Kobo Aura: New Kindle competitor sports classy design, higher price

E-reader prices were supposed to go down, but apparently Kobo didn't get the memo.

Back in April it released the $169.99 "special edition" Aura HD, a dedicated e-ink e-reader that sported a higher-resolution 6.8-inch screen with 1,440x1,080 pixels and 265dpi. Now it's trotted out its little brother, the 6-inch Aura (1024x768 pixels), which is available today for preorder at $149.99 in black and pink.

What's special about the Aura? Well, it's definitely got a sleeker look than last year's Kobo Glo, which will remain on the market along with the entry-level 5-inch Kobo Mini ($79.99), Kobo Touch ($99.99), and the Aura HD. Measuring 150x114x8.1mm (HWD), at 174 grams it's slightly lighter than the 185-gram Glo and also features new technology that reduces flashing in a big way. With e-ink, the screen has to refresh every so often to eliminate artifacts (sometimes referred to as ghosting). In earlier e-readers, the screen would have to refresh every five to six page turns. But now Kobo is talking about going up to 100 page turns without flashing.

Like the Glo, the Aura also has the company's ComfortLight front-light technology for reading in the dark or dimly lit environments (there's a dedicated physical button for the light as well as power on/off button). In the Glo, we thought it measured up surprisingly well against the front-light in Amazon's Kindle Paperwhite.

Even though the screen has a border around it, Kobo is calling Aura's display "edge-to-edge" because it's all one surface and looks more like the screens you'd find on a tablet. This is a touch-screen model, and I was told it uses a capacitive touch screen that's more responsive than the Glo's touch screen.

In most other respects, the specs are very similar to the Glo's specs. Inside you'll find a Freescale i.MX507 1GHz processor, 4GB of internal storage, and an expansion microSD expansion slot that accepts cards up to 32GB.

There's a Micro-USB port for charging and data transfers and integrated Wi-Fi for shopping in Kobo's e-book store. Battery life is rated at "more than two months" based on 30 minutes of reading per day with ComfortLight turned on or off and Wi-Fi turned off (Wi-Fi is the biggest battery drain).

When I asked Kobo CEO Michael Serbinis about coming out with a higher-priced e-reader this year -- the Glo was $139.99 when it launched -- he said that based on the company's experience with the $179.99 Aura HD, he was confident the demand was there for a slightly more premium e-reader that offered slicker styling and some feature improvements like the reduced flashing.

"The Aura HD really exceeded our expectations," Serbinis said. "It's sold 10x what we thought it would and has become 25 percent of our overall sales for e-readers. So we think the demand is there."

Kobo, a Canadian company, isn't a big player in the US market, but it is big overseas, where it's second to Amazon in a lot of markets. Serbinis says around two-thirds its sales come from outside North America.

One thing that you won't find in this e-reader is the next-generation of E Ink's Pearl display. It's due to be available in the near future, but Serbinis indicated it wasn't ready for mass production. Based on what components were available to Kobo's hardware designers, he didn't think it would be in the next Kindle e-ink e-reader (due out this fall), but he didn't have any information about Amazon's plans for its next e-reader.

We'll have a full review of the Kobo Aura in the coming days. Prices for the various markets are as follows: €149.99 (EU), £119.99 (UK), $189.95 (Australia), $249 (New Zealand), R$599 (Brazil).

Editor's note: Kobo also introduced three new tablets today. Check out Eric Franklin's first take on those tablets here. And for an international perspective on Kobo's new Aura e-reader (and tablets), check out CNET Australia's coverage here.