Kobo Clara HD Ebook – A Very Good Read

Today the fine folks at Kobo left the newly released Clara HD ebook at the office: It’s a huge upgrade from my ten year old Kindle including backlighting and some really useful features. Let’s talk about ebooks today. Let’s talk about the Kobo Clara Hd ebook reader.

Cover to Cover

The first detail I noticed when opening the Kobo Clara HD box was a paperback book size ebook with a 6″ Carta E-Ink touchscreen at 300 ppi. The Clara weighs in at just under 6 ounces which is less than most paperback books. This eBook fits comfortably in my hand making it easy to spend hours reading day or night. In daylight the Carta E-Ink touchscreen is clear and crisp. At night the Clara HD utilizes their ComfortLight PRO which reduced sleep impairing blue light exposure. Using TypeGenius the Clara HD ebook allows the use of 11 fonts and over 40 font styles and this device supports 14 different file formats including : Epub, PDF, MOBI, JPEG, GIF and more! This ebook easily connects to your home or other WiFi system allowing one to download books, magazines, articles and more. The built in battery can supply weeks of reading pleasure before recharging and the Kobo Clara HD eBook can be used with ten common languages including English, French, German, Spanish and even Turkish. With 8GB of on-board memory this eBook can hold up to 6000 “books” anywhere you go. Once it’s properly connected to Overdrive you can even use the Clara HD ebook to borrow books from your Local public Library. Let’s go deeper:

Light Up Your Life

I’m cheap. I’m old. I don’t throw old tech away. That’s why I still use a Kindle eBook without backlighting while complaining about it day and night. Especially at night. The Kobo Clara HD ebook utilizes ComfortLight PRO to improve your reading experience no matter where or when you want to read. The backlighting can vary from an orange candlelight to a very white sunlight for daytime reading. With the ComfortLight PRO you can adjust the brightness, set natural light automatically, and set a “bedtime” for the unit at which time the Clara HD will change lighting to the orange candlelight and away from sleep disturbing blue light settings. When one uses the natural light on automatic: the Clara HD will adjust the amount of blue light exposure from high levels during the day to low levels at night. It’s so smooth you probably won’t notice the lighting change. So far I’ve set my bedtime at 10pm and keep the unit on the auto setting for natural light. I really only notice the light change if I shut it down for a while then turn it back on later when it’s more yellow than blue. The Kobo Clara HD has a wonderfully sensitive touchscreen to operate all of it’s functions besides on/off. Page forward, backwards, choosing books to purchase or borrow from the library or adjusting any setting or function is done using the touch screen. One of the settings I found interesting was the ability to set “sensitive zones” on the page to swipe, or tap to change pages, or where to touch to access the menus. I’ve changed it 3 times so far in 3 days.

Let’s Operate

The Kobo Clara HD box contains the lightweight Clara ebook, the quick start guide, a printed warranty, and a USB/Micro USB charging cable. Once I had my hands on the Kobo Clara HD ebook I plugged it into a USB charger because that’s what I always do with new devices. When you plug the device into a micro USB charger or port a white LED lights up next to the on/off switch. The display indicates charging status and charging level while in static mode, as well as the book cover to whichever book or article you are presently reading. The display can also indicate percentage of book read, page number, and approximate time left to finish the present book. It didn’t take long to fully charge the Clara HD so I was quickly on my way. 

This Kobo eReader opens to the home page. The home page has a clear display highlighting the last 3 books I’ve read along with the reading statistics of time to go and percentage read. My Kobo Clara HD came loaded with a comprehensive variety of contemporary fiction as well as a copy of James Comey’s book “A Higher Loyalty” so I got right to work connecting to my WiFi system, signing up at the Rakuten Kobo website, and adjusting settings so I could just sit and read for an hour. Mostly I just dug deeper into the Clara HD ebook to see what I could find. Let me say this : This is a comprehensive ebook reader which supports their readers in many ways, including apps for other devices such as Android or IOS so you can keep reading even when you don’t have your Kobo eReader in hand. You can shop for eBooks using the Kobo Clara HD at the Kobo bookstore, or you can purchase books online at the website once you’ve signed up. There are plenty of free ebooks available for the Kobo ebook readers as well as being able to borrow directly from your Public Library. Let’s talk about that. 

