Verdict
Pros
Cons
Key Features
Introduction
The Kobo Clara BW may be the most sensitive buy among the current craw of tocopherol - readers . It is not the cheapest , but cater the best cattle ranch of features among its entree - tier peer , for many shoppers .
These include water resistance and an E Ink Carta 1300 screen . Unlike theKindle 2024 , the Kobo Clara BW also has bake - in supporting for subroutine library Bible loaning , through Overdrive . While the Kindle is a touch cheaper at its stock price , the Clara BW has several of the upgrades found in the more expensiveKindle Paperwhite , minus the full - flat display designing and larger screen .
That last part is one of the key reasons not to buy a Clara BW . 6 - inch e - readers are great for sticking in a coat pocket , but sometimes that extra place just feel better on the eyes . And colour E Ink , leave out in the Clara BW ?
While Kobo makes a colour e - reader for just a little more money , the Clara Colour and theLibra Colour , a page of text edition will actually look slimly better on the Clara BW thanks to the current state of color versus black and white E Ink . It ’s one to see , but is n’t good in every respect .
Design
The Clara BW is one of Kobo ’s more pragmatic , less flashy lector . That means a raised charge plate projection screen moulding rather than a flat , loaded display surface .
It ’s also a 6 - inch screen reader . These are modest enough to fit in a coating pocket if you do n’t use a bulky pillowcase .
By the standard of earphone , the Kobo Clara BW does not feel all that dense or expensive . modest weight matters more in a gadget you are probable to end up holding one - handed , though , potentially for hours at a fourth dimension .
Unlike the soft finish of Amazon ’s Kindle range , the Clara BW has a contoured texture on the back for supererogatory bag .
It also has excellentIPX8water resistance , matching the more expensive Kindle Paperwhite . This level of water resistance testing does n’t account for high temperature or the use of bath bombs and bubble bath . But it ’s distinctly intended for the job . “ Bring your books to the tub or the beach , ” reads the Kobo web site .
I ’d commend get under one’s skin a vitrine , particularly if you are going to take the Kobo Clara BW anywhere near Baroness Dudevant . While E Ink screens are famously dauntless , they still have shaping top layer that can easy be scratched . They just do n’t tend to self - destruct on impact like liquid crystal display will often do .
Screen
The Kobo Clara BW CRT screen is a real highlighting . It lacks just two thing of the most expensive e - lecturer : gravid size and colour due east Ink .
This is a 6 - inch Carta 1300 E Ink panel , one of a high enough resoluteness that even get your orb up to the surface does n’t make the microcapsules that make up E Ink evident . It ’s a 1448 x 1072 result dialog box , not that it ’s worth getting work up about pixel counts in the same way as you might with a phone or tablet .
Kobo ’s use of up - to - particular date Carta 1300 tech also assist with fast Thomas Nelson Page turns and limit ghosting if you choose to make the gore refresh only every 10 pages or every chapter — there are controls for this in the preferences menu .
Some wish to get worked up about the direct contrast of various generations of E Ink . Having shift between more than 10 e - reader over the last calendar month and variety , I do n’t call up it ’s worth thinking abouttoomuch .
While Carta 1300 is meant to have improved contrast , with deeper blackness , it ’s all so reliant on context . For example , the Clara BW ’s blacks in the Dark style are perceptually improved by the exercise of dark grey , rather than saturated mordant shell plastic .
The appearance of the white and black-market outer space are also steer by the front light stage setting . bare-ass E Ink dividing line matters most if you ’ll sometimes use the due east - reader with the screen spark completely off , something I never do these day . I do think it ’s worth note the “ white ” of a Clara BW is going to be much less grey / dark than that of a Clara Colour .
Kobo gives the Clara BW an advantage over the basic Kindle here too . The screen door light has variable colour temperature , the idea being you’re able to reduce the low-spirited light content at night , to attempt to avoid it bear on your rest .
Much like a Kindle Paperwhite , the Clara BW has a agenda function , allow you jell the time at which it submit a turn for the orange . I have n’t found the need to use this agenda , and have been devolve asleep reading reader for years . But the temperature control is still great in the means it lets you choose the base tone . head at least a little towards the warmer ending lets you make the E Ink panel more like that of a paperback .
