Kobo Libra Colour eReader, 7” Color E Ink, Waterproof, White

I have been looking for a digital notebook for a while, but the price tag on other products was a bit out of my budget. When I saw a review for this project I was pretty excited. I am an avid reader, and I love ereaders. I was interested in trying something other than my kindle. So this seemed perfect, and e reader and an e notebook. It has been fantastic. I love making notes in the books that I'm reading, and I read exclusively on the kobo now. It's of course very portable. So far it's perfectly reliable, as long as I sync it from the home page regularly. It took a while to learn to use the kindle, and then it took a while to learn to use the Kobo, but now that I'm used to it it's very easy to use. The battery life is good. I love the slight color on the screen, but it's definitely muted. The notebook feature is perfect. You can make folders to organize the different notebooks. Its simple, and not overwhelming. I'm happy with the accessories I chose: random case with a stylus strap, and a meta stylus. I wanted to use it for a while before I reviewed it. I use it to journal every morning primarily because it helps for me to actually write instead of type, and I read maybe 10 hours a week or so on it. I've had this for a little less than six months, and it's still enjoyable to use.

EDIT: Previously, I mistakenly stated that this has no security, but it does in the form of a PIN. I've updated my review to reflect that, and bumped it up to 5 stars This is my first eReader so I have no comparison of performance compared to others. I'll list the cons first in case there are any deal-breakers for people, then they can stop reading and look for something else. Cons: -No SD/microSD slot -No NAS drive option -No headphone jack -Will get you addicted to reading Neutrals: -Looks like something from old Star Trek Pros: -Clear, readable text -Decent Colour -Readable in blinding sunlight -Super lightweight -Great battery life -Supports Google Drive, Overdrive & Dropbox -Probably won't shatter when you drop it Despite a few drawbacks, I still greatly enjoy this eReader. I don't foresee myself needing more than 32GB of storage for books, as I'm not an audio book guy (yet), and even so, I can transfer anything from my laptop to the Libra anyway. But still, I do have a NAS drive and microSD cards lying around, so being able to use those would've been a nice feature for peace of mind and feeling like I didn't overspend on tech stuff (lol). Maybe one day we'll get an OTA update that let's us use NAS drives. Now for the cool stuff! I wasn't completely sold on an eReader since I already have a tablet, but I decided to buy one anyway to see what the fuss is about, and I ultimately still love this thing. It's incredibly light and doesn't tire my hands like a tablet or a book, and being able to fit so many books onto something so small still wows me. Dang it, I just love technology! Syncing this with Google Drive just makes things even better. I've never dropped this thing but it looks a lot more durable than a glass phone, or even a tablet, and I'm confident it can survive a few drops. If you're someone who frequently drops stuff, I'd still buy a case for the aesthetic, if anything- this looks like it was designed by the same people who designed Star Trek Voyager computers. But maybe that's the case for all eReaders, no pun intended. Thanks to my allergies, I dislike going outside, but I did bother to test it in direct, blinding, sunburnable light and the brightness still makes things more than readable. If you're someone who likes to pretend they're a White Lotus character and reads on the beach with sunglasses and a wide-brimmed hat, this can be a part of your prop arsenal. Personally, I like to read in bed before I go to sleep and I haven't dropped it on my face yet. As far as colour is concerned, it doesn't look as nice as my tablet or phone, but maybe that's asking too much. Apparently, colour eReaders are a mindblowing new thing so it might wow you. I haven't fully converted and sub'd to their book shop, so I can't comment on the experience there; I still have my Kindle Unlimited sub still active and may also buy a Kindle to see how the experience compares. I do notice that the Kindle app on my tablet tries to sell me new books hardcore and is way more in my face than this shop's. Despite that, I might end up with two book subs since it's current_Year and everyone has 10 streaming subs anyway. Carrying around two eReaders is definitely not as physically demanding as carrying two thick books. If you have the expendable income, why not have the best of both worlds? In short, this Libra Colour is gas. I've reconnected to my nerdy childhood and I'm reading tonnes more thanks to it. For anyone who loves reading, this is an amazing experience with ridiculous battery life compared to a phone or tablet, and won't strain your eyes. 5 Ryan Reynolds'!

