Kobo Clare E2 Review

About the Kobo Clara 2E

• Display: 6-inch HD E Ink Carta 1200 touchscreen
• Display Resolution: 300 PPI (1448 x 1072) 
• Dimensions: 112.05 x 159.02 x 8.66 mm 
• Weight: 6.03 ounces 
• Supported Formats: Audiobooks (Kobo Audiobooks only), EPUB, EPUB3, FlePub, PDF, MOBI, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, TIFF, TXT, HTML, RTF, CBZ, CBR

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What we like  

Fun sized

Due to its dimensions, the Kobo Clara 2E is one of the most compact, mainstream e-reading devices available right now. I can easily slip the Clara 2E into the back pocket of my jeans to take with me to the coffee shop, no extra bag is required.  Its scarcely-there-at-all weight of 6.03 ounces made it easy to enjoy an hours-long, one-handed reading session without feeling strained while enjoying my latte.

Easy on the eyes

The Clara 2E  packs a 6-inch HD E Ink Carta 1200 touchscreen with a 300 PPI (1448 x 1072) resolution.  This means the words on this e-reader's display are clear, crisp, and easy to read, like what you'll get on a printed page on a laser printer. In a side-by-side comparison, using the same font at the same font size, I was unable to discern a difference in the quality of the Clara 2E's text to the text displayed on my Kindle Paperwhite---a very good thing.

However, the Kobo device lags behind the Paperwhite regarding front lighting. In dark conditions, you'll find that the Clara 2E's screen is pleasantly legible and the color temperature of its screen can be adjusted. But the light isn't uniform across the screen; there are darker patches in several locations. Other e-readers, including the Kindle Paperwhite, suffer from this issue as well.

Tough enough

Kobo claims its Clara 2E's outer shell is made up of 85% recycled plastic, but using the e-reader every day proved sturdy enough to survive the two weeks of casual wear and tear  I put it through during testing.

What's more, the e-reader's textured backplate makes it easy to hold, reducing the possibility of accidentally dropping it, even with wet hands. It's a smart feature given that the Clara 2E is designed to withstand being submerged in up to 6.5 feet of water for an hour. (Rub-a-dub-dub: read Steven King in the tub.)

Tons of content

At the time of writing this review, the Kobo Store offered over six million books for Clara 2E users to download as well as a growing number of magazines and newspapers.

Like many modern e-reading devices, the Clara 2E can also be connected to your favorite wireless headphones or earbuds so you can listen to audiobooks... provided those audiobooks are purchased from the Kobo Store. During testing, I found that while it's possible to side-load reading material onto the Clara 2E, I couldn't get it to play external audio files.

It's worth noting that for close to a decade, Kobo's e-readers have offered one of the best Pocket read-it-later user experiences. If you don't already have one, sign up for a Pocket account and then sign into your account on the Clara 2E. Once you've done so, you'll be able to save content from your favorite websites to devour on your e-reader, long after you've turned off your computer for the day.

What we don't like 

Speed

It has none. Swiping through pages on the Clara 2E, presented a few issues. Most notably, pages that contained images loaded very slowly.

Compared to its most obvious competition, the Kindle Paperwhite, the Clara 2E was noticeably slower by seconds and fractions of a second, when performing near-identical tasks. I noted that other basic hardware functions, such as turning the Clara 2E's front lighting up or changing font sizes, suffered from significant input lag as well.

I suspect that while the device's 16GB of storage is more than enough to satisfy the e-book and audiobook needs of most folks, its 1.0Ghz processor isn't up to the task of driving Kobo's increasingly demanding e-reader operating system.

The OS is not the best

I've always admired Kobo devices for their value proposition. Unfortunately, over the years, I've found that their operating system has become less intuitive.

For example, Pocket and OverDrive—services that allow you to borrow ebooks from many libraries across North America—are squirreled away in two different submenus, instead of on Kobo OS's home screen alongside Kobo's book suggestions. There is no way to create home screen shortcuts to correct this issue.

I understand that selling books is the bread and butter of any e-book company, but creating an enjoyable reading experience for your customers should also be a top priority.

Should you buy the Kobo Clara 2E?  

No, it's too slow and too expensive for what you get

Over the past decade, I've reviewed many of Kobo's e-readers and, have recommended the majority of them to book lovers. Unfortunately, despite the Clara 2E being a well-made device, I found that its slow speed takes too much away from what should be a fluid experience.

 I appreciate the Clara 2E's sharp, clear display, thoughtful design, and exceptional OverDrive and Pocket integration. But it's disappointing to see these latter features, which can open a world of free content hidden away in sub-menus.

When it's not on sale (and it often is), Amazon's 16GB Kindle Paperwhite costs only a few dollars more. It features the same amount of storage as the Clara 2E, has more available content, and at the time of writing, a lightning-quick interface that's a pleasure to navigate. Even though it's necessary to use third-party workarounds to send free content to a Kindle, most will find it a more pleasant user experience than what the Kobo Clara 2E can offer.