The fact that our device was the ivory model (as opposed to the espresso and onyx options), probably helped to drive that point home. Serbinis touted the benefits of creating a device in which "the technology just disappears," and certainly the vanilla quality of this latest crop of readers does that. The industry seems to have fallen into a sort of design rut, offering plain-faced readers with no physical page turn buttons and pronounced logos. The Aura's heavier than the competition, as well, weighing in at 8.4 ounces - two full ounces more than the Glo and 0.7 ounce more than the Paperwhite.įorgetting, for a moment, that increased footprint, the Aura HD is aesthetically reminiscent of its predecessors - and with the latest Kindle, for that matter. And really, those who have spent any time using the current generation of readers will notice a difference immediately. With a larger screen, however, comes a chunkier reader, with a footprint of 6.97 x 5.05 x 0.46 inches, noticeably larger than the Glo's 6.2 x 4.5 x 0.4-inch frame and the Kindle Paperwhite's 6.7 x 4.6 x 0.36 inches. Late last year, it offered up the pocket-sized 5-inch Mini, and now it's going the other way. And while Serbinis is convinced the battle will be fought on the software front, Kobo is still doing its part to play with the industry's 6-inch standard. But is there a chance devoted fans might pay the premium? Let's find out.%Gallery-186279%Īs Serbinis himself put it, "there's only so much you can do with some of these technical components." When push comes to shove, the e-reader market is made up of a handful of companies utilizing the same or similar parts: processors designed by a few select manufacturers and screens created by E Ink, a name that has more or less become synonymous with this form factor. That, and company is convinced such a product isn't destined to ever become anything but a niche device, particularly in a race dominated by two main players. It's a strange move for a relatively small company that's currently offering up two 6-inch readers, a 5-inch model and 7-inch tablet. "This is something that is designed for this most passionate, voracious reader," the company's CEO Mike Serbinis told us in an interview conducted around the announcement, "and as much as I wish everyone was like that - it would make us a lot bigger business right away - that is not the case." Announced roughly half a year after the company's flagship Glo (and, it turns out, just in time for Mother's Day), the Aura HD isn't slated to make it beyond the end of the year. And for those very reasons, this 6.8-inch, $169 slate isn't long for this world. The Aura HD is a rare thing in this space, built specifically with power users in mind. What do you get when you ask 10,000 rabid bookworms to help build a better Kobo? The Cadillac of e-readers, naturally: a bigger, beefier and generally higher-end device than we're used to.
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