Kobo is currently taking pre-orders for the Clara 2e. This is a brand new e-reader that is made of 80% recycled plastic and has a number of new features. It is waterproof, which makes it the first six inch reader to have an IPX 8 rating, so it is good for 60 minutes submerged in fresh water. You can use it in the bathtub or at the beach. There is a new USB-C port and it has Bluetooth, so users can buy and listen to audiobooks, a new audiobook store is integrated into the Kobo Bookstore. Finally, it has an E INK Carta 1200 display panel, which should increase responsiveness by 30% and page turn speed enhanced by 25%. This might seriously compete against the Nook Glowlight 4 and Amazon Kindle Paperwhite.

The Kobo Clara 2e features a six inch E INK Carta 1200 display panel with a resolution of 1448×1072 with 300 PPI. The screen is not flush with the bezel, instead it has a small dip and does not have any glass. The exposed e-paper will be perfect for reading outdoors, since it will not reflect light. You will be able to read at night via the ComfortLight PRO adjustable brightness and color temperature system. The color scheme is deep ocean blue and is made of 85 per cent recycled plastic exterior— including 10 per cent ocean bound plastic, like water bottles or CDs.

Underneath the hood is a 1 GHZ dual core processor and 512MB of RAM. There is 16GB to house ebooks and audiobooks. You will be able to connect to the internet via WiFi 802.11 ac/b/g/n, and you can listen to audiobooks exclusively with Bluetooth. This is the first Clara model to have USB-C, which is users for transferring digital content from your computer to the reader or use for charging. Read in the bathtub or the beach, without worry about water, since it has IPX 8, which should be good for around 60 minutes in fresh water. It is powered by a 1,500 mAh battery and the dimensions are 112.05 x 159.02 x 8.66 mm and weighs 171 g.

The Kobo Clara HD 2e supports 10 fonts and over 50 sizes. You can buy books from the Kobo Store or sideload in your own, since it has native support for so many different formats, such as EPUB, EPUB3, PDF, CBZ, CBR FlePub and MOBI. User can’t load in their own audiobooks, content can only be purchased from the Kobo Store. The sheer amount of supported formats destroys the Kindle and Nook, which only support a few different ones.

The price of the Clara 2e is also really compelling. It will retail for $159 CAD or $129 USD. The big question, will you buy this e-reader?

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