MELBOURNE: Reading in the bath just got a seriously novel upgrade.
Three months after its overseas release, the world’s first waterproof e-reader – the Kobo Aura H20 – has washed up on our sunny shores.
Kobo may be the underdog to Amazon’s Kindle, yet the Canadian company, which is owned by Japan’s Rakuten, has been consistently innovative in its efforts to stay afloat.
The Aura H20’s casing is soft and rubbery to touch and feels nicer in your hands than the standard plastic of other e-readers. The IP67-grade casing is said to protect the device for up to half an hour when submerged in up to a metre of water.
However, goggles aren’t included so we tested it in a bubble bath instead.
The Aura H20 sports the same 6.8-inch screen as the previous Kobo Aura HD, but is a tad lighter at 233 grams. However, it’s larger and heavier than the 6-inch Kindles so you’ll need two hands to hold it up. We’d like to see a more compact version – perhaps something akin to a waterproof 5-inch Kobo Mini – to improve the experience.
Still, chances are you’d be using two (wet) hands to hold up a “real” book in the bath while worrying about damaging it, or worse, rendering another e-reader useless.
Sure enough, if you’re liable to nod off during a relaxing soak and lose your grip, just fish the Aura H20 out from under the suds and pick up where you left off. You may need to shake or wipe the water off the screen before it works properly, as a pop-up message will repeatedly remind you (thankfully, this notification can be turned off).
Then there’s the added benefit of a front-lit screen. If you like to burn candles while you bathe, you’ll understand that holding a book up to the flickering light while trying to keep it dry detracts from the whole relaxation thing.
At 1430 x 1080 resolution and 265ppi, the Aura H20’s high-definition screen is slightly less impressive than the Kindle Voyage’s 300ppi screen (not yet available in Australian stores), but uses the same E Ink technology and beats the Kindle Paperwhite’s 705 x 1024, 225ppi display.
Adjust the screen to a lower brightness and you’ll have even visibility while keeping the scented candles burning and the mood dreamy.
If you prefer your reading dry, the Aura H20 is a worthy device in itself. Contrary to what you might think, the volume of titles available at the Kobo store is comparable with Amazon’s Kindle store: about 3 million English titles.
However, Jon Page of Pages & Pages Booksellers in Sydney, who is a former head of the Australian Booksellers Association, has told us Kobo has a stronger relationship with Australian publishers, including smaller publishing houses – not to mention an Australian office – so you’ll find more local titles there, if that’s your preference.
Also unique to Kobo is “Kobo Reading Life”: essentially, a form of gamification that tracks how much time you spend reading and how far you are through a book or chapter, doling out “awards” as you, or your children, reach various milestones.
Unlike the Kindle Paperwhite 3G, the Aura H20 doesn’t have mobile data capability, so if you’re stranded in woop woop with nothing to read, you’ll be out of luck. We don’t really think it’s an issue. Just make sure you load up a few spare titles via Wi-Fi in advance.
If you’re motivated by price, shopping for e-books at Amazon is generally cheaper. A quick sweep of some Australian best-sellers showed some big discrepancies: Graeme Simsion’s The Rosie Effect was $15.80 at Amazon’s Australian store but $17.99 at the Kobo store; Christos Tsiolkas’ Barracuda was also $15.80 at Amazon but a whopping $25.49 at Kobo.
At $229, the Kobo Aura H20 device is a jot cheaper than Amazon’s Kindle Paperwhite 3G at $249.
Both the Paperwhite and Aura H20 boast 4GB storage, equivalent to some 3000 books. If you plan to spend the rest of your life reading on the device while soaking yourself into a prune, you do have the option of expanding the Aura’s storage to 32GB with a storage drive.
Battery life is also comparable with the latest Kindles. The company says the Aura will last up to two months, based on half an hour of reading per day.
In the end, the appeal of the Aura H20 will depend on what your reading style is. We are big fans of books that can swim.
