Kobo is launching two new portable eBook readers. The $130 Kobo Glo has a light so that you can read eBooks on the E Ink display even when you’re in a dark room. The Kobo Mini‘s selling point is its small size and low price. It has a 5 inch display and an $80 price tag.
The new Kobo readers join the $200 Kobo Arc tablet which the company also introduced today. All three devices should be available for purchase soon.
Kobo Glo
The Kobo Glo has a 6 inch, 1024 x 768 pixel Pearl E Ink display with 16 shades of gray, 2GB of storage (only 1GB is actually available for content), and a microSD card slot for extra storage space.
Like most devices with E Ink displays, the Kobo Glo uses ambient light instead of a backlight. That means you can read outdoors or in a bright room.
But you can also turn on an adjustable light which shines a light at the screen, making it easier to read in the dark. The light level is adjustable, and it has its own on/off switch which is separate from the device’s power switch.
Aside from the power and light switches, there are no buttons — you navigate through the menus and eBooks using the Kobo Glo’s touchscreen.
Kobo says the new eReader runs for up to a month with the light off, and 55 hours of continuous use with the light turned on.
The eReader will be available in black, pink, blue, or silver designs. It measures 6.2″ x 4.5″ x 0.4″ and weighs about 6.5 ounces.
If you don’t need the light and want to save a few bucks, the original Kobo Touch is still available for $100.
Kobo Mini
Kobo’s least expensive eBook reader is also its smallest. It has a 5 inch touchscreen E Ink display and measures 5.3″ x 4″ x 0.4″ and weighs just 4.7 ounces.
The device is also a little slower than the Kobo Glo, featuring an 800 MHz processor instead of a 1 GHz chip. I suspect you won’t notice much difference if you’re just using these little guys to read books.
Kobo also skimped a bit on the battery — the tech specs for the Kobo Mini suggest it gets “over two weeks” of run time with WiFi turned off. That’s pretty good for a mobile device, but not so great for an eReader in 2012.
The device features 2GB of storage, including 1GB of user-accessible space. That’s enough for up to 1,000 eBooks. There’s no microSD card slot, so if you need more space than that, you’ll want to opt for a different eReader — or just delete some books from your device. You can always download them again from your Kobo account later.