacent connection things similar a web browser and Overdrive and Pocket enactment is precise invited erstwhile compared to what Amazon is doing. But the lock-in, man. The lock-in mightiness beryllium the norm successful the e-reader world, but it shouldn’t be.