Review: The Kobo Aura e-Reader

Thanks to the wonderful people at Kobo, I was once again given the opportunity to test drive their newly released Kobo Aura e-Reader. I’ve had the reader for almost a month now, and I do believe I am finally ready to share my thoughts with you on this awesome little device.

Imagine my excitement when I received this awesome package in the mail!


I could hardly contain my excitement as I browsed through the basket.

As most of you know, I read… a lot. I’m always looking for ways to read on the go. My kids keep me busy with their activities, so being able to fit thousands of books onto a reader that will fit in my purse is a plus!  I really liked the size and weight of the Aura. It’s a tad bit smaller than the Aura HD that I test drove in the summer, but still big enough for reading to be enjoyable on. I don’t carry a large purse, and I was still able to slip the device in with the rest of my stuff, and my purse did not feel weighed down. The device fits very comfortably in my hands as well.

The Aura e-reader has many of the same features that I enjoyed on the Aura HD. I love that the text is sharp and clear. I could read out in the blazing sunshine with no problem, which is something that I am never able to do with my iPad mini. The device also has an amazing backlight for reading at night or in dark places. Also a plus, the light is soft, but still bright enough for me to see what I’m reading.  Another plus for this device is that it has slot for a Micro SD memory card, so when the device is full, you can add even more on a memory card! That is definitely an advantage for me.  This device also has a lot of really great features that many will find invaluable while they are reading.

As I mentioned above, I read a lot. I loaded this device with a few different types of advance reader books that I am currently reading, and the device did well with most of them. The only type I had an issue with was PDF files. This is more of a publisher issue really, so this will not even be an issue for most readers.

Overall, I found reading on the Kobo Aura e-reader to be a very pleasant experience. While the device doesn’t have all the bells and whistles on it that a tablet may have, it is great as an e-ink device. If you are like me, and are easily distracted by apps and other things while trying to read on a tablet, this device is just for you!

Please visit the Kobo store for more information on this Kobo Aura e-Reader.

Happy Reading!

**I used this device very gently during my test drive, and it’s still good as new. I’ll be giving the device away in December as part of my Christmas Giveaway here on the blog. Check back for your chance to win this Kobo Aura!



Available from Kobo.


Features and Specs:

An elegant reading experience:
Kobo Aura's beautiful 6" ClarityScreen and a high res, edge-to-edge low-glare Pearl E Ink screen provides a print on paper reading experience, even in direct sunlight.

The latest E Ink screen technology allows you to transition between pages without those annoying flashes and now with pinch to zoom, you'll catch every detail when zooming in to PDFs and select books.

Stylish and portable:
A beautiful marriage of form and function, your Kobo Aura was designed to fit ergonomically in your hand. Lightweight and thin, you can read for hours comfortably and stylishly - it's also available in pink!

Carry up to 3,000 eBooks with you on 4GB of on-board memory. Not enough space? Expand with a microSD card and carry up to 30,000 eBooks! With a battery life of over two months, you just might be able to get through them all.

Kobo Reading Life™:
Read. Discover. Collect. Share.

Welcome to Kobo Reading Life™ - an exclusive reading experience for the best way to read, collect titles, discover your next great title, and share it with others.


Technical Specs:

Display:
6" High-res Pearl E Ink ClarityScreen with low-flash waveform; 1014 x 758, 16 level grey scale

Device Size:
150 x 114 x 8.1 mm

Weight:
174 g

Connectivity:
Wi Fi 802.11 b/g/n and Micro USB

Processor:
1 GHz

Light:
ComfortLight; the best, most even, built in front-light

Buttons:
Power on/off, light on/off

Storage:
4 GB
Option to expand up to 32 GB with a microSD card

Battery:
Over 2 months*

Colors:
Textured Black, Pink

File Formats:
eBooks: EPUB, PDF, and MOBI
Images:JPEG, GIF, PNG, and TIFF
Text: TXT, HTML, XHTML, and RTF
Comic Books: CBZ and CBR
Supports ePub and Adobe DRM. Read books borrowed from your public library

Languages:
English, French, German, Spanish, Dutch, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese, Portuguese, Japanese

Setup:
Set-up Kobo Aura in just a few simple steps from your computer or directly from your Kobo Aura using Wi Fi.

* Based on 30 minutes of reading a day with ComfortLight turned on or off, and Wi Fi turned off.


(All stats and features are from Kobo.com)