An excellent eBook reader that
deserves to see off the Paperwhite - but the price is too high
No manufacturer of eBook readers has come
closer to matching Amazon with the quality of its devices than Kobo, and it
aims to snatch the lead with its latest model, the Aura HD. Aimed at
“passionate booklovers”. It’s marketed as the Porsche of eBook readers, and at
first glance it looks like one of those rare devices that matches the marketing
boasts.
Its silky-smooth finish and solid
construction impress immediately. The Aura HD’s finely buffed surface feels
more like velvety frosted glass than plastic, and build quality is superb;
twist the chassis manfully and there’s barely a creak. Even the USB cable is
designed to reinforce the overall perception of quality, with a posh braided
sheath instead of the usual drab black plastic. It makes the Amazon Kindle
Paperwhite and its siblings feel positively humdrum.
Kobo
Aura HD
The shape of the Aura HD is unusual.
Resembling a folded piece of paper, three subtle creases in the rear panel give
you something to grip while reading, your fingers resting securely on the
inward crease at the center and curling around the sides. It works brilliantly,
and, with every edge and corner honed to a soft curve, the Aura HD is supremely
comfortable to hold.
The use of such quality materials sets the
Kobo Aura HD apart from its rivals, but that isn’t the end of its talents. It
also sports a 6.8in screen - larger than that of most eBook readers - at a
higher resolution of 1,080 x 1,440. This gives a pixel density of 265ppi -
higher than the 212ppi of the Paperwhite, which has a resolution of 758 x 1,024
squeezed into its 6in touchscreen.
Remarkably, the Aura HD’s screen is on a
par with the Retina display of the iPad 3 and iPad 4. That extra resolution
doesn’t make a huge difference compared to the Paperwhite, but if you hold the
two displays around a foot away from your face, you’ll be able to tell them
apart; the Aura HD is much crisper than the 600 x 800 Kindle, however.
Kobo’s
iOS, Android and desktop apps, meanwhile, offer a similar experience to
Amazon’s Whispersync
No flagship eBook reader would be complete
without built-in illumination, and the Aura HD obliges with a light that’s at
least the match of the Paperwhite. The brightness is adjustable, and only the
faintest hint of patchiness is evident along the bottom edge of the screen.
Unlike the Paperwhite, which has its light on permanently, the Aura allows you
to toggle the light on and off via a button along its top edge.
Perhaps due to the larger screen, the Aura
HD is on the chunky side. At 242g, it’s 29g heavier than its rival, and less
practical as a result. However, it makes up for the extra heft with the
inclusion of a microSD slot for expanding the 4GB of internal memory by 32GB.
We’re also fans of Kobo’s revamped UI.
Divided into tiles of various sizes and proportions, it displays thumbnails of
books you’re currently reading, stats, and books you’ve finished recently.
Links at the bottom of the page lead to the library, the store (via single-band
802.11n Wi-Fi), and the device’s Reading Life section, which displays detailed
reading stats.
It’s all very quick and simple to use. The
Aura HD takes as little as 0.6 seconds to refresh the screen, and we found the
store both streamlined and responsive. Prices in the Kobo bookstore tend to be
a little higher than in the Kindle store, but not prohibitively so, and there’s
plenty of content to choose from.
It’s
all very quick and simple to use
If you don’t find what you’re looking for
in the Kobo store, the Aura HD supports Adobe Digital Editions, so you can add
books from other stores and digital libraries. It handles other file types with
aplomb, too. We loaded our usual selection of eBook reader test files onto it,
including graphics-heavy PDFs, and we were able to zoom and pan around pages
with a freedom that simply isn’t available to Kindle users.
Kobo’s iOS, Android and desktop apps,
meanwhile, offer a similar experience to Amazon’s Whispersync. As long as
you’re connected to Wi-Fi when you finish reading, it’s possible to switch from
the Aura HD to tablet or phone and have the book open at the page you last
read. There’s even a selection of apps and games, including a sketchpad, a
chess game and a web browser. The latter is good for only casual browsing,
though, due to E Ink’s comparatively slow refresh rate. The Kobo Aura HD is a
mighty fine device and is as luxurious as eBook readers come. The large, HD
display is a pleasure to read on, and the front light is as bright and even as
the Kindle Paperwhite’s. The one fly in the ointment is the price: at $224, it
costs more than most eBook readers on the market, and it isn’t much cheaper
than a compact tablet. Had it been $32 or $48 cheaper, we’d have recommended it
without hesitation. As it is, it falls just short.
HD
display is a pleasure to read on, and the front light is as bright and even as
the Kindle Paperwhite’s
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Specifications
·
6.8in touchscreen with front light
·
1,080 x 1,440 resolution
·
4GB memory
·
802.11bgn Wi-Fi
·
1yr RTB warranty
·
128x 12x 176mm (WDH)
·
242g
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