Welcome to Engadget’s back to school guide! Today, we’re taking a look at your best e-reader options. Head to the back to school hub to see the rest of the product guides as we add them throughout the month. Be sure to keep checking back; in early September, we’ll be giving away a ton of gear, including some of the picks in our guides.
Schoolbooks? What is this, the late 20th century? Granted, we still have a ways to go before all the world’s textbooks go digital, but e-readers should be able to stand in for most of those paperbacks, at least. So lose a little backpack weight, save a couple of trees and take notes without ruining your copy. We have got your e-reader needs covered, no matter what your back to school budget.
When it comes to Android-powered tablets, the manufacturers behind this particular hardware genre are dime a dozen, and it can be pretty difficult picking an outstanding out of the crowd. Kobo is a name that some consumers might be familiar with, as they do have had their fair share of new tablets which run on the Android operating system released over the years. The thing is, Kobo has never been looked at as a first tier tablet, more often than not being overlooked by the likes of Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Perhaps things might change with whispers of a new Kobo tablet that will feature a higher resolution display as well as speedier processor.
What you see above is just meant for illustrative purposes only and not the rumored new tablet, as whispers are going around of a new Kobo Arc 10 HD that did appear over at the GLBenchmarks website recently. While the benchmark results and product details have been removed since then, some screenshots were captured beforehand, revealing the very real possibility of a 10-inch display at 2560 x 1600 resolution, Android 4.2 Jelly Bean and a quad-core 1.8GHz NVIDIA Tegra 4 ARM Cortex-A15 processor. This is a tablet that packs quite a punch, don’t you think so? Of course, nothing has been confirmed yet, and it could very well end up as just a prototype that might not make it to the market eventually.
Kobo debuted its limited edition Aura HD ebook reader back in April, and we got our hands on it shortly after. Now a new device from the company has surfaced in a batch of leaked images, and though we don’t know the final name of it yet, it is similar in design to the Aura from the front. While not much is known about it, some details have surfaced via an FCC filing.
You can see the full gallery of images below, which gives us a pretty good look at the slate from all sides. They first surfaced over at the German website Lesen, which refers to the device as the Kobo N514, which is likely not its final name. By the looks of it, this will be a follow up to its Kobo Glo ereader, though in terms of design they differ greatly.
Netronix, maker of the device, reportedly requested that the documentation related to the Kobo device be kept on the down low until August 30th so that “sensitive business information” was kept from the market, so – pending any more leaks – it’ll be awhile before we get certain additional information on the slate. There are some specs, however, that were revealed by the FCC filing.
Reportedly, the Kobo N514 will feature a 6-inch display, possibly with a resolution of 1024 x 758 pixels, which would put it in line with the Kobo Glo. Likewise, the ereader is said to offer wireless connectivity in the form of 802.11 WiFi, and to feature a 1500mAh battery, which is a jump from the Glo’s 1000mAh offering.
Based on this information, users won’t find much difference between this and its predecessor. However, keep in mind that there’s reportedly an embargo in place on information, and so this could change once we know more about what the slate offers. Until then, you can check out some of Kobo’s other offerings in our Kobo tag portal.
Leaked photos of the next e-reader to join the Kobo family have appeared online today, and from the looks of it, the company isn’t out to reinvent the wheel. We rummaged around in the FCC filings to confirm that it’ll come with a 6-inch screen and a 1,500mAh battery, which bests the 1,000mAh one in the Kobo Glo. The design is reminiscent of the Aura HD, with a contoured back so that it rests comfortably in hand. Along the bottom, you’ll find a microSD slot and a micro-USB port, while a red power button sits at the top. This new model is rocking some asymmetry, with the Kobo logo set on the left side of the bezel and non-parallel lines marking the back ridges with an off-center, vertical logo. We’re still waiting on a formal announcement, so stay tuned for more info.
On the latest episode of the show, staff writers Christina Bonnington and Roberto Baldwin stare at the screen of the new Kobo Aura HD e-reader and the front-camera support update of the Vine app.
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours — all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
What do you get when you ask 10,000 rabid bookworms to help build a better Kobo? The Cadillac of e-readers, naturally: a bigger, beefier and generally higher-end device than we’re used to. The Aura HD is a rare thing in this space, built specifically with power users in mind. And for those very reasons, this 6.8-inch, $169 slate isn’t long for this world. Announced roughly half a year after the company’s flagship Glo (and, it turns out, just in time for Mother’s Day), the Aura HD isn’t slated to make it beyond the end of the year. “This is something that is designed for this most passionate, voracious reader,” the company’s CEO Mike Serbinis told us in an interview conducted around the announcement, “and as much as I wish everyone was like that — it would make us a lot bigger business right away — that is not the case.”
It’s a strange move for a relatively small company that’s currently offering up two 6-inch readers, a 5-inch model and 7-inch tablet. That, and company is convinced such a product isn’t destined to ever become anything but a niche device, particularly in a race dominated by two main players. But is there a chance devoted fans might pay the premium? Let’s find out.
