Kobo Clara Colour e-reader review: Charming, colorful, and cheap

I admit to not loving the Kobo Clara Colour when I first got my hands on it. It felt like a generic e-reader with an uninspiring design and inexpensive build. But the more I used it, the more the Clara Colour grew on me. I appreciated the compact, lightweight form factor and crisp E ink display.

It’s not the best e-reader I’ve ever used, but it will be the one I bring out on beach trips and vacations over the summer. And while I’m still not sold on spending extra on a color display, the Clara Colour does enough to charm its way into your pocket.

Price and availability

The Kobo Clara Colour will be available through Kobo for $150 starting on April 30th. It will ship with 16GB of internal storage in one color: black. Kobo also offers additional accessories, such as the SleepCover that was sent along for testing. It costs $30 and does a good job acting as a case and a stand for your Clara Colour.

Design and display

Cheap but not flimsy

At first glance, the Kobo Clara Colour won’t turn heads. Kobo didn’t take many chances with the design, giving the Clara Colour a classic e-reader look. Like the larger Kobo Elipsa 2E, it’s constructed from recycled plastics, including ocean-bound plastics, enhancing Kobo’s eco-friendly approach. And while the plastic build might not feel premium in the hand, it’s sturdy enough that I don’t feel like a single drop will break it.

A plastic build also has another benefit — weight. The Clara Colour is only 174g, making it ideal for daily carry. I found myself sliding it into my back pocket without worry. You’ll find a single power button on the back of the Kobo e-reader, with only a USB-C charging port on the device’s bottom — you won’t find any expandable storage on the Clara.

Some Rakuten branding gives the plastic back some texture, making the tablet easier to hold one-handed. It’s also IPX8-rated, so splashes at the beach or taking it out in the rain should be no cause for concern.

The star of the show is the Clara Colour’s 6-inch Kaleido 3 display, which has a resolution of 1448 x 1072. As with other color e-readers, there is a drop-off in quality between black-and-white content and color images, 300ppi for black-and-white versus 150ppi for color. It’s important to frame any discussion about the Kobo’s color in the right context — it’s the cheapest color E ink display on the market, adding versatility to the Clara Colour you’d normally pay a lot more for.

That said, the colors aren’t the most saturated or accurate. I discovered turning the backlight off and using the Clara Colour in natural light improves the colors, as the ComfortLight Pro backlighting system tends to wash them out.

However, subpar color is a current limitation for all e-readers, not a knock on Kobo’s quality. It’s unfair to compare the hue reproduction on the Clara Colour to devices with OLEDs and LCDs. Even still, the Clara Colour adds life to manga and comics that you wouldn’t get in black-and-white.

All that aside, don’t let the lackluster color deter you from what is otherwise a fantastic reading experience. Text looks amazing on the 6-inch display, and the Clara Colour’s lightweight makes it an ideal companion for long reading sessions in bed or short chapter hops on the train.

And when you take the Clara Colour outdoors, it comes alive, with natural sunlight radiating off the display. With the backlighting off, you can appreciate how crisp and clear text is reproduced on the Clara Colour. At its core, the Kobo e-reader delivers an experience worth the price of admission.

Software, features, and battery life

Simple yet effective

Elegant software is at your fingertips when you need it and almost invisible when you don’t, and Kobo did a fine job giving the Clara Colour clean and intuitive software. Controls are simple, with on-display sliders handling brightness and color temperature. The interface is straightforward; you’re greeted with a basic e-reader shell that gives you access to your library and prompts you to explore the Kobo store. Navigation is smooth and responsive, and I enjoyed the useful tools Kobo makes available while reading.

The color display is handy if you want to highlight some text in a book. Four colors allow you to group and organize your highlights, giving you flexibility. When you’re unfamiliar with a word, you can hold down and get a full definition, with options to search the word on Wikipedia or Google with a single touch.

It all works well and enhances the reading experience. It may seem barebones at first, but as the great Montgomery Scott once said, “The more they overthink the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain.” When you’re using an e-reader, less is more.

Unlike other e-readers I’ve reviewed, the Clara Colour can access the Kobo store — Rakuten’s e-book outlet. It’s enjoyable to buy new titles directly on the device or browse on the website and have them sent to my Clara Colour. For $8 a month ($10 adds audiobooks), you can get Kobo Plus, making select titles available to download without additional cost.

I found it difficult to find Kobo Plus titles other than what Rakuten recommends, but with a bit of searching, you can find some relatively new and interesting releases.

Even though the Clara Colour doesn’t feature speakers or a headphone jack, it can play audiobooks through Bluetooth. Books sounded great, and my wireless earbuds paired up in seconds. I would’ve loved a headphone jack for easier use, but it’s still great to have the extra versatility of listening to audiobooks on the go.

Kobo includes Overdrive built-in. If you’re unfamiliar with Overdrive, it’s Libby’s parent company. It allows you to access e-books and audiobooks from your local participating library. You’ll also access thousands of additional titles with your library card number in minutes. It’s a fantastic way to get extra reading materials without spending hundreds of dollars on content.

In addition, Pocket integration allows users to sync saved articles right to their Clara Colour. While Pocket doesn’t make it easy to find articles, downloading to your Kobo device couldn’t be smoother; simply save an article and sync, and Kobo’s software will take care of the rest.

Kobo claims the Clara Colour can last over 40 days on a single charge, and while I could see that number reached, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi access limit you to around 30 days. It’s still plenty for an e-reader, and Kobo does an excellent job getting the most out of the Clara Colour’s 2,000mAh battery. Standby drain is also non-existent, so you won’t be surprised by a dead battery after a few days of not using your Clara Colour.

Competition

What else is out there?

It’s hard not to recommend the Kobo Clara Black and White edition for $100. It offers many of the features of the Clara Colour for those who don’t need a color display. If you’re not into manga, comics, or graphic novels, the base Kobo Clara saves you money while providing an excellent reading experience.

It’s hard to mention e-readers without talking about a Kindle. Amazon’s base Kindle costs $100 and enters you into the Amazon ecosystem. Kindle Unlimited is similar to Kobo Plus, with a monthly fee granting you access to additional titles. If you’re more familiar with Amazon, the Kindle might be worth looking into, but I like the extra functionality you get with the Clara Colour.

Should you buy it?

Kobo did a fantastic job with the Clara Colour. It’s not the most exciting design, and I recommend thinking hard about whether you need to spend extra on a color display, but the overall reading experience is undeniably enjoyable. If you’ve never used a Kobo before, it’s a great time to try something different and discover how charming the Clara Colour can be.