One full day in and I've already finished a book on it, so take that as a compliment to the screen and the form factor. The problem: you can't run Bluetooth without Wi-Fi. This isn't just my unit — Kobo's own support pages say so, and I didn't know it when I bought it. My whole library is sideloaded, so I don't need Wi-Fi at all. I wanted Bluetooth for a page-turner remote to read hands-free in bed, because my hands get ice cold. The battery dropped 50% in a single day. That's not the "weeks of battery" this is sold on. A firmware update did fix a related bug where both radios switched themselves back on after I'd turned them off, but there's still no way to run Bluetooth alone. So I'll probably fall back on the page-turner I already own, the kind with a little tapper that sticks to the screen and physically taps it — no Bluetooth needed. Clunky, but I'd rather have weeks of battery than a day. Two things I had to figure out myself: Using a MagSafe case or PopSocket ring? Go to Energy saving and privacy and uncheck "Automatically sleep and wake," or the magnet puts the device to sleep and it stays asleep. Reading stats are buried in settings instead of on the home screen of the book you're reading. What I like: the page-turn buttons are excellent — first e-reader I've enjoyed holding. Amazon should bring back a button model to compete. Sideloading works out of the box, which is why I bought it. I may still mod it with KOReader later for better stats, but it's nice that I don't have to. (Kobo's new StoryGraph integration doesn't track sideloaded books, so it's useless to me anyway.) Three stars. A mechanical screen-tapper being smarter than the device's own Bluetooth tells you where this falls short. Update I figured out how to toggle on Bluetooth without Wifi turning on. With Nickel Menu. So now 4 stars if you side load and don't need Wifi to turn on with it draining your battery. I really was hoping out of the box I would not want or need to mod it but here we are. Search youtube & reddit for help if you are not a techie. But its way easier than the Kindle. :)

Came to this from a kindle and love it! The appearance and reliability is so great. Easy to repair and affordable for all it can do! I love the readability and portability for the size! The battery life has also far exceeded my expectations as I can read for about 30mins to an hour once a day for a full week without having to worry about charging it.

First disclosure: I am very invested in the Amazon ecosystem and own thousands of ebooks through there as well as own many of their reading devices like the Paperwhite Signature Edition, Kindle Oasis, Kindle Basic, Kindle Scribe, and multiple Kindle Fires. I was tempted to buy the Kobo Libra Colour because I loved the form factor of how it looks like a Kindle Oasis (discontinued), but in white with page-turning buttons and using e-ink color. The day I saw the Kindle Colorsoft announced and saw that it did not have page turning buttons, and that it was basically a Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition with color e-ink- I ordered the Kobo Libra Colour. I was a bit tortured over this because it's a totally different ecosystem and I have no intention of ordering books from the Kobo Store. I also have no intention of going through the computer gymnastics of converting my purchased kindle books into files that can be read on the Kobo. I have too many, and I love/prefer my Amazon reading devices anyway. I justified my purchase of the Kobo Libra Colour with the fact that it has Libby/OverDrive integrated right on the device so I can borrow my library books right there. I also had a bunch of other ebook files I transferred from my computer to the Kobo for offline reading. Lastly, I sometimes get protected DRM ebook files to read and review that can't be read on a Kindle, so I'm able to drag them onto the Kobo using Adobe Digital Editions on my computer. So this Kobo device has very limited use for me, since I can already have Libby/OverDrive send my borrowed ebooks to my Kindle. This was a luxury buy simply because I'm an ereader collector and it looked like a beautiful reading device with page turning buttons. After using it I struggled with the possibility of returning it for a refund, since it was totally unnecessary for my needs. However, after decorating the back of it with some bookish stickers and a clear case, and using it for my free public library borrows (after all, I can see the bookcovers in color) I decided to keep it. I like the fact that you can simply run your finger up and down the left side of the screen to adjust the brightness. I have the Natural Light setting on automatic so that it gradually includes "warmth" lighting as the evening sets in. I don't like the extra steps I have to go through to get to "Dark Mode" with the black background for night reads. You have to open up settings and go to a page 2 in Settings to select Dark Mode. On the kindles you very simply swipe down from the top of the screen and tap the icon "Dark Mode". The color on the Kobo Libra Colour is muted and washed out, but I expected that because it's an e-ink device, not an android tablet or iPad. The screen is quite lovely for reading. I don't give a hoot about comics or manga- I just want to read words. I love the white plastic casing of the Kobo Libra Colour. It's not just white, when you look closely it's a kind of frosted white that glows. It's a very pretty looking device. I think I'll keep it! *UPDATE: 5 months later and somehow there are two scratches on the screen. This is made from recycled materials, and perhaps the screen isn't that impervious to scratches. I had a clear back case and stickers on this, but switched over to a proper book-like case to protect it. A lovely device that I enjoy but not as much as my Kindles.

