Is the Sage Discontinued?

[ps67]

Here, in Italy, Sage is available for sale. € 299,99.

https://it.kobobooks.com/products/kobo-sage

[xyzzy_foo]

The Kobo Sage is readily available in Japan as well.

Kobo Sage :楽天Kobo電子書籍ストア
価格.com - 楽天 Kobo Sage 価格比較

By the way, looking at the price history on kakaku.com, you can see that the price went up by about 10,000 JPY in April. They probably raised the MSRP.

[DJUNGELSKOG]

It’s available here Benelux as well: https://tweakers.net/pricewatch/1750330/kobo-sage.html

[enuddleyarbl]

Since I had thought the Sage had gone permanently out of stock in the US back in April of 2025, I was going to post an anniversary update. But, I dug through the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine and it looks like it didn't go out of stock in the US until sometime between May 04 and May 12, 2025:

https://web.archive.org/web/20250512...ucts/kobo-sage

Oh, well. I was close.

[graycyn]

Originally Posted by enuddleyarbl

Since I had thought the Sage had gone permanently out of stock in the US back in April of 2025, I was going to post an anniversary update. But, I dug through the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine and it looks like it didn't go out of stock in the US until sometime between May 04 and May 12, 2025:

https://web.archive.org/web/20250512...ucts/kobo-sage

Oh, well. I was close.

All I can say is it was indeed a CLOSE CALL HERE ... I knew I wanted another Sage, but was holding off as long as I felt I could.

I ordered my backup Sage on May 13, 2025 from Amazon. I'm glad my brain said "Just do it."

[Dr. Drib]

I think they're all gone now from the places listed in all those previous links.

If someone knows differently, please post your current info.

[enuddleyarbl]

I'd love to know what Kobo was/is thinking by leaving a permanently out-of-stock eReader on their eReader page for just about a year now. I'm guessing that part of the rationale was because the Sage was available in other countries. But, now, it appears not to be. So, why is it still listed? And, of course, where's their replacement 8" eReader?

(and, here's a thread talking about the lack of 8" eReaders in general:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=371532
)

[Apollyon202]

Originally Posted by enuddleyarbl

I'd love to know what Kobo was/is thinking by leaving a permanently out-of-stock eReader on their eReader page for just about a year now. I'm guessing that part of the rationale was because the Sage was available in other countries. But, now, it appears not to be. So, why is it still listed? And, of course, where's their replacement 8" eReader?

My guesses are:

- huge stockpiles of colour readers they want to sell first
- E Ink display supply issues
- both

[Quoth]

No Kobo mono 7" or 8". IMO, the 2 most useful sizes.

[enuddleyarbl]

I started a Chat with Kobo again on this. Here are the relavant parts:

Me: Have you abandoned the 8" ereader market? Your Sage has been unavailable in the US since May of LAST year. I'm old and need an 8" ereader. But, even if I wanted to go down to 7", your Libra is only available in color (and I don't want that). I don't want to do it, but if you've given up on 8" ereaders, I'll have to try a different company.

Worthless LLM: We haven’t announced any exit from the 8" category. The Kobo Sage is still part of our current lineup and supported alongside other recent devices, which means it hasn’t been discontinued.
What you’re running into is availability. Some models can be out of stock in certain regions for extended periods due to demand or supply, and that can make it feel like they’re gone when they aren’t.
For 7", you’re right that the current Libra offering is the colour model, and we don’t have a separate black-and-white Libra listed right now.
Would you like me to check what options are currently available in your region or suggest the closest match based on what matters most to you?

Me: I'd like a real answer from a human.

Human: Thank you so much for your patience. Upon checking, we have not discontinued the Kobo Sage 8". It shows that under your region, the specific device 8" is currently sold out. Kobo Sage | Rakuten Kobo eReader Store United, we recommend you checking the website frequently for the new stocks but rest assured that we still sell the Kobo Sage 8"

Me: I've checked your website every day for over a year. It's always unavailable. You've obviously discontinued it. I'd suggest removing the entry from your ereader page.
It looks like I'll have to move to a different company. Thanks.

Human: I will be documenting this feedback. Thank you for your interest with the Kobo Sage and we apologize for the inconvenience. Rest assured though that we will be sending an email if we have already discontinued any devices

[JSWolf]

I've just done some searching and I cannot find any place to buy a new Kobo Sage in the US, CA, or UK.

[Aleron Ives]

Which company are you going to go with now? It seems 8" is declining in general and not just at Kobo. Onyx hasn't released any new 7.8" devices since 2023, and PocketBook hasn't release a BW 7.8" device since 2023, either (assuming Wikipedia product lineups are accurate).

[enuddleyarbl]

I think these corporations have been drinking their own Kool-Aid for too long. They seem to think we can't see through obvious corporate non-answer double-speak.

The problem is that even though I told them I'm going to have to look elsewhere for my e-reader hardware, there doesn't appear to be a new 8" non-color e-reader anywhere. AFAIK, the last 8" e-reader any company at all introduced was something like 2 years ago. Of the existing old-tyme 8-ish-inch stuff, the PocketBook InkPad 4 is probably the best. But, it was introduced over 3 years ago and, from what I can see, has about half the performance of the Kobo Sage (which is something like 5 years old now).

I've even considered tablets. But, it seems like only Apple makes decent tablets and I really don't want to join their walled garden (let alone if something like their Minis work with Calibre).

[Aleron Ives]

Yeah, I suspect that 8" is the least popular category of devices. If my vision were bad enough that a 7" device was no longer suitable, I don't think the extra inch would make enough difference to be worth it. I'd either just go straight to 10" or live with only fitting 50 words on screen at a time with my existing device.

[enuddleyarbl]

I'd looked at the Kobo Libra Colour 7" e-reader, but that loss of an inch and the color layer really worried me. Plus, since it's a bit over 2 years old now, I was wondering if there might be a newer version coming out with more acceptable colors (even though I don't want the color at all). But, then I looked at the specs for the PocketBook Era Light that came out recently and thought maybe that would be acceptable. Except, once again, the specs are about half what the older Kobo Libra has.

A bit frustrating.