Rogan Shannon

I absolutely love this thing, and it’s one of the best purchases I’ve made.

About a year and half ago, I bought this Kobo Libra Color and posted a little unboxing video. Today, I want to share my thoughts on it after using it for a year. In short, it was definitely worth it and I use it often! I’ll talk about the software first, then hardware.

The main thing is obviously reading ebooks on it, and I definitely far prefer it to reading on an iPad or my phone. The level of customization for the font and size is incredible. There are already several options built in, including OpenDyslexic, but you can also upload your preferred fonts. For the size, you can use the setting slider, or you can pinch and zoom directly on the page.

Kobo has a similar subscription to Kindle Unlimited, called Kobo Plus. I personally haven’t used it, so I won’t talk about that. I will say that the selection of books on Kobo is pretty varied, but definitely more limited than Amazon’s, which is to be expected with the grip that Amazon has on the industry. But what I really love is they have a built-in connection with Overdrive/Libby. You can browse on the Kobo, but you can also do it on your phone and whatever you borrow through the app will automatically show up on the Kobo. They also have built-in Google Drive syncing. When you connect the device with the account, a folder will be created, and you can drop whatever compatible files you want in there, and it’ll just show up on the Kobo. This is excellent if you want to read PDFs or have an EPUB you got through other means. I’ve been using this quite a bit to read the transcripts of Worlds Beyond Number’s campaign, The Witch, the Wizard, and the Wild One. I was having a hard time keeping track of what I’d already read, and this was a game changer! I was also extra, of course, and made massive files for the Chapters, instead of doing individual episodes (which would’ve been a lot). I will warn you, if you choose to upload PDFs directly, you won’t be able to zoom in on the page or otherwise adjust the size. What I did was use Calibre to convert PDFs to EPUB, and while it’s not perfect formatting wise, it’s pretty decent for text-only PDFs. Sorry for getting a little technical on you there, but it took me some googling to figure this out. I definitely recommend Calibre for managing your digital library. There’s a bit of a learning curve, but it’s not necessary to know every detail of how it works, I use only a few parts of it.

As with any tech device, people have figured out how to configure it in many ways. There’s a lot of how-tos out there, but one in particular that I added is called NickelMenu. It took me some time to figure out all the things, sometimes with help from my partner, but I’m very happy with it right now. NickelMenu allows you to add another menu, and you can customize that menu however you want. It adds games, a screenshot function, among several other features. There’s also another add-on called NickelClock that adds a visible clock and battery icon while you read. The Kobo is extremely customizable!

That leads me into the next thing, screensavers! The default setting is to show the cover of the book you’re currently reading, and if none are being read at the moment, it’ll have some default abstract image with Sleeping on it. However, you can upload your own screensavers and it will always use those over the default setting. You can upload multiple and it’ll rotate through those. With some of the configuring I talked about earlier, there IS a way to add transparent PNGs and have the text from your current read showing through. That’s by using a different thing, which I personally haven’t tried out yet. But you can easily mimic that effect by just using a background of random text or even a screenshot from a book you have.

Now, I’m going to talk about the physical aspect. It’s very lightweight, even with the case that I have. The device by itself feels very nice to hold, so a case isn’t really necessary, but I like having one for peace of mind. I also want to have something that protects the screen when I’m not using it. One small downside is that obviously, the Kobo isn’t nearly as popular as Kindles or other ereaders that have been around for a long time, so it can be harder to find case options that fit what you’re looking for. I really love this green case, but it’s actually made for the Libra 2, not the Color, so the slot for the USB is in the wrong place. It’s such a minor thing, and I don’t have to plug it in that much, so I put up with it. It has built in backlighting, and it’s really nice on the eyes, the range of brightness is excellent though I rarely turn it up past 20%. I prefer my devices on the lower end of brightness though, so it’ll vary on your personal preference. It also has a setting for night where it makes things more orange, similar to the night shift mode on phones. I really like that this specific model has two physical buttons for turning the pages, you can customize which one goes forward or back. Rakuten, the parent company, also somewhat recently released a remote specifically for the Kobos. It’s a very basic one, just two buttons for going forward and back, but it’s very nice if you want to be cozy under blankets and reading.

Now, I want to talk about some accessories that are completely optional but nice to have. First, my specific model can be used to annotate books by using a pen. Kobo has their own, but I’m not a fan of how it looks. I was able to find another model, Renaisser, and I do like how it works. However, I’ve never been someone who annotates my books, so I don’t use it nearly as much as someone else might. It’s still nice to have though! Another accessory that was given to me by my partner is this lap desk. It’s fantastic for holding the Kobo along with some snacks and a drink. I’ve also used it to hold my yarn, so I could knit and read at the same time. This is very useful for being all bundled up and using the remote from inside a blanket.

All in all, I absolutely love this and like how much you’re able to modify and customize things to get the optimal experience for you personally. Please let me know if you have any questions about my experience, and I’ll answer to the best of my ability! Thank you for watching all the way through, I appreciate you. I’ll see you next time.

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