After reviewing the Kindle Paperwhite aim the lens of our camera on the eBook reader flagship home Rakuten Kobo, the Kobo Aura H2O . Top in everything, even in the price: “ them really worth € 179? Let’s find out! “
Also read | Full review Kindle Paperwhite, the best ebook reader
Unboxing
The white box our Kobo does not open easily; we find inside the device, a USB-microUSB, two booklets (not sure what it says, so you usually look at the reviews to find out the features and then those not needed) and a piece of cloth to clean the screen.
Hardware
The Kobo Aura H2O is absolutely the top regarding the build quality, hand is very solid, no creaks and flexes and materials in hand give a ‘good feeling.
Dimensions 179 x 129 x 9.7 mm at a weight of 233 grams. The Kobo Aura H2O is certified IP67 so no problem in case of water (Water resistant up to 30 minutes immersed up to 1 meter deep in liquids) or sand. The display is 6.8 inches with a resolution of 1430 x 1080 that bring the density of 256 pixels per inch: excellent!
The display has the E-Ink technology Charter which guarantees a contrast really high and a ghosting virtually nonexistent with a screen refresh defaults every 6 pages changed.
The screen is illuminated by a series of LEDs placed in the frame of the reader and the homogeneous diffusion of light is ensured by technology ComfortLight, in practice an opaque film that reduces both the reflection of external light illumination is equal at all points of the display. The result is really excellent.
The back cover is rubberized and is not symmetrical lines, personally I find it very beautiful and has a very good grip. The edges of the screen are a plastic smoother and fingerprints reign supreme. Comfortable being able to clean the player with a wet sponge without worrying about ruining it.
The only physical button, power and off, is located in the upper part of the reader. At the bottom, protected by a door, we find the microUSB port and microSD. Memory expansion is a plus not just for this fact Kobo allows you to expand the already good 4 GB of internal memory with cards up to 32 GB that will allow us to get your hands on more books than we can read it in all our life!
The connectivity in addition to microUSB port, is guaranteed by an ‘antenna with standard Wi Fi b / g / n. The speed of the network connection is decent (other devices do best …) and unfortunately, there is no version of the reader with 3G connectivity.
The processor with ARM Cortex A8 architecture this is 1 GHz with the presence of 512 MB of RAM.
The touchscreen is not capacitive but is assured with an infrared sensor.
Use and considerations Various
The screen is excellent: while reading surprising for both the sharpness that for contrast. The battery allows approximately 20 hours of use with an average brightness and without the help of LED lighting we can double this result.
The Kobo Store is a bit ‘confusing, you have to take my hand and the recommended books are a bit ‘rough.
A Pro’s Kobo reading practically everything: EPUB, EPUB3, PDF, MOBI, TT, HTML, XHTML, RTF, CBZ and CBR with support to images in JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP and TIFF.
Insert file in the player is simple : when connected via microUSB just create a folder and enter our book, done! Or we can place the files on a microSD card and insert it into the reader. We can also use CALIBRE to convert ebooks from Amazon’s proprietary format, requiring attention to DRM (annoying).
While reading we can activate the lighting with a slide up, down to turn it off in the left edge of the screen; this feature becomes really useful.
Present the dictionary in off-line mode and also the translator, which is also used off-line. To activate it just hold the screen above the word to be translated and will open the card according to the dictionary that we have set as the default in the settings.
The infrared touchscreen does not allow multiple touches, so no pinch in or pinch out. To access the settings we have to press the center of the screen and change the font by opening the menu with the button that will appear at the bottom.
One nice feature of the infrared sensor is that it allows to implement commands even if you’re wearing gloves or we have wet hands in fact, according to my point of view, this solution is a counter for the readiness in the reception of the commands that turns out to be not very high.
The size of this Kobo are generous which is not a good thing if we think about the portability. Could be considered an added value to the display 6.8 “only if we often read pdf, therefore do not allow to increase the font size. In the video review below you will find a clear example of what I’m saying.
The browser has just enough performance. The ebook readers are not born to surf the internet but I have to admit that this device behaves better than the main competitors.
Video-Review
Conclusion
Kobo Aura H2O is a great ebook reader! Impermeability, build quality, screen, microSD port and file management make it the best player on the market.
The price confirms: € 179 are indeed numerous and would be justified if the player had not defects and instead has touchscreen not responding quickly to commands (sometimes lose them right), the change speed of the pages is only fair and the browser goes bad enough (and I expect this figure to at least read the email or have a train ticket to show to the controller without cursing the slow overall).
Amazon.it | KOBO eBook Reader Aura H2O 
If you love reading and want the best, this, however, is the maximum.
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