Rakuten Kobo Clara 2E, review: an eReader that does not disappoint

The e-book reader Rakuten Kobo Clara 2E is a new contender that joins the particular war that in the market of eReaders they have kept for a long time Amazon with his Kindle family and Rakuten with their Kobos.

Both companies have e-book readers for all tastes and purchasing power, starting from 109.99 euros for the simplest Kindle or 99 euros for the Kobo Nia, up to the top of the range with the Kindle Scribe and the Kobo Elipsaboth with a price between 370 and 400 euros and who are fighting on a new battlefield, that of large-screen readers with a pencil to make notes.

The Kobo Clara 2E is the second cheapest eReader from Rakuten (€129.99 at the moment, after a discount of 20 euros on the original price of 149.99 euros), so that we can equate it to the Kindle Paperwhite (139.99 euros).

Rakuten Kobo Clara 2E Specifications

Kobo Clara 2E, perfect to hold it with one hand

The new Kobo Clara 2E is an eReader with 6 inch touch screen and 300 dpi that maintains a design similar to Kobo Nia, that is, 6-inch Rakuten devices. Due to its size of 15.9 x 11.2 x 0.86 cm and its weight of 171 grams, it is perfect to hold it with one hand, even if you have purchased (highly recommended) a SleepCoverwhich we will now discuss in more detail.

In manufacturing the Kobo Clara 2E, Rakuten wanted to make clear its commitment to the environment, which can be summed up in the fact that in one year it intends to collect more than 200,000 plastic bottles from our planet’s oceans and more than a million CDs and DVD of the landfills.

The exterior of the Kobo Clara 2E is made with more than 85% recycled plastic, including 10% plastic recovered from the oceans. In addition, the packaging of this eBook reader does not contain magnets and is made from FSC-certified recycled paper. This packaging is printed with soy ink thanks to a renewable and environmentally conscious printing process.

As can be seen in the images that accompany this analysis, the reading space is the usual in an eReader with a 6-inch screen, surrounded by a small plastic frame that has no buttons on either side and that at the bottom It has a USB charging port.

To turn the device on and off, Rakuten has chosen to place a button on the back of the Kobo Clara 2E, just at the top right. When the eReader is not being used, it is recommended to press this on/off button to activate standby mode, although we can also activate it by closing the SleepCover. If we want to turn it off completely, we will have to keep the button pressed until we see the message “Off” on the screen.

A very interesting detail of the Kobo Clara 2E is its IPX8 certified, which makes it resistant to splashing water, but also even to being submerged to a depth of 2 meters. Every day it is more common to see people reading on the beach or by the pool, and there are also people who enjoy reading while taking a bath. Now they will be able to stop worrying about small aquatic accidents because the Kobo Clara 2E will support them.

Refering to SleepCover that you can see in the images above, I think it is the perfect (and necessary) complement for the Kobo Clara 2E. Its exterior is made with 97% recycled plastic (including 10% plastic recovered from the oceans) and a microfiber interior lining made with 40% recycled fibers from plastic bottles.

It is sold in three colors (orange, green and black) by €29.99 and there is a model called Basic SleepCover (currently out of stock in the Kobo store) in blue color by €19.99. Both covers, when closed, cause the Kobo Clara 2E to go into standby mode and wake up when opened again. The difference in price is that the normal SleepCover can be folded (as shown in the images above) to be able to read without having to hold it with your hand.

Kobo Clara 2E, reading experience

The Kobo Clara 2E screen has a very remarkable level of brightness, which together with the fact that it is anti-glare will allow us to read it even in bright sunlight. In addition, it is possible to adjust the brightness and color temperature according to the time of day thanks to the ComfortLight PRO technology, so it will help us sleep better if our habit is to read for a while before going to bed. And also with the idea of ​​reducing visual fatigue, the dark mode It will allow us to read with white text on a black background.

Regarding its storage capacity, the 16 GB It has enough to carry up to 12,000 Kobo ebooks or 75 audiobooks. To listen to audiobooks, since the eReader does not have speakers, use technology bluetoothso we will have to pair it with an external speaker or wireless headphones.

And if you’re worried about battery life, Kobo assures that it lasts for weeks, even with fairly high brightness and reading several hours a day. The reality with our experience of use of more than a month is that you forget the battery, it never seems to drop its charge level. Simply by remembering to charge it every fortnight or even more, you will always have it at your disposal.

Other interesting details of the reading experience with the Kobo Clara 2E is that by dragging your finger from the top you can access the three recently opened documents (including audiobooks), or that by dragging your finger from bottom to top while we are reading we can modify ( this time by means of some icons located in the upper right part) the level of brightness or the type of font and size, as well as accessing the reading configuration (where, for example, the “dark mode” is selected) or the statistics (hours that we would have left to finish the book, the minutes remaining to finish a chapter, etc.).

In closing, I would like to say that thanks to WiFi synchronization (by the way, in the “beta features” there is a web browser that works quite well) we can take advantage of a service that I particularly like. Is about Pocketan application and web service that helps us save interesting articles that we find while browsing the Web. Then we only have to go to “My articles” to be able to read them at another time.