Is there room in the market still for e-paper ereaders? Kobo says yes, and has the consumer research to prove it and the new model, the Kobo Aura HD, it claims will fit the bill. A survey of 10,000 of the company’s existing users found that 90-percent plan to buy a new, dedicated ereader sometime in the next twelve months, Kobo says; 36-percent apparently have both a tablet and an ereader, and 53-percent use their ereader every day. We caught up with Kobo to take a look.
For that target audience of avid readers, Kobo insists that E Ink remains the way forward for usability. The Aura HD’s panel sees a step up in specifications, however, with a 1440 x 1080 resolution, 6.8-inch Pearl panel, running at 256ppi; it also has front-lighting, as we’ve seen on other recent ereaders from Amazon and B&N, though Kobo claims its system offers the most even illumination. It’s certainly bright and looked consistent across the panel. Inside, there’s WiFi b/g/n though no cellular connectivity, Kobo telling us it still doesn’t believe the hassle of getting 3G/4G hardware certified and the costs of data involved make it worthwhile for its audience.
Kobo is pretty keen to highlight its angular back-panel, though, modeled after a creased sheet of paper. The raised edges give your fingers somewhere to rest, so the theory goes; in practice, it’s certainly not the thinnest way to read an ebook – the iPad mini and Nexus 7 have replaced a standalone ereader for many – but the Aura HD is easy to grip and feels like it could survive a fall from your nightstand. Physical controls are limited to a power button (finished in a contrasting color) and a key for the “ComfortLight” illumination.
Everything else is operated with the touchscreen, which seems reasonably responsive. The Kobo homescreen pulls together your recently read titles – complete with both a percentage of how much is read, and a useful indication of roughly how long it might take you to read the rest, handy if you’re trying to plan ahead for a journey – with recommendations for new books and authors. A tally keeps track of how many books you’ve finished and how long you spent reading them, and you’re prompted to rate completed titles. The Aura HD also supports basic gaming, like chess, with widgets to access your most recent game.
In use, what impresses the most is the clarity of the ereader’s screen. Even at small font levels, there’s no graininess or jagged edges to the text, something Kobo said it achieved not only by virtue of the higher-density display resolution but by going back to first-principles with the fonts and redesigning them pixel-by-pixel to suit the E Ink panel. The screen is also 30-percent larger than other ereaders of a similar scale, and together with the improved readability at small sizes, that means more text on a single page and fewer turns. Fewer turns also adds up to longer battery life, as e-paper displays like the Aura HD’s only use power when they’re changing the content of the display, not maintaining it.
Otherwise, it’s pretty much par for the course for the Aura HD. The onboard 4GB of storage can be expanded by up to 32GB with a microSD card, and there’s a new Freescale i.MX527 processor that, at 1GHz, is apparently 25-percent faster than any rival model out there. We can’t say we noticed a significant uptick in speed, though we also didn’t encounter responsiveness issues.
Kobo has high hopes for the Aura HD, and says there’s still a strong market for ebook-centric devices rather than tablets. In fact, its own ereader sales tripled year-over-year, something the $169.99/€169.99 Aura HD is expected to contribute to. It’s already up for preorder in the US and Europe, and will arrive in US and UK stores come April 25.
E-book readers are definitely a niche market, and it does not look as though it will grow to be a major force in the mobile consumer electronics market. While we have seen some names fall by the wayside over the years, Kobo still remains strong, and their latest e-book reader would be known as the Kobo Aura HD, which is an E-ink device that boasts of a 6.8-inch screen, and according to Kobo, the Aura HD offers the “highest-resolution display available in an e-reader today.”
The Kobo Aura HD is a premium e-book reader, and hence it is reflected in the $169.99 price point, where its Pearl E Ink display will carry a resolution of 1,440×1,080 pixels at 265dpi, which Kobo claims that the larger 6.8-inch screen size delivers “30 percent more reading surface and the closest experience to print-on-paper — showcasing text and high-resolution images beautifully.” It is powered by a 1GHz processor, where you can choose from Ivory, Espresso, and Onyx colors. Do not be put off by the 4GB of internal storage, since there is a microSD memory card slot that allows you to carry another 32GB worth of electronic tomes. With a battery life that has been rated to last for up to two months, traveling long distance is not going to be a problem with the Kobo Aura HD.
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When it comes to Android-powered tablets, the manufacturers behind this particular hardware genre are dime a dozen, and it can be pretty difficult picking an outstanding out of the crowd. Kobo is a name that some consumers might be familiar with, as they do have had 
E-book readers are definitely a niche market, and it does not look as though it will grow to be a major force in the mobile consumer electronics market. While we have seen some names fall by the wayside over the years, Kobo still remains strong, and their latest e-book reader would be known as the Kobo Aura HD, which is an E-ink device that boasts of a 6.8-inch screen, and according to Kobo, the Aura HD offers the “highest-resolution display available in an e-reader today.”
