Kobo’s Aura H2O e-Reader Finally Brings eBooks to the Bathtub
What book-lover hasn’t at least thought about bringing his e-reader into the bath, shower, or even the pool? How many have ruined e-readers this way? But bathtub reading isn’t a problem with the new $180 Kobo Aura H2O, a waterproof E Ink e-reader that can survive being dunked in more than 3 feet of water for 30 minutes, assuming its port cover is closed.
The Kobo Aura H2) is available for limited preorder today (Aug. 27). It goes on sale Oct. 1 in stores and online in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Netherlands, Italy, and Spain. In addition to being waterproof, the Kobo Aura H2O will have a black casing, an anti-glare display, and a dust-proof design, making it perfect beach-reading material.
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The Kobo Aura H2O will also boast a 6.8-inch touch screen and a resolution of 265 dots per inch, the highest E Ink resolution currently available. Kobo says it will be slimmer and lighter than its flagship Kobo Aura HD e-reader. Inside, the device sports a 1 GHz CPU and 4 GB of onboard storage. A microSD card slot enables up to 32 GB of additional space. Kobo claims the device will get up to two months of battery life, which is in keeping with the category averages for E Ink e-readers.
This is far from the company’s only e-reader. Other offerings include the Kobo Touch, Kobo Mini, Kobo Glo, Kobo Aura, Kobo Aura HD, Kobo Arc, Kobo Arc 7, Kobo Arc 7HD, and Kobo Arc 10HD. The Kobo catalog includes more than 4 million ebooks, magazines, and newspapers. The library boasts bestselling authors like Dan Brown, Margaret Atwood, Jodi Picoult, Khaled Hosseini, John Grisham, Nora Roberts, and Gillian Flynn. Plus, all Kobo e-readers build in the Reading Life feature, which tracks your reading stats (how long you read, how fast you read, how much you read, and so on) and offers you badges for accomplishments.
We’ll know more when we see it for ourselves, but from its waterproof design to its top-notch specs, the Kobo Aura H2O looks like a damp fine e-reader, both in the water and out.
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