Kobo Clara BW is on sale for $20 off

Kobo is running a sale on the Clara BW e-reader, and you can get $20 off the list price. Kobo sells these devices directly on its website, but the deals are also available on Amazon and its other retail partners. You can get the Clara BW for $109.99 in the United States; the regular price is $129.99. Meanwhile, the same deal is available in Canada; the regular price is $159.99, but you can get it today for $129.99.

The Rakuten Kobo Clara BW e-reader features a 6-inch E INK Carta 1300 e-paper panel, which is 25% more responsive than the previous generation Kobo Clara 2e. The resolution is 1448 x 1072, and the system has full dark mode and 300 PPI. The screen is recessed and has no glass. Text will pop because the e-paper screen is exposed closer to your eyes. The e-reader only comes in one color: black. The ComfortLight PRO, an adjustable brightness system, will give you white and amber LED lights for reading at night. I often found that the 35% white and 7% amber lights tended to make the screen very white, similar to the Amazon Kindle Paperwhite.

Under the hood is a MediaTek MT8113L – ARM A53 @1GHz processor, 512MB of RAM, and 16GB of internal storage. In the past, Kobo relied on SD card storage; this e-reader uses EEMC storage soldered onto the PCB. You can buy audiobooks and e-books from Kobo. Listen to them via Bluetooth 5.0 and pair them with headphones, a headset, or an external speaker. You can also use the Internet browser to visit websites. Pocket integration can save articles to your Kobo, and it also supports thousands of libraries to browse, borrow, and read via Overdrive. Connect all of these services via 802.11 ac/b/g/n WiFi (i.e. dual-band, 2.4 and 5 GHz).

USB-C will allow you to transfer content to your eReader and charge it. The Kobo Clara BW has full waterproof protection with IPX8. This means it’s always ready to handle unexpected spills, splashes at the seaside or a relaxing soak in the bathtub. If it gets wet with salt water, run it under a fresh tap for a few minutes, as salt corrodes. It’s powered by a low-end 1,500mAh battery, which is said to be enough for a few weeks of reading books. However, using lights, long reading sessions or listening to audiobooks will drain the battery faster, so your battery life may vary. The dimensions are 112 x 160 x 9.2mm and it weighs 174g

Michael Kozlowski is the editor of Good e-Reader and has been writing about audiobooks and e-readers for fifteen years. His articles have appeared in newspapers and websites such as CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post, and the New York Times. He lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.