After Kobo launched three new ereaders on the finish of final month, after which discontinued their hottest and finest promoting mannequin earlier this month with out releasing a direct substitute, their present line of ereaders is reasonably complicated now and doesn’t make a lot sense once you take a look at it as a complete.
Some individuals didn’t need to imagine it once I stated the Kobo Libra 2 was being discontinued, however there’s no doubting that truth now that Kobo has eliminated the Libra 2 from their major ereader product web page. There are nonetheless just a few left on Amazon, nevertheless it’s promoting for $10 above MSRP.
Now the Libra mannequin is simply obtainable with a coloration E Ink display screen within the type of the Libra Color, and a few individuals don’t like that and desire a common black and white display screen for studying textual content due to the notable drawbacks inherent with coloration E Ink know-how.
On one hand Kobo is simply giving clients the choice to purchase a coloration mannequin in terms of the 7″ Libra, however then in terms of 6″ fashions they provide three completely different variations with black and white screens and one with coloration.
To make issues much more complicated, the three black and white fashions are all priced inside $30 of one another.
At $109, the Kobo Nia ought to have been discontinued years in the past. It’s outdated and it lacks a bunch of upgrades that come on the brand new Kobo Clara BW, so why are they nonetheless promoting it?
For an additional $20, the Kobo Clara BW provides waterproofing, an upgraded display screen with higher distinction and better decision, a heat frontlight, it has double the space for storing, it provides dual-band WiFi help and Bluetooth for listening to audiobooks, it provides Darkish Mode, it has a quicker processor, it has a USB-C port as a substitute of the older microUSB port, and the brand new Kobos are all person repairable, not like the Nia.
There’s additionally the truth that Kobo continues to be promoting the earlier technology Clara 2E alongside the brand new Clara BW, they usually’re nonetheless charging full worth for the Clara 2E at $139 regardless of the very fact the brand new mannequin prices $10 much less. The 2 fashions are almost similar, however the Clara BW has a more recent Carta 1300 E Ink display screen, which is meant to be higher nevertheless it’s actually not. It’s a bit quicker however the black ink really appears to be like darker on the Clara 2E’s Carta 1200 display screen.
Then there’s the ten″ Kobo Elipsa and Kobo Elipsa 2E. Once more, each are just about similar, count on the 2E provides a heat frontlight. The Elipsa 2E was launched over a 12 months in the past, so why is Kobo nonetheless promoting the earlier technology Elipsa as effectively?
Most firms section out older fashions when a brand new model is launched, however apparently Kobo solely does that to fashions that folks actually like, just like the Libra 2.