There are two other missing parts , other than the colour vitamin E Ink or surplus - large size already bring up . Some e - reader have motorcar smartness , but here you have to vary the tier manually . There ’s also no financial support for Kobo ’s note - taking stylus , which ships with the Elipsa 2E and can be used with the Libra series .
you may doodle in the Sketch Pad miniskirt app , make - in , but it is extremely introductory and , in my opinion , not deserving using .
Features
The Kobo Clara BW arguably thrum its nearest Kindle rival for computer hardware , but software ? That ’s a number more tricky .
As a day - to - 24-hour interval Kindle user , I see there are more bargains to be found on the Kindle Store . for sure , Kobo has sale and a Daily Deal , but I have work up quite a to - interpret pile just by browse Amazon ’s store on a Kindle . There ’s tons of stuff on sales event at any one point , and I find it well-off to graze than on Kobo .
The Kobo Clara BW mint back with some very significant advantage . My personal favourite , the software has integrated support for Overdrive , a organization used by lots of libraries for ebook and audiobook lease .
Such Quran can be rented directly through the Clara BW ’s interface , which is large . Some rubric , include graphical novels , can only be channel over with the avail of Adobe Digital Editions DRM software . That ’s a pain , but the Clara BW is far from the well room to take in graphic novels anyway . Too modest , too monochrome .
And while the Clara BW supports audiobooks , rain buckets to wireless headphones or a Bluetooth speaker , these ca n’t be rented from Overdrive .
aboriginal file support for ebooks is skilful , though . EPUB , Mobi and PDF are among the 15 supported format . you could just puff and degenerate data file to the 16 GB internal computer storage when connected to a PC or Mac . A little over 12 GB of that space is loose to habituate .
Kobo Plus sit at the other end of the spectrum to an on - personal computer digital subroutine library . This is a subscription that provides inexhaustible access to a depository library of ebooks and audiobooks . But it ’s not the intact Kobo library — fit in to the company it ’s home to more than 1.5 million books , more than 100,000 audiobooks .
It ’s £ 8.99 a month , or £ 11.99 with audiobooks let in too . It ’s going to be frustrative if Plus does n’t have what you desire — just as with Kindle Unlimited .
There are plenty of routes to capacity with a Kobo Clara BW . One you may not have regard is its Pocket desegregation . This is a political program that lets you save articles , ordinarily on your phone , to read later .
Now you may save them on your speech sound , and study them later on your due east - lector . You just involve some Wi - Fi memory access to sync .
More important , the Kobo Clara BW offers enceinte control over font size , letting you see a resilient prevue as you utilise the pinch gesture to alter it ( there are other methods too should this seem fiddly ) . There are 13 fonts , lots of additional page layout customisations , and you’re able to even side charge additional fount .
Kobo says the Clara BW can last an unusually specific 53 days between charges . This link up to more careful use than most people will indulge in , mind — just 10 % screen brightness and the Bluetooth and Wi - Fi radios switched off , with 30 minutes of reading clock time a day .
However , with real - human race use the perceptual experience is still it lasts everlastingly between top - ups . I ’ve read a couple of Quran on it already on just a portion of a undivided charge . And the 1500mAh electric battery capacity is also importantly higher than that of a 2024 Kindle , reckon to be somewhere in the region of 1040 - 1100mAh .
Latest deals
Should you buy it?
The Clara BW has all the key features the introductory Kindle lacks , including colour temperature control , next - gen E Ink technical school and water resistance . This realize it one of the good buy in term of monetary value versus techy substance .
This is a 6 - inch atomic number 99 - reader , and some of you may prefer a more spacious 7 - inch role model like the Kobo Libra orKindle Paperwhite . It ’s not color either , as the name suggest , although the benefits are limited in these smaller tocopherol - lector .
Final Thoughts
The Kobo Clara BW is not thebest e - readeror the most exciting in the Kobo line - up , but it is one of the most hardheaded . It ’s Kobo ’s cheapest model and yet still has more advanced features like varying colour temperature and water impedance .
These justify the special you pay over theKindle 2024 , and built - in library ebook rentals can help you claw back those toll .
Should you pay extra for a colour E Ink in theKobo Libra Colour ? It ’s certainly beguiling , but consider the special color depth of current E Ink panels , and how they have worse aboriginal contrast than the Clara BW ’s Carta 1300 covert .
Trusted Score
FAQs
Yes , although the ereader use the Qaeda chopine , Overdrive , rather than the Libby app .
It has excellent IPX8 weewee resistance .
It can dally audiobooks with the aid of a Bluetooth loudspeaker or headphones , but has no loudspeaker system of its own .
