It all makes for quick page turn speeds, but those who haven’t spent much time with a devoted e-reader will find the device’s response time slow and finicky compared to what you get on a tablet. So, what does the Cadillac of e-readers have under the hood? Processor-wise, you get a 1Ghz Solo Lite iM圆 processor, the same speed you’ll find on the Aura HD and Voyage. This is definitely a handy addition, given the fact that the front lighting was designed to be read in bed. The device can either do it automatically using a light sensor adjusting over the course of the day, or the user can set a predetermined bedtime for the system to switch over to a far more reddish hue. Like the rest of the hardware world, Kobo’s getting on the sleep train, adjusting the screen’s blue light level so it doesn’t screw up circadian rhythms before bed.
KOBO GLO VS AURA REVIEW PRO
The real differentiator on the screen front is the addition of the ComfortLight Pro to the device’s front lighting technology. After all, keeping this a purely readerly experience means completely ditching all of the social notifications and other distractions - as if you don’t already have all of the info pushed to enough devices already. Of course, the device’s inability to offer a half-decent web browser experience is either a pro or a con, depending on who you ask. But it’s monochrome and has a much longer refresh rate, which hasn’t seen all that much improvement in recent generations. In the pro column, it’s crisp, clear and visible in sunlight, with a ridiculously low power consumption. You know all of the e-ink trade-offs by now. about as sharp as reading real text on a real page. The E Ink display sports an 1872 x 1404 resolution, which works out to 300 ppi - the same as what you’ll find on the Kindle Voyage and the last-gen Glo HD - i.e. That offers up some interesting potential reading scenarios, but for most readers it just means you can accidentally drop it in the tub without breaking the thing. There’s a microUSB port at the bottom - it’s probably too much to ask for USB-C when not even every phone maker has adopted the new standard yet.Įven with that exposed port, the reader still manages a water- and dust-resistance rating of IPX8, meaning it can be submerged in up to two meters of water for up to an hour.
Up top is a big, teal power button - the only physical button on the reader, which, sadly, doesn’t have the physical page keys recently re-adopted by Amazon for the Kindle Voyage. The rear of the device is striking - at least so far as the backs of e-readers go, with slightly tapered sides that create a subtly convex surface covered in a textured soft-touch material. The bezel’s still sizable, containing a small dark gray Kobo logo at the bottom and a barely visible light sensor at top. That newer, slimmer profile is due, in no small part, to the flush display, one contiguous piece of glass that meets up with a slight lip on the side. But the Aura One weighs in at 230 grams and features the slimmest profile of any Kobo yet at 6.9 millimeters, so marathon reading sessions won’t be an issue. Reading with one hand for bus and subway travelers may or may not still be in the cards, depending on how big your hands are (the jury’s still out on certainly presidential candidates). Stashing the reader in your pocket is suddenly out of the equation. Even with a handful of other welcome add-on features, that’s a pretty lofty price tag for a devoted e-reader when Amazon’s Kindle Voyage starts at $30 less (the Special Offers edition, at least).īut Kobo’s previous attempts to go all in have paid off before, and while the company will likely be the first to admit that the Aura One isn’t for everyone, it gives the sort of person willing to shell out more than $200 for such a device exactly what they’re looking for: the ultimate e-reader.Īnd 7.8 inches, it turns out, is big, but not unwieldy.
With the Aura One, the company is doubling down yet again, with a 7.8-inch display that utterly dwarfs the Aura HD and a $230 price point to match. Without Kobo pushing the boundaries of screen size, build quality and features like waterproofing, it’s hard to imagine much innovation occurring in the Amazon-dominated space. The Canadian company has never been afraid to take risks with the often-boring world of e-readers, and for that reason alone it is a welcoming presence. At 6.8 inches, it was larger than the long-time industry standard six inches, and it had a high-res screen and price tag to match. When Kobo briefed me on the release of its new e-reader, a company rep explained that the company “ sure if there was a premium price point” when they released the Aura HD back in 2013.
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