Large-print library lenders and manga maniacs may have a new ebook reader: the Kobo Forma, a slim 8-inch E Ink reader announced today.
Kobo is a well-known name in Canada, France, and Japan but is far behind Amazon in the US ereader market. But as we saw in our review of the Editors' Choice Kobo Clara HD, the company's new integration with public libraries' Overdrive systems is a big selling point. Your local library catalog appears just like the native store, right on the device.
The Forma isn't cheap: at $279.99, it competes with the high-end Amazon Kindle Oasis. Like the Oasis, it has physical page-turn buttons and is waterproof. But you get even more screen for your dollar with the Forma, with an 8-inch, 1,920-by-1,440 screen as opposed to the Kindle's 7-inch display. That means the Forma will display more lines of large type, and graphic elements such as manga will be more readable.
"Just as an audiophile will buy a premium set of headphones, we really see this device as tailored for the kind of person whose focus and most important activity is reading," said Ramesh Mantha, VP of product and devices at Kobo.
Kobo's ereaders have always been more manga-friendly than Amazon's, as they natively support ePub, PDF, and CBR/CBZ formats where Amazon's Kindles do not. The new Forma has improved PDF support for both portrait and landscape rotations, Kobo said.
The Forma is the first mainstream ereader to use the E Ink Mobius screen, which uses a flexible plastic backing rather than a thin sheet of glass. That makes the Forma very light, and Kobo says that also makes it more durable. We previously saw E Ink Mobius in the very light, slim Sony DPT-S1.
Comparing the Forma to the Oasis, the Oasis is a little less expensive at $249. The two ebook readers are both about the same weight at 6.8 ounces, but the Oasis is made of rigid metal while the Forma is flexible plastic. Both have the same 8GB of storage and both are waterproof. The Forma has a bigger screen. The Oasis reads Kindle books.
This makes Kobo's holiday lineup the $129.99 Clara HD, followed by the $179.99, waterproof Aura H2O and the larger, $279.99 Forma. The company will also continue to sell the older Aura 2nd Gen ereader exclusively at Walmart.
Pre-order the Forma starting on Oct. 16; it will appear in stores on Oct. 23.