Rakuten has a trio of new Kobo ereaders, including the company’s first two with color displays. On Wednesday, the company revealed the $220 Kobo Libra Colour and $150 Clara Colour alongside the monochrome $130 Clara BW. You can preorder them today, ahead of their April 30 launch.display, which should have a noticeable improvement with 16 levels of grayscale, 4,096 colors and 30 percent better color saturation than E Ink’s last-gen tech.
Rakuten says the Clara Colour and Clara BW can last up to 53 days on a charge, but that’s with half an hour of reading per day, the brightness set at a mere 10 percent and WiFi / Bluetooth off. All three devices have ComfortLightPro for automatic blue-light adjustment. They have an IPX8 water resistance rating, making them suitable for poolside or bathtime reading. The ereaders use recycled and ocean-bound plastics in their build materials, and Rakuten has partnered with iFixit for self-repairs.
You can buy separate covers with built-in stands for all three new devices. The Libra Colour has a standard $30 SleepCover and a $40 NoteBook SleepCover with a magnetic stylus slot. The Clara Colour and Clara BW have $30 SleepCovers and a cheaper $20 Basic SleepCover.starting today. The Kobo Libra Colour costs $220, the Clara Colour is priced at $150 and the monochrome Clara BW runs $130. All three devices arrive on April 30.