Kobo is obviously thinking about its summer holidays as it’s just launched a new version of its waterproof e-reader the Aura H2O, saying it’s ‘just in time for the summer reading season’.
The new device allows booklovers to read in direct sunlight due to its anti-glare e-ink display and, at night-time, ComfortLight PRO reduces the blue-light spectrum.
The Kobo Aura H2O Edition 2 comes in black only and will be available in Kobo’s Canadian homeland for C$199.99 at www.kobo.com from May 22, with pre-orders open on May 15.
The device will also be available from May 22 in the US at $179.99, the UK at £149.99, Italy, France, the Netherlands, Spain, Belgium, Switzerland, Japan, and Turkey; from June in Sweden; from July in Australia, New Zealand, and Philippines; with Mexico and Brazil to follow later this year.
The device is waterproofed and the coating technology applied to the device’s interior allows it to be fully submerged without the need for port covers.
The e-reader has a 6.8-inch Carta e-ink touchscreen with a resolution of 265 ppi, 8Gb of storage and the Freescale SoloLite processor, with battery life claimed to be in weeks.
Kobo has always led the way with type settings on e-readers and TypeGenius offers many options, such as weight and sharpness settings and a choice of 50 font sizes and 11 font types. In addition, readers can adjust margins, highlight passages, write notes, or look up a word with the built-in dictionary.
Fourteen file formats are supported natively — EPUB, EPUB3, PDF, MOBI, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, TIFF, TXT, HTML, RTF, CBZ, CBR.
Rakuten Kobo CEO Michael Tamblyn says: ‘The new Kobo Aura H2O enables book lovers to read anywhere and everywhere they go — to make the most out of every day and while on their summer holidays. No splash, intentional or not, will dampen their reading experience. When I head out to enjoy the summer with my family, beach bags are always jam-packed with snacks, sunscreen, and countless other necessities, including books.’