New Kobo coming? Which?

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by chrisridd

The different dates are strange. How can it take over a month to get to the FCC?

Perhaps the confidentiality request letter was written well before the test information was completed and the data package was sent to the FCC.

[chrisridd]

Originally Posted by RowdyRuff

Another FCC filing for NOIKBN367. Guessing it's for a chassis colour variant...

My first thought was that this was timed to extend the non disclosure for the model about to run out. But that can't be right, this is a different model number.

My next thought was like you - maybe a black version and a white version or something? But didn't the black and white Libra 2s have the same model number?

Kobo is clearly aiming to release more devices than Boox this year ;-)

[DNSB]

At this time, my best guess is that the Nia, Libra 2 and Sage are being replaced. The Clara 2E and the Elipsa 2 are the two newest so are the least likely to be replaced. This may be wrong with eInk producing a 10.3" 300DPI panel (all of .1" larger than the Scribe's 10.2" 300DPI panel) which is available for others to use so a Elipsa 3 might be possible.

One oddity is that while the Scribe panel is stated to to 10.2" Carta 1200 300DPI with 2480×1860 resolution, 2480/300 is 8.266" while 1860/300 is 6.20. 8.266 squared plus 6.2 squared is 106.777. The square root of 106.777 is 10.333 so it would appear that the Scribe display is actually a hair over 300DPI.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by DNSB

One oddity is that while the Scribe panel is stated to to 10.2" Carta 1200 300DPI with 2480×1860 resolution, 2480/300 is 8.266" while 1860/300 is 6.20. 8.266 squared plus 6.2 squared is 106.777. The square root of 106.777 is 10.333 so it would appear that the Scribe display is actually a hair over 300DPI.

or is really 10.3 Inch but masked.

[DNSB]

Or they rounded 304DPI down to 300DPI?

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Or they rounded 304DPI down to 300DPI?

I don't know as I don't have one to measure. I nearly bought one.

[rantanplan]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Or they rounded 304DPI down to 300DPI?

300ppi just sounds nicer I guess.

[Iamsodown]

If you had to choose between buying the Libra 2 now or waiting for the Libra 3, which would you choose?

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Iamsodown

If you had to choose between buying the Libra 2 now or waiting for the Libra 3, which would you choose?

I would wait, but of course there's no guarantee that one of the new models will be the Libra 3.

[Iamsodown]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

I would wait, but of course there's no guarantee that one of the new models will be the Libra 3.

Yeah, at the moment I have no ereader, but physical books are still a thing. I read through this whole thread, but I don’t have any experience with ereaders, so I don’t really know how massive the update could be.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Iamsodown

Yeah, at the moment I have no ereader, but physical books are still a thing. I read through this whole thread, but I don’t have any experience with ereaders, so I don’t really know how massive the update could be.

No one knows, until Kobo officially announces the new reader. This whole thread is just pure speculation (aside from the fact that something new IS coming this year).

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Iamsodown

If you had to choose between buying the Libra 2 now or waiting for the Libra 3, which would you choose?

My guess is September before we find out.

If I was maybe going to buy a new Reader and my current one was still OK enough, I'd wait.

[twowheels]

If I had no eReader I'd just buy a current model. The changes from year to year are so minimal that I really doubt it'll be a groundbreaking change. My wife still uses her 13 year old Kindle 3 (later called the Kindle Keyboard), though recently she started using my old hand-me-down 11+ year old first-gen Kindle Paperwhite. The difference between those and my Kobo Clara HD is not huge other than the improved front-light and slightly higher resolution, but the newest readers like the Clara 2E and other currently sold models are even better already, but so little that I've not bothered to upgrade.

I mean, you've already got:

Really super long battery life, crisp text, fast enough page turns, good front-lighting, water resistance, USB-C... what else do you really want? Color isn't going to be a viable option for a while (definitely not in this round of releases), and for just reading books it's not really a big deal to not have color.

So, unless you have a very specific requirement that isn't "read long-form books", I think the current offerings are perfect and will be something you can enjoy for 10 years easily.


EDIT: Here come the dozens of responses about needing an SD card slot to hold 50 years worth of reading materials...

[Iamsodown]

Thank you all. I just pulled the trigger on a Kobo Libra 2. I guess I need to stop worrying about the release state of products. The time spent worrying about unimportant stuff should be spent elsewhere.

Also, should I buy the Libra Sleepcover? It seems to be very chonky.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Iamsodown

Yeah, at the moment I have no ereader, but physical books are still a thing. I read through this whole thread, but I don’t have any experience with ereaders, so I don’t really know how massive the update could be.

For the most part, ereaders are a pretty mature technology so changes are more likely to be incremental. For several years now, the Next Big Thing for ereaders was supposed to be a colour display but so far, the eInk displays either have poor colour (Kaleido 3 is like reading a faded comic) or are incredibly slow (Gallery 3/ACeP can take up to 1.5 seconds to write a page) but I suspect that none of the first two Kobo models announced (N428 and N365) are liable to be replacements for existing models while the N367 is more of a wildcard).

The incremental improvements are likely in the areas of better battery life, Carta 1350 displays with slightly higher contrast and speed, etc.

As for the Libra 2 sleepcover, I prefer the Kobo ones since they tend to have fewer issues and are available on launch. With 3rd party covers, I've seen some gripes about magnet placement so the Kobo doesn't sleep but most of the third party covers are pretty decent quality.