Kobo is launching a new eBook reader that has a Kindle Voyage-style display for about $70 less than the price of an Amazon Kindle Voyage. In fact, it costs just a little more than Amazon’s cheaper Kindle Paperwhite.
The Kobo Glo HD is a $130 eReader that launches May 1st.
We first spotted the Kobo Glo HD a little early, but now it’s official and, as expected, the new model is cheaper than Kobo’s Aura HD and Aura H20 devices which feature 6.8 inch high-res displays.
The eReader features a 6 inch, 1448 x 1072 pixel E Ink Carte touchscreen display with 300 pixels per inch and Kobo’s ComfortLight illumination for reading in the dark.
The Kobo Glo HD has 4GB of storage but unlike earlier Kobo devices it has no microSD card slot for removable storage. It measures 6.2″ x 4.5″ x 0.36″ and weighs about 6 ounces.
The device supports 15 different file formats including EPUB and allows you to read material in 11 different fonts and 48 different font sizes.
Kobo says the Kobo Glo HD will be available in the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand starting May 1st. It’ll hit select European countries in late May and early June.
via Kobo
I wonder if the screen is recessed, or flush, as with the Kindle Voyage. I definitely prefer flush.
I didn’t think Kobo would jump onto the “no expansion card” bandwagon. The H2O will definitely remain a better deal, even if the device is a bit larger and heavier.
I have an H2O and I’m not really that bothered about not having an expansion card, the way I read is to upload a selection of books and then read and remove them so I’ve never yet needed to add a card for more space.
I keep novels on the reader itself, while my SD is packed with things like comics and letter-sized PDFs. But since the software doesn’t have any kind of folder/file browsing, I haven’t been using it for those purposes very often.
Makes sense, the difference being I tend to use my iPad mini for comics and PDFs so I only run out of space on there. I really do wish the Kobo supported folders as well as metadata, would make some things far easier