Review: Kobo Libra Colour - getting to know the device (part 1)

As regular readers may know, I have had a Kobo eReader for a number of years (if you're struggling with slow page turns I have the post for you!). When Kobo announced their colour eInk devices I was curious, and the prices weren't too high either. In this, part one, I'm going to talk about the Kobo Libra Colour from its unboxing and setup with an overview of some of the features. In part two I'll cover the reading experience, before covering the writing features in part three.

For those that get my blog posts by email - I've published all three of these posts at the same time but you'll only receive an email for part one. I didn't want to spam you!!

My purchases

I debated between the Kobo Clara Colour, which is more similar in size to my existing Kobo Aura, and the Kobo Libra Colour for a while. In the end I decided I wanted the ability to annotate books and use the digital notebooks, so I purchased:

• Kobo Libra Colour
• Kobo Libra Colour Notebook SleepCover
• Kobo Stylus 2
• Third party manufactured screen protector (matte finish)

Packaging

I'm pleased to say that recyclable packaging is becoming more common for technology vendors, and my Kobo Libra Colour came in completely cardboard packaging. The only plastic seems to be the temporary screen protector on the Kobo itself, so this is good news for the environment 🙂. I quite like the style of the packaging too, following the Kobo Libra Colour's theme, although you'll notice the Kobo Stylus 2 is different - the Stylus 2 can be used on multiple Kobo models.

Opening the Libra's box, the leaf theme continued and there was a helpful tab to make it easy to lift the device out without tipping the box. The coloured leaves that you can see on the Libra's screen aren't part of the temporary screen protector - those are on the screen itself. eInk only uses power while changing pages, so this would have been the last image on screen after the unit was manufactured.

Setup

Getting my Libra ready for use was easy, with the device taking me through the process. I didn't take photographs of each step, but after choosing a language I joined the Libra to my Wi-Fi. After that I was given the option to scan a QR code to login to the device. This was much easier than using the eInk screen and keyboard to type a long password, as the keyboard takes time to react. Setup also downloaded and installed the latest firmware.

Once I was signed in my books began to download to the device. Any that I'd started reading correctly showed my progress through the book - expected given Kobo sync your progress across devices. Note that side-loaded books on my Kobo Aura do not automatically transfer - I needed to side-load those again (this was expected).

Libra Colour SleepCover

The SleepCover seems well made and sturdy, although I don't think I'd want to take the Libra out of it very often (and there's no need to). To open you fold the cover back on itself, which is still comfortable to hold. The inside has a soft, sort of baize (the material that covers a snooker table), feel. My only concern with it is how much any ink[1] or mess on my hands would transfer to it over time. I'm not known to have messy hands, but daily life still happens!!

As the name may suggest, when you close the SleepCover, the Libra goes to sleep to preserve battery life. Opening the cover will wake the Libra from sleep. Note that if you've shut the Libra down you'll need to power it on via the power button.

Comparison to my earlier Kobo

Well, the Libra is quite a bit bigger than my Kobo Aura, as you can see in the photo below. Weight wise, with both in their cases, the Aura weighs 268g with my new Liba weighing 362g. Despite the extra weight, the Libra is still comfortable in the hand, helped by the wider side bezel that has a slight upward curve.

When reading text on the two devices it's clear that the Aura has a darker black, while the Libra text isn't as dark. This gives the impression that the text isn't as sharp too.

Rotation

I really like the fact that when you turn the Libra it adjusts the display to match its new orientation. You can use the Libra portrait or landscape, with the buttons at the left, right, top, or bottom as you prefer. By default the Libra is in auto rotate mode, but as I lie on my side and am used to not rotating books to be landscape, I have my device locked to portrait mode. Rotating the device still allows me to have the buttons on the left or the right though, depending on the hand I'm holding it in.

Buttons

On the thicker bezel there are two buttons, one to move you in each direction - forward or back - through a book. You can customise which button moves further into a book (when in portrait mode, I use the lower button as I'm "moving down the pages", other people use the upper button to "increase the page number"). Pleasingly, given the buttons have no markings, when you rotate the Libra the buttons adjust accordingly so you only have to remember the button's relative layout (top / bottom or left / right).

