Kindle rival drops to great low price at Argos and | Tech News

If you need a new e-reader and you thought you solely had the Amazon Kindle line up to select from, suppose again. Kobo makes glorious various units with great options that usually outdo Kindle, with aggressive costs to boot.

Now, one of the most recent Kobo fashions has seen a great price discount for Black Friday. The Kobo Libra Colour, the firm’s top-of-the-line color screen e-reader, is on sale for £179.99, a £30 discount on its £209.99 RRP, from Argos.

This makes it solely £20 more than the Kindle Paperwhite. If it have been my money, I’d go for the Kobo. I reviewed the Libra Colour when it got here out, and it has a color screen in addition to e-book library borrowing integration, two issues the Paperwhite line up doesn’t have for UK consumers.

The asymmetrical design permits the Libra Colour to have web page flip buttons, one thing no present Kindle has. This enables you to keep your thumbs off the touchscreen to skip pages with out obscuring what you’re studying, in addition to being on a bigger bezel that helps you maintain the machine one-handed.

The screen is a 7-inch color E Ink panel. It doesn’t show vivid colors such as you get on an LCD or OLED screen of a cellphone or pill, however that is the character of e-paper technology. The muted colors are nonetheless great, that means you’ll be able to view your library of ebook covers in eye-catching color, in addition to browse the Kobo store (when related to Wi-Fi) to select your subsequent learn.

The Kobo additionally has Bluetooth so you’ll be able to hear to audiobooks you buy or borrow. As talked about, the Libra Colour can join to your native library’s e-book and audiobook loan service thanks to a free service known as OverDrive. All you need is your library card to log in on the machine, and from there you’ll be able to browse your library’s assortment to borrow tor place holds on a whole lot of titles.

View the Kobo Libra Colour (black) at Argos

View the Kobo Libra Colour (white) at Argos

It’s a great method to save money on new books, borrowing them as an alternative of shopping for. You also can borrow magazines and different media if they’re out there, similar to comedian books and graphic novels that look infinitely higher on the color screen in contrast to a monochrome e-reader.

I’ve used the Kobo Libra Colour extensively as my primary e-reader when testing, and I consider it’s one of the best on the market. I’d choose it over any Kindle thanks to its glorious screen and design, in addition to the aforementioned OverDrive smarts. Kindles have OverDrive, however solely within the US, so Kobo wins in that space on these shores.

You even have integration with free learn later service Instapaper. This enables you to save articles you see in your cellphone, PC or pill into an app to learn them later. This can sync onto you Kobo, letting you learn articles in E Ink peace, away from distraction.

With 32GB storage, Kobo says you’ll be able to match tens of 1000’s of books on the Libra Colour, with room for up to 150 audiobooks. It can also be rated for weeks of battery life, although this relies on utilization. You charge it through USB-C, although there’s solely a cable within the box, no charger.

The Libra Colour is appropriate with the Kobo Stylus 2 (offered individually). Kobo’s software program permits you to annotate immediately onto e-books to make notes, and you’ll be able to spotlight in color. You also can create separate notebooks to use the machine as a digital pocket book.

There are cheaper Kindles and Kobos on the market to think about, however the Kobo Libra Colour for £179.99 is an glorious deal this Black Friday, and one I like to recommend to all devoted readers.