Stylus support on one and Bluetooth on both – the Kobo Sage and Kobo Libra 2 could give the Kindles a run for their money.
Kobo – the brand behind some of the best ereaders available – isn’t sitting still. Barely six months after unveiling the productivity-oriented Kobo Elipsa, there are now two more ereaders joining the ranks. The company has just announced that the Kobo Sage and the Kobo Libra 2 are now available to pre-order directly from the maker, and will be on shelves starting October 19. The Sage and Libra 2 follow in the footsteps of the Kobo Forma and Kobo Libra H2O, respectively, and would seem to indicate that the asymmetrical design that was introduced in their forebears has been a winner for Kobo. We’re generally big fans, as it means there’s a nice large area to grip and hold onto, with no risk of accidentally tapping the screen. They’re the very first Kobo ereaders to come with Bluetooth support, meaning Kobo fans will finally be able to pair a set of wireless headphones with the devices to listen to audiobooks. This feature has been available on the Kindles for a while now, so it’s good to see Kobo finally catching up with Amazon. Kobo has also updated the USB port on its new devices, finally ditching the decrepit Micro-B socket for USB-C for battery charging and transferring files. With the addition of Bluetooth, Kobo’s new Libra 2 is going to be a much better alternative to the Amazon Kindle Oasis than the first-gen Libra H2O, especially since the new version now also comes with a whopping 32GB of storage. Everything else that we loved about the Kobo Libra H2O has been brought over to the Libra 2, including the 7-inch E Ink display with its 300ppi resolution, asymmetrical design and IPX8 certification for waterproofing. Priced at $179.99 / £159.99 / AU$279.99 at launch, the Libra 2 is only $10 / £10 / AU$30 more than the Libra H2O’s launch price, and a lot cheaper than the 8GB Kindle Oasis’ $249.
