Rakuten Kobo Clara HD E-Reader review: Superior to the Kindle Paperwhite, except for one thing - poormaneptich

Rakuten Kobo's Clara HD e-reader ($130 from Rakuten Kobo) costs $10 less than its main competitor, the A.D.-free variation of the Kindle Paperwhite (reviewed here and available, of flow from, from Amazon). The casual observer could be forgiven for misinterpretation same for the separate, as they share similar dimensions and the same expose size.

But Kobo's cooked something with the Clara HD that Amazon hasn't daunted to do with its Kindle Paperwhite in some time: innovate. Boasting a number of needful features that the current multiplication Paperwhite privy't match, the Clara HD is a superior twist in almost every way.

Whether you should pip out—or ditch your Conflagrate Paperwhite for it—is a more complex question that we'll worm with as you hold open reading.

Note: This review is part of our  roundup of the best e-readers . Go under there for details about competitive products you said it we tested them.

Hardware

The Clara HD definitely wins along hardware. With its trim dimensions (6.2 x 4.33 x 0.3 inches) and 5.85-ounce heave up, the Clara HD is a featherweight compared to the Kindle Paperwhite. Add to that the textured plastic back, and the Clara HD is a comfy hold over, even off one-one-handed, for long periods of time.

The Clara HD packs a half a dozen-inch, 300-ppi Carta E-Ink display, just like the Paperwhite does. While reading the same book happening some devices concluded the course of a week, I didn't note any difference in the sharpness of textbook. The Lapplander can't be said, however, for images: the Clara HD displays photos at a much higher resolving power.

The Clara HD's front lighting bests the Paperwhite too. Its eight white LEDs provide more consistent illumination than the latest-generation Kindle Paperwhite's front lighting can. What's more, the Paperwhite is entirely capable of light its show with white light. Not so the Clara HD. Apt the propensity for white- and blue-spectrum light to keep on folk awake at night, Kobo's orange ComfortLight PRO front lighting is a gain ground for anyone who wants to wind down for the nighttime by reading in be intimate.

Seamus Bellamy/IDG

The Clara HD's presentation can constitute illuminated by white or soothing orange front lighting.

Buried inside of the Kobo Clara HD is a 1GHz Freescale Solo Low-cal processor and 512MB of RAM. For an E-Ink device designed to serve aweigh text, this is a pretty bouncy chipset. Arsenic for store, you'll find 8GB of trice memory under the hood. That's twice as much as a standard Kindle Paperwhite has onboard.

Kobo makes no straight-from-the-shoulder claims Eastern Samoa to the bombardment life of the Clara HD. However, with its Wi-Fi turned off and its lighting set to no less than 70 percentage I found, aft approximately two hours of reading a day, spread over a seven-day period, the e-reader's battery was tranquilize sitting at around 60-percent capacity.

You should know that unlike Kobo's recent Glory One and Aureole H2O Edition 2 e-readers, the Clara HD is not waterproof. With the Clara HD's relatively abject price, this lack of water resistance shouldn't be a surprise. A Kindle Paperwhite won't outlive a swim, either.

How to use the Kobo Clara HD

Seamus Bellamy/IDG

Kobo's onscreen UI is responsive and easy to use of goods and services.

The Clara HD can handle EPUB, EPUB3, PDF, MOBI, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, TIFF, TXT, HTML and RTF files.

As with Kobo's other new e-readers, the Clara HD comes with only one bodily button, for power. Page turns, as well as all other input, are made by tapping the Clara HD's display. The bevels around the twist's display are wide enough that mistakenly touch a button takes work, just not sol wide that turning a page 1-handed while reading is a job.

The e-reader's onscreen user interface is spartan and easy to navigate. The top of its home screen is lined with a drop-down menu that provides access to your library, Pocket articles (more thereon momently), and a Settings menu. There are icons for managing the device's backlighting, WI-Fi, and battery life history, and options for searching your device's memory surgery syncing your books bought from the Kobo Store to the cloud.

Speaking of the Kobo Store, you'd scarcely know information technology's thither. Unequal Virago's subsidized, advertising-rich interface, the Clara HD's UI doesn't thrust new book suggestions down your throat. If you want to buy a book, the Kobo Stash awa is accessible via a link at the bottom of your twist's home page.

In addition to reading books, it's also potential to use up articles saved to a Pocket story with the Clara HD. Kobo's Pocket port is and then slick that it makes a Provok's power to synchronise easygoing from an Instapaper look archaic by comparability.

Unluckily, the way that the Clara HD handles e-books borrowed from a topical anaestheti library, via Rakuten's OverDrive Serving, leaves much to be desired. Borrowed books must be side-loaded, in the form of an Adobe Digital Version, from a computer. The method for using the synoptical service on a Kindle is much to a lesser extent harrowing. Considering that Rakuten owns both OverDrive and Kobo, this is inexcusable.

Kobo Clara HD vs. Kindle: Information technology's the content

There's just one big problem with the Clara HD: the Kindle. Amazon's Kindle is the command e-reader in Northmost America because Amazon dominates the ebook and digital periodical securities industry. The company allows its users to share their content with their family and loan ebooks to friends. Amazon River Prime members are offered a option of free books to study on a monthly basis.

The Kobo Store doesn't approximate to touching any this. You can forget about buying magazines in the Kobo Store, too.

That aforesaid, whatever masses want nothing to do with Amazon, and Kobo's selection of books is growing all day. Chose your ebook seller consequently.

Should you buy a Kobo Clara HD?

If IT were retributory about the computer hardware, this would be an sluttish decision. Despite costing only a few bucks much than Amazon's Elicit Paperwhite, the Rakuten Kobo Clara HD is a superior e-reader in all but all elbow room.

But Kobo can't compete with Amazon's expansive bookstore offerings, period. If you buns find what you deficiency to scan in the Kobo Store, you'll make up happy with your purchase. If, however, you have an extensive Kindle ebook library, an Amazon Prime subscription, or an addiction to magazines, you'd be better served by a Kindle, such arsenic the Paperwhite that competes closely with the Clara HD.

Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/402241/rakuten-kobo-clara-hd-e-reader-review.html

Posted by: poormaneptich.blogspot.com

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