I absolutely love my Kobo, but I will say getting used to the Kobo environment is a little bit of a learning curve coming from kindle. First of all if you really enjoy Kindle insights that show how long you’ve read a book, when you read the book, how long it took you to read it throughout the month, What days you read versus what days you did not read, etc, this may not be the device for you because the software/environment is just not there yet. I wish I had known that before purchasing. I do miss those insights from Kindle, but I will say I enjoy the feel and look and hardware of the Kobo more than the Kindle Oasis. I also obviously love that there is color, and highlighting and taking notes with the pen has become something I can’t live without. The battery life is super impressive, I read a lot, and I barely ever have to charge this thing, I’d say it’s about the same as the Kindle oasis. You can upload news articles with the pocket app and read them on your kobo as well as library books which I think is super cool and was easy to figure out how to do, I don’t really think that Kindle allows you to do that, but I may be wrong. The brightness on the kobo is a little bit different than the Kindle, I think that it might come off as a little bit of a harsher light, but I do love that it’s adjustable by just dragging your finger up and down the side of the screen, which is so handy. I will say I think that Kindle has a better Kindle unlimited selection versus kobo plus subscription if you’re into fantasy romance novels. I can’t really speak to other genres, but I have noticed that a lot of the books I wanted to read were not available with my subscription, unfortunately, but there is a pretty good reward points system with the Kobo at least. The Kobo is definitely lighter than the Kindle Oasis, because it is made from recycled plastic instead of Metal. If that is important to you, you are making the right choice going with Kobo.

Probably one of the best Kindle competitors on the market. As someone who doesn't want to give Amazon absolutely all of my information and money (even though I'm sure they still do somehow), all of my e-reader research led me to Kobo. The e-reader itself is great quality. Buttons are clicky, screen ppi is great, device isn't too heavy. It is a plastic device, and in my hands it was a little bit slippery, but that was fixed with a case I was going to put on it anyway. Its incredibly easy to use, whether you want to use the Kobo Store or just load your own ebooks. Has great integrations with multiple cloud solutions, like Google Drive, so loading new ebooks without a computer right in front of you is a breeze. Probably the biggest downside to this device is the color reproduction. It is actually surprisingly good, but color ereaders are never going to capture the same thing as an actual comic book or graphic novel in front of you. So I'm not going to take any stars off for this since it has more to do with the genre of color ereaders as opposed to this one in particular. The only big downside to going with a non-kindle device is the lack of the Kindle store. For better or for worse, Amazon has an absolute choke hold on most publishing rights to both ebooks and audio books. If you're a non-kindle user like me, Kindle just has so many more exclusives that its really hard to compete. With some know how (and an internet connection), you can get around that fairly easily, but for someone who doesn't want to sail the seas, depending on what you want out of an e-reader, a Kindle might be a better choice. That really pains me to admit it, but that's more a complaint towards Amazon that it is a review of this Kobo. Hopefully one day Amazon will be sued for anti trust and anti consumerism to fix this, but until then, the best way to fight them is by using our wallets. Yes I see the irony of this review literally being on Amazon after complaining about Amazon.

