Read our full review of the Kobo Libra Colour.
Color enthusiasts: Picking the best color e-reader wasn’t easy, with so many strong contenders. But when considering who really wants a color e-reader, the choice was clear: The Kobo Libra Colour. The Libra Colour also stands out for annotators. Aside from the Kindle Scribe, it’s one of the only e-readers with writing capabilities, making it ideal for color-coding highlights and annotations.
Expert-approved: Besides the Kindle Paperwhite, the most popular e-reader among the Mashable team is the Kobo Libra Colour. Its seven-inch display offers ample space for reading graphic novels in detail, and the built-in gyroscope lets you switch between vertical and horizontal reading — a flexibility unique to the Libra. Not to mention it has the most sought-after feature for e-reader users: page-turning buttons.
The Kobo Libra Colour is one of our favorite e-readers, period. And when it comes to color e-readers specifically, it’s the clear winner. It stands out for its large display, screen rotation, and writing capabilities — but beyond that, it’s a thoughtfully designed device.
As with all color e-readers, colors appear more muted than in a physical book. That’s unavoidable, but the Libra maintains strong color accuracy despite the softer tones.
Like many e-readers, the price on the Kobo Libra Colour increased, but even at $259.99, it’s still cheaper than any of Kindle’s color e-readers. While Kobo does offer a more budget-friendly color option with the Clara, the Libra is worth the extra cost for its writing features, internal gyroscope, and page-turn buttons. It has plenty of storage (32GB) and is waterproof.
If you were disappointed by the discontinuation of the Kindle Oasis, the Kobo Libra Colour offers a similar design, including page-turn buttons. Ergonomically, it’s the best e-reader I’ve tested. It’s more square than a Kindle, as one side offers extra space for the page-turning buttons, which makes it easier to hold — especially while lying down and reading one-handed. It’s the only e-reader (besides the iPad) on this list that has an internal gyroscope, so when you rotate the device, the display rotates with it. While reading in bed, if I flipped over, I could rotate the device to still be able to hold it on the side with page-turning buttons.
Finally, the Overdrive (aka Libby) integration is great. Log in with your library card, and your borrowed e-books instantly populate in the Overdrive tab.