My wife also has a Kobo Aura and I needed to fix something on there recently. It felt very strange not having buttons to change pages, so clearly I got used to the buttons very quickly. Years ago my Sony PRS-505 had buttons too.

If you're reading next to someone, say in bed at night, the page changing buttons do make a quiet "click" sound when pressed. This isn't likely to be enough to wake someone, but if you're concerned you can still use the Libra's touch screen to change page instead, Sadly you don't appear to be able to disable the "swipe to change page" functionality.

On the back of the unit you'll find a round power button. I've mentioned how the SleepCover folds back on itself, and when you do that it wakes the Libra up. This also covers the power button, and given the power button is by the hinge edge, to press it you'd need to open the cover almost all the way. This has annoyed me since I bought the unit, until I was writing this review and accidentally pressed one of the change page buttons. My Libra was asleep, but on pressing a button it woke up. I was very pleased to find out about that! It might have been mentioned in the manual - haven't read it...

Stability

I've managed to crash my Libra a few times, most unfortunately when showing it off to a friend. As yet I've not worked out a pattern to the crashes. I could understand a crash in a side-loaded book, that I'd converted to KePub myself, as perhaps the conversion wasn't quite right. Confusingly though I've also managed to crash the device when no books have been open, just on the home screen, or when opening / using notebooks (no data seemed to have been lost). If the device crashes while working in a notebook you lose the things you wrote immediately before the crash (a couple of lines for me).

At some point I'm hoping that Kobo will release a firmware update to address this stability issue, but since the initial update I've not seen any yet (at the time of writing I'm running version 4.41.23145 (637199291b, 10/29/24)).

What about the "screen door effect"?

During my research on Kobo's colour offerings, I came across people complaining about the "screen door effect". Opinion was divided, and it seemed to very much be a case of "you can either cope with it, or you cannot". This effect is caused by the colour eInk process, and means there's a feint dotted or diagonal line pattern across the screen. I wasn't able to get a clear photograph of that unfortunately.

Personally I notice the effect, but I'm not too bothered by it. Certainly the rest of the device makes me happy enough to keep it.

Backlight brightness & natural light mode

I set my backlight level dependant on the time of day or the ambient light. Generally, I run the brightness at 40% during the day / with good ambient lighting, and at 3% when reading at night. For comparison, on my Aura I'd generally set the backlight to 1% all the time.

Science has shown that too much blue light is bad for humans, leading to potential problems sleeping. The Libra has a natural light setting that automatically transitions the backlight towards more red during the day. I have my device set to automatically make adjustments based on a 22:30 bedtime, and if I've woken up the device later in the day I can watch it stagger the change over about 30 seconds. It would be cooler if that was a smooth transition, and it feels like performance takes a hit while the colour is adjusted.

Colours

If you're expecting photo-quality colour reproduction you'll be disappointed. That said, as this is an eInk screen and not a colour LED panel it's important to note that such an expectation is misplaced - this technology doesn't work that way.

I'd describe the colours on the Libra Colour as muted. These are not rich colours, and as you dim the screen brightness they do get harder to tell apart - something that's more relevant in notebooks and that I'll discuss in part three.

It is nice to be able to see book covers in colour, and colour in books is shown too. Colour is also used to highlight menu selections, and is done in a subtle but pleasing way.

Battery charge levels

Even through I run the screen brightness at 40% for daytime reading, I still only need to charge the Libra roughly once every two weeks. Obviously the amount I use the device means that will vary, but I'm quite pleased with the battery performance. Power is saved by the Wi-Fi not being on all the time, which I imagine helps a lot. Also, an advantage of eInk screens is that power is only used when the image changes (aside from the backlight, which I could turn off altogether of course).

On to part two

As this post is getting very long, head to part two to read about the reading experience on the Kobo Libra Colour.

Banner image: Photograph of part of the Kobo Libra Colour box.

[1] From fountain pen filling - not from the eInk screen!!