The Librarians

One of the great additions to the Kobo Clara HD ebook reader on the bookstore page is OverDrive. OverDrive allows you to access digital copies of ebooks from your local library using your library card and then borrow them. The book I retrieved from the Las Vegas Clark County Library will expire in 3 weeks and at that point no longer be accessible in my Clara HD. Once you’ve created a membership on Overdrive you choose a local library then sign in using your Library card number. The available books are then in a menu which allows you to view the cover of the book and a short description of each ebook. You can then choose to borrow a book or place a hold on a book which is already borrowed by someone else. Other than that, the Kobo bookstore contains vast numbers of ebooks with very varied costs, and as I mentioned earlier, free books to download. Once you’ve signed up the website keeps track of all of your purchases and books in a very clear graphic display. If you feel the need to purchase a cover for your Kobo Clara HD, you can do that at the website, too. Another way the Clara HD can connect you to reading materials is the included Pocket! application. Once you sign up you can send articles from your PC or whatever portable device you wish to your Kobo Clara HD. I’ve spent an hour finding pithy articles from such famed publications as The NY Times, the New Yorker, The Atlantic as well as new newsy kids on the block such as Vox or The Verge. Once you’ve saved an article to your Pocket! account, simply refresh the list and the articles are available for your reading pleasure. And with the Kobo Clara HD eReader it’s a real pleasure, day or night.

Social Butterfly

On the activity page you can see your reading stats including such fun things as percentage of books completed, total hours of reading, your reading speed and pages per minute. On that page the Kobo Clara HD features “Awards” which pop up as you meet certain reading thresholds or goals. There is an account page where you can see what accounts are synched with your Clara ebook including the aforementioned Pocket! or you can sign in with your Facebook account so people can see what you are reading. This ebook device has a full menu of settings to explore including Accounts, OverDrive, Synch, WiFi, Reading settings, and even some beta features: I used the large print mode and have explored the Internet with the beta application. That application opens on a Google search page and it’s very easy to type in any web page or search items. Once you are open you can pinch or use a slider to enlarge the images. Remember: this is a monotone screen so greyscale is what you will see. I could easily read articles on any page I visited on the Kobo Clara HD and the pics were clear if less than colorful. The browser was fast and capable. When using the browser you have access to next or last, refresh, and you can easily and quickly add any articles to your Pocket! account which really makes it easy to read them later on the Clara’s 6 inch screen at your leisure and comfort.

Here’s My Read

The Kobo Clara HD eReader is the perfect companion for the constant reader as well as a great device for those who like to read books or articles in bed versus sitting at a computer or laptop all day. The ComfortLight PRO system works great in direct sun, or the darkest night, and all lighting conditions in between. It’s easy to connect to any WiFi system, and once you’ve signed into the bookstore, OverDrive, and Pocket! accounts you will never run out of things to read. Free ebooks, best sellers, contemporary novels of any genre are all available at the Kobo bookstore or your local Public Library and Clara’s 8GB of onboard storage(non expandable!) will keep you busy day after day and night after night. Using the Pocket! app combined with the onboard browser allows one to collect today’s biggest stories to peruse later on the 6″ E ink screen. The Clara HD can operate with automatic light levels to pleasantly reduce eye strain at night or day with a clear crisp HD screen and the choice of many fonts sure to please most people. It’s small enough to fit into any purse, cargo pocket, or backpack and Kobo offers an optional protective shell if desired. The touchscreen is very responsive and the Kobo Clara HD is one of the nicest devices I’ve held in my hands during this very busy year at POCNETWORK.NET. 9.0 out of 10: The cover should be included, not an option and my second generation Kindle can store and play Mp3s. Just saying. $129.99 in the USA and $139.99 in Canada.

*Average price is based on the time this article was published

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