A symbol or notation-based way to add notes you can reference later (like Sony’s stars) would be nice, but they’re just getting started. Nothing fancy, just a few ways to directly mark up your books and documents. I found on the Elipsa that the functionality is … well, functional. Using a stylus on a device this size has never seemed practical to me, but I can certainly see it might be useful for an editor or something who likes to mark up their books. Audio quality was fine, apart from the usual small glitches that happen with accelerated playback. You can speed up and slow down playback, skip forward and backward, and it keeps your place if you disconnect or shut it down. Syncing a pair was as easy as it is on any other device, and from there I listened to a bit of one of the included books from Kobo’s store (you can’t load your own, for now) and it was pretty much as expected.

The audiobooks are a new thing for Kobo and the new devices have Bluetooth connections to make it possible - no speakers. All of this to say it’s fine but don’t expect iPad-like fluidity out of these or any e-reader. But when loading a whole new part of the book I found the old Forma is actually faster. Once in a book, page turns took about the same amount of time as older devices, which is to say nearly no time at all even when skipping a few at a time. Operation is much the same as previous devices, though the upgraded internals mean these are a bit quicker to wake, navigate and reorientate when you flip them. Both look excellent, to be clear, but the new screen is an improvement. Comparing the older Forma to the Sage (as they have very similar builds) I was surprised to find that the new screen really does make a difference the contrast is noticeably improved and the Forma’s letters seemed slightly grey next to the much darker Sage’s. Both readers have 300 ppi, which is more than enough to make the text look sharp. The most visible new feature is the screen, which is the latest Carta 1200 E Ink display. At $260 and $180 the Sage and Libra 2 aren’t cheap, though I think at least the latter is worth considering if you use an e-reader regularly and like audiobooks and Pocket. The main differences between the two new readers is size most of the other features are the same. The devices are successors to the Forma and Libra H2O, the forma of which (forgive me) has been my daily driver since I cracked the screen of my beloved Boox Poke 3. But the new capabilities may be worth the upgrade, and the Libra 2 especially makes for an attractive little package. The latest pair of e-readers from Kobo provide a modest but noticeable upgrade to the display, stylus support and Bluetooth for listening to audiobooks but take a step down in build quality from the admirable Forma.

Kindle oasis vs kobo aura h2o 2