Sitting firmly in the middle

What do you look for in a premium e-reader? Maybe it’s ultra-high E ink refresh rates, enough storage for thousands of titles, or onboard speakers to play audiobooks. Personally, I like to see integrations that make use easier, no E ink ghosting when at least turning pages (I don’t complain about the ghosting when I’m using a volume slider or quickly typing on a keyboard), and a battery I don’t have to think about charging more than once or twice a month.

Kobo’s established history of impressing me means I came into using the Sage with high hopes. It’s not the brand’s highest-level e-reader, but as a member of the upper-mid-level range, the Sage is full of strengths and weaknesses.

Price, availability, and specs

The Kobo Sage retails for $270 and is widely available from Kobo, Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart. It’s currently on sale for $240 through Kobo.

What’s good about the Kobo Sage?

Integrated Libby, wireless audiobook listening, and lots of screen real estate

The Sage supports dual-band Wi-Fi connectivity, a feature I appreciate for faster book downloading. Its E ink pixel density, at 300 ppi, is about the best you can get right now. The Sage modestly improves upon the Kobo Libra 2’s resolution, producing richer, sharper E ink output. The newly flush screen modernizes the Sage’s look and protects it against crumb and dust build-up along the edges.

Its physical page-turning buttons are snappy and responsive, and the refresh rate left little to be desired — no complaints about laggy E ink or ghosting, largely thanks to the improved-upon processor in the Sage, nearly twice as powerful as the Libra 2’s.

The Kobo Sage is lightweight and easy to hold. Its 8-inch screen puts it on the border of where this is an easy e-reader to carry around, and this is a full-fledged notebook I’m trying to stuff into my pocket meet. I like that the Sage rotates into landscape mode, but the page-turning buttons are a little hard to access in landscape mode at this size.

As with any Kobo e-reader, I am a huge fan of the Sage’s built-in access to Overdrive/Libby, the popular public library e-book lending service. You can sign into Libby directly on the Kobo without needing your computer or smartphone, and borrowed e-books can load directly into your library.

What’s bad about the Kobo Sage?

The front lighting and the battery life

The Kobo Sage is visibly and physically indistinguishable from its more affordable sibling, the Libra 2, except for its display size. (I consider the Libra 2 to be the Sage’s closest competitor.) Kobo applied a form factor formula that found success in the Libra to the Sage — thin frame, wide bezel, tactile page-turning buttons — but a plasticky, cheap-ish feel keeps the Sage from surging forward as a “premium” e-reader. Kindle and Boox, on the other hand, distinguish a few of their models as cream of the crop by adding in a metal backing and/or metal chassis.

Then again, maybe Kobo isn’t interested in giving us a “high-end” metal-backed e-reader. The textured plastic backing on most of the Kobo line makes for a lighter and more holdable device, after all, and you can’t disavow the brand’s environmental consciousness with its e-readers made of recycled ocean-bound plastics.

With the success of the Elipsa 2E, a $400 plastic-housed e-reader, maybe it’s clear that Kobo doesn’t need to fix what isn’t broken right now.

That said, I still wasn’t significantly more impressed with the Sage than the Libra 2. I like the graduation from a recessed to a flushed screen, but the Libra 2 outpaces its middle-class sibling in battery life, lasting another week or two longer on average. The Sage’s front light is more uneven than the Libra 2’s, with a distinct brightness around the edges, diminishing as you approach the center of the screen.

Should you buy it?

I recommend you buy a Kobo, but maybe not this one

I don’t see a strong reason to recommend the Sage over other members of the Kobo family, except in cases where stylus support and a Goldilocks just-right form factor are important. The Sage is an excellent happy-medium form factor for shoppers who need a stylus. If the Elipsa 2E is too big and unwieldy but the new Clara and Libra Colours are too small, then the Sage is an excellent choice.

I think the Sage is due for a reinvigoration — or maybe a retirement if Kobo doesn’t see a way to expand upon this model and set it apart from its siblings, particularly the new color models in the Libra and Clara line. Comic book readers and cookbook lovers would likely get a ton of use from a color Sage, with the combined bigger screen and stylus support, a fantastic recipe for note-taking and annotation on those forms of media.

Or maybe Kobo could add some onboard speakers and a metal chassis to revamp the Sage — that could draw in some users who mourn the sunsetting of the high-end Kindle Oasis. In any case, I find the current and only generation of the Sage to be the most “meh” member of Kobo’s lineup. Looking to stay away from the bells and whistles? The Libra 2 is a simple e-reader closely competing, and in some ways, surpassing, the Sage’s specs. It’s not as quick to clear lingering E ink ghosts and doesn’t support dual-band Wi-Fi, but the Libra 2 is a better or equivalent choice in battery life, waterproof rating, and internal storage — for cheaper.