Kobo’s first water and dust-resistant eReader will be available in the US, Canada, and parts of Europe starting October 1st for $180, £140, or €180, depending on your region. It’ll be available for preorder starting September 1st from Kobo.com.
Update: You can now pre-order the Kobo Aura H20 for $180.
As expected, the device is called the Kobo Aura H2O, and it features a high-resolution E Ink display and an IP67 certified design which means you can dunk it in up to 3.3 feet of water for up to a half hour.
The Kobo Aura H2O is an eReader for folks who like to read in the bathtub, at the beach, in the rain, or anywhere else that normal gadgets (or books) could easily be ruined.
The eReader has a 6.8 inch display with 265 dots per inch, a new E Ink Carta display, and 4GB of built-in storage plus a microSD card slot for up to 32GB of removable storage.
It’s powered by 1 GHz processor and Kobo promises up to 2 months of battery life. There’s also a front-light that you can use to read in dark or dim environments.
Kobo already has a 6.8 inch eReader called the Kobo Aura HD. That model normally sells for $170, but it’s currently on sale for $20 off. Now that there’s a new model with an updated display and waterproof case on the way for just $10 higher than the list price for the Aura HD, don’t be surprised if that temporary price cut becomes permanent.
While Kobo’s eReaders aren’t exactly as common as Amazon Kindle devices, they’re solid little gadgets for reading eBooks — especially if you prefer to the EPUB format, which Amazon doesn’t support.
via Gizmodo and The Digital Reader
now I can read with confidence when I am doing #2!
They missed an opportunity not including some water themed titles.
“The Old Man and the Sea”, “Robinson Crusoe”, “Captain Nemo”, “The Odyssey”, all public domain and therefore free to include 🙂
Exactly!