With this year’s Libra H20, however, Kobo has hit a real breakthrough, an ideal compromise on price and performance that doesn’t feel like a compromise. They were often downright unpleasant, honestly. Goliath battle against the industry leader Amazon was sacrificed with the Forma and the results weren’t impressive.
Just about every advantage an underdog company like Kobo needs to wage a David vs. The screen was too big, the performance sluggish or non-responsive, and that price…yikes. Honestly, I never found the Kobo Forma that comfortable, both in use and design. Last year’s marquee reader, the Kobo Forma, with its bigger screen (and even bigger price-tag) was clearly in the latter.
They’ve also been willing to experiment with varying screen sizes, body styles and interactive features sometimes this experimentation pays off, sometimes it doesn’t. They’ve been on the forefront of eReader design from the beginning, helping make now-familiar features like waterproofing, backlighting and digital library compatibility stock long before their competition. Not only has this help set them apart from the pack, it’s kept them alive as nearly every other dedicated eReader company has disappeared from the landscape. Trying to find this level of Goldilocks perfection can be daunting, but few companies are more willing to mess with norms than Rakuten’s Kobo eReaders. It’s strange, but conventional thinking that “bigger is better” or having a device be “feature rich” automatically translate into a better experience doesn’t really work for eReaders.
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