The ereader I was using before this was an old hand-me down kindle.. It finally died so I decided to get this to treat myself :) This device is leagues a head of my previous one! I mainly read mangas and romance novels and I was honestly looking into getting a kindle oasis, but I decided I liked the customizability of the os much more on this device. The screen is super crisp and I really like the fact it has a screen warmth setting that changes throughout the day. The buttons are very responsive and work great as well. The backlight works great when I want to read at night, even at the 3% brightness it is still plenty bright and readable. The biggest selling point of this ereader was the colored screen and the annotation capabilities. While I think both work fine I was a little disappointed in the colored screen. I've seen some picture online of the screen showing book covers and they all make the screen look very vibrant and nice.. I'm sure it's the same for everyone but looking at the colors in person they do appear a little washed out. Luckily for me that wasn't to big of a let down since at the end of the day this is still an e-ink display. I purchased a 3rd party stylus for this since the kobo one was a little expensive. It worked fine and did what its supposed to. I realized after having it for a few days that it was unnecessary for me because I don't find myself reaching to write something while I'm reading. If anything I would just highlight quotes from the books, but you don't need the stylus to use the highlighting feature. There is also a notebook section that allows you to just take notes or do journalling. This wasn't something I tried extensively, but it functioned fine. The device has a bunch of built in. templates and presets you could use straight out the box. Importing books to this is also super super easy and honestly doesn't take that long. You can upload epubs or pdfs directly to your kobo wirelessly through dropbox, google drive, or an online website (all this can be done with just your phone). It also has a overdrive section built into the UI if you borrow ebooks from the library (I used to on my kindle, but you would have to take extra steps and it wasn't as streamlined). Also importing books from a laptop as simple as just drag and drop! Unfortunately the storage isn't expandable like previous models that used a micro sd card, so if you mainly read manga or comics on this you'll fun out of storage kinda quickly. Only giving this 4 stars because of the storage limitations, but other than that I have no complaints and so far everything works great!

Está súper bonita llegó en buen estado y es súper práctica, pensé que era más grande pero el tamaño es perfecto 💯

Lo amo, ya llevo poco más de un año con él y a mí se me facilita más leer así que en libro, me gusta el ajuste de brillo y tonalidad para la noche. Es ligero, no pesa y me encanta. Se golpeó un poco y eso me pasa por no comprarle su funda desde un inicio, así que si lo compras, si o si cómprale una carcasa.

Pasé de un Kindle Oasis ( descontinuado). Y me he adaptado muy bien a este lector. Adaptas la luz, más fría o más cálida. Lo del subrayado a colores es lindo. También compré el lapiz aunque no lo vi tan necesario porque no hago anotaciones y creo que si cambias el zoom de la página como que se pierde o cambia de lugar lo que anotaste. Tip: compra la funda original tipo “origami” para que puedas pararlo en una mesa etc. Gran lector :)

Fue una excelente compra, ya qué el lector soporta varios tipos de formatos de lectura y lo más genial qué se puede subrayar, anotar, etc.

El kobo esta increíble y desde que lo tengo leo mucho más y el botón para cambiar de hoja es super cómodo. Lo único que si esta mal en mi opinión es que la mitad de sus funciones dependen de que les des más dinero: si quieres que mida tus lecturas con todas sus funciones los libros tienen que ser comprados de su tienda (o tener el formato para kobo) y las notas, los resaltados y las libretas solo funcionan si tienes una pluma de ellos. Aun así vale la pena y es mucho mejor opción qué otras tabletas para libros sin color.