New: Colour e-readers from Kobo shake e-ink up

Kobo has announced two new e-readers, both rocking a pretty big new feature for the category — colour!

The two new devices announced use an E Ink Kaleido 3 display. Both are expected to ship by the end of April.

The Kobo Clara Colour is the more budget-minded device, with a AU$259.95 price-tag. It’s a more traditional design, with the 6" touchscreen being used for page-turning. It features Kobo’s “ComfortLight PRO” for temperature and brightness control and is waterproof with an IPX8 rating. Both devices support Bluetooth for listening to audiobooks.

The Kobo Libra Colour is a more expensive AU$359.95. It features a larger 7" display and is compatible with Kobo’s Stylus 2. Though that stylus, which lets users write notes and annotate books and documents, costs an additional AU$119.95. The Libra Colour also has dedicated page-turn buttons, with a similar look to Amazon’s Kindle Oasis, but the Kobo is still cheaper. It also has the same temperature and brightness control features, a touchscreen display and IPX8 waterproof rating.

Since around 2007 e-readers have served as a dedicated alternative to conventional LCD and OLED devices. E-ink — a low-power, glare-free display technology, is optimised for displaying greyscale text and images. It’s so common now that e-ink technology is used for digital signage and even price-tags in some Australian supermarkets. E-readers have been able to survive alongside more adaptable phones, laptops and tablets as a dedicated device that’s just better for one task—which in a time of infinite scroll can be a nice break from conventional technology.

But colour was a big omission, and the addition of colour for comics, book covers and other images is a huge improvement to the technology, arguably the biggest one since inception. I’m excited to see more e-readers and e-ink tablets, like the reMarkable and Amazon’s more popular Kindle, adopt colour e-ink soon.