When UPS told me yesterday that I was getting a shipment from Toronto some time today, I was thrilled to find out that I'd be getting the new Kobo before it launched.
Then I checked my inbox this morning.
Dammit.
Kobo's newest ereader is also its largest. The Kobo Forma has an 8" Mobius E-ink screen, and is up for pre-order on 14 October for $299 CAD ($279 USD). (Kobo announced the Forma today because they didn't want a repeat of the many Kobo Clara HD leaks.)
The Kobo Forma arrives a little over two years after the other well-known one-handed ereader, but it is well worth the wait. The Forma improves upon the Kindle Oasis's design in at least three categories; it has a larger and more damage-resistant screen, a color-changing frontlight, and it supports Epub.
The Forma is also equally waterproof, and it offers better support for library ebooks. (While US Kindle owners can send ebooks borrowed from OverDrive to their Kindles, Kobo supports OverDrive integration in Canada, US, UK, Australia, and New Zealand.)
And that is really all I can tell you until my unit arrives this afternoon; all I have to go on right now is the same press release and product listing that you can see.
Do you see anything interesting?
Got any questions I should look into?
Specs
- Screen: 8", Mobius Carta E-ink display
- Screen resolution: 1440 × 1920, 300 PPI
- Touchscreen: capacitive
- Frontlight: color-changing
- Waterproof: IPX8 (up to 60 minutess in 2 meters of water)
- Storage: 8GB
- Battery: 1.2 Ah
- Connectivity: Wifi
- Dimensions: 160 x 177.7 x 8.5 mm
- Weight: 197 grams
Nate, Kobo website says available for preorder on 10/16. Any indication or news on when they would be shipped? I am really looking forward to your first hand review. The main concern I have is how well the rocker turn page buttons are and whether they have improved on the comfort light. This is exciting!
the 29th of October
er, it’s actually the 23rd
Interesting but I had the Kindle Oasis 2 it seemed a bit heavy. This is most big and heavier. KO2 battery very bad, will have to see this.
I don’t like the position of the start button, I have the impression that it can be easy to touch without wanting.
by the way … will we have new kindle this year? What does your instinct tell you, Nate?
Hmph. No CPU mentioned, nor RAM. Probably no microSD, either.
my review unit is here – there’s no card slot
What? No unboxing video? You’re behind the times, man! And this from the man who did the Pandigital Novel videos!
1GHz CPU, 512MB RAM
Pathetic! Next!
Thank you for providing the specs, they seem to be too low to comfortably read graphic-heavy PDF or cbr files. However if you have read some it would be great to hear about your experience
I’ve tried PDFs on previous Kobo models (same CPU and RAM, but different screen sizes). The experience was terrible, and I expect that this will be true on the Forma.
Are you sure that it has a Mobius screen? Isn’t the point of that screen that it is flexible?
glass substrate breaks are the number one eink reader killer. This should make it through drops and twists that’ve done in many and kindle and kobo
When I looked at the product description it said Carta not Mobius. Does it have a Mobius screen?
It is mentioned in the press release.
Thanks! There is no difference in contrast right?
not that I can see.
The weight of the device is lower than the Aura H2O Ed. 2 and it has a smooth back with the nice grippy texture that recent Kobos are known for. Better designed than the Oasis 2. I will be picking this up.
Well I thought they would go 7.8″ again…wrong but close. It looks good.
Pushing the e-reader bar, good for all readers. Amazon will notice and come back with something…question is when, this year or next.
I really need to learn how to convert my Kindle e-books.
The button looks to be a rocker bar rather than two separate switches.
Confirm?
It’s actually two separate switches. The connector between the buttons is just cosmetic.
It’s not a rocker.
This will be mine, oh yes.
It looks ill designed to be used with a case/cover. Without the ability to use a cover or wrist strap no-go.
Dammit, Kobo, where were you people with this when I was buying an Oasis this last spring? 😉
Interesting to me that Kobo’s screenshots on their official page are a) using text from The Fall of Gondolin, I wonder how pretty a penny they had to pay to the Tolkien estate for that, and b) showing the device orienting horizontally as well as vertically. Given that this thing is larger than the Oasis, that’s a good call.
I am a little shocked that it appears the text will orient in only two directions as opposed to any direction you want to hold it.
No, it’s every direction – I’m using it left-handed.
Nate…what is your first impression…Is it all that it seems??
I like it – I have to keep tearing myself away so I can get caught up on emails and other work.
So you can flip it and use the buttons on the left side?
Yes. It can be used in four different directions. Left, right, top, bottom.
that’s what I am doing, yes
What CPU does it use? Is it as slow as the Aura ONE? Since there’s no outside SD card slot, is there an internal one?
same as on previous Kobos – a single-core Freescale 1GHz CPU
No microSD card slot equals epic fail for what should have been a contender. I don’t suppose it supports host mode for USB memory stick expansion?
Bluetooth keyboard support?
No BT. That alone is a fail already. Too bad, that those Chinese contenders seem to fail at caring for stable software on their devices
What would Kobo do with BT when they don’t have the software to support extra features in the first place?
Surely they offer audiobook support? If not over BT speakers, then how?
Actually, Kobo isn’t interested in adding audiobooks to its e-readers. In a Q&A they did with Teleread’s David Rothman, they said that their focus is on the avid reader.
Given how Kobo has been making a push lately to sell audiobooks, and given how the Oasis 2 DOES do Bluetooth, it seems like a mistake to me that the Forma doesn’t. This wouldn’t be a dealbreaker for me in particular, but for folks that do prefer their books in audio form, I could definitely see this being a problem.
(That said: if they’re not planning on having users do audiobooks on the Forma, not having a 32GB storage option seems a bit less problematic)
Why no SD slot? For such a pricey reader I don’t want to be worrying about space.
They will come out with a 32 gig variant eventually(why not on launch?..Japan will get 32 option)
Nate, what is the true size/dimensions of the whole device?
6.5″ by 7″
Thank you. So – shorter than the Aura One but wider. I am wondering if there is enough of a difference between the Forma and Oasis to make someone who absolutely hates the Oasis want to buy and like the Forma.
Surely E ink would have tried to sell Amazon on Mobius tech, maybe even hinted/leaked that others would put out a product this year. What do you think the odds are that Kindle something similar/one ups this year??
30% bigger screen and only 5g heavier than the Kindle Oasis 2? Yes please!
Does it have the same shell material as the Clara HD? I suspect the Clara HD to sport the same hard material as the Tolino Shine 3, i.e., not the soft-grip one which was used on the first Aura or the Glo HD. I prefer the hard material, as it doesn’t feel as sticky on the fingers.
Yes.