Kobo Libra Colour | eReader | 7” Glare-Free Colour E Ink Kaleido™ 3 Display | Dark Mode Option | Audiobooks | Waterproof | Black

Kobo brought us the tunable backlight, meaning the color temperature is adjustable from warm to cool. This is great for evening reading and it washes evenly without causing eye fatigue. I also like the wide variation in dimming ability so you can get the brightness just right in darker reading environments, which is crucial for us evening readers who may share a bed with earlier risers. It is easy to add files from a private library of PDF or EPUB files (Calibre or drag-and-drop) and a charge can last many weeks depending on how you use it. I find the physical form-factor to be easy to hold in either hand, and it automatically changes its justification to match your rotation. For those looking for the perfect color eink display to read graphic novels with, this isn't quite it. The colors are muted and will not do the artwork justice. This is a limitation of the technology, however, and at this price point you will not find an actual eink display that will outperform all features. If you are shopping for an eink reader you likely already know the difference between a true backlit LCD display and an eink panel, so this isn't likely a surprise. That said, I do appreciate the extra color dimension when viewing the thumbnails and seeing the covers in color does bring a little more joy to my inner geek. I've owned several older Kobo ereaders that hovered in this price point and I can say that this one has been my favorite. It is responsive with font-size adjustments, page turns, book loads, and waking. While the battery life is good, it will discharge if you leave it on standby/ idle for extended periods (weeks) without use or charging. Overall, for me this has been a great product.

December 2025: I have only had this thing for about one week so take my review with a grain of salt. I ABSOLUTELY love it! I think it is one of THE best purchases I've ever made. I did a lot of research on this device before I bought it (not so much on other e-readers) and I found that all the features that this thing had to offer was something I absolutely wanted! As you can see I've already added over 500 books to my reader and it still has 18.5GB still available for content! And I added a lot of manga volumes so I'm very happy there's still a lot of space left! (FYI, total storage is 32GB) I even added Sudoku books, coloring books, and crossword puzzles on this device in hopes of using it instead of bringing my Sudoku out to places since it can be written on, to be honest I don't know how well these types of books will work as I don't have a pen yet to test out the writing feature but I imagine that it'll work just fine. The only thing that might not work as well as I hope MIGHT be the coloring feature, as this isn't a coloring device it's a "mark up and annotate" device, but I figure I like to just fiddle around sometimes while I'm out and about and I don't need something perfect to color, I just need to keep my hands busy. And if the coloring doesn't work as I planned I bet the puzzles and Sudoku will work just fine for times I don't necessarily want to read. But I have hundreds of regular books and manga's I can read if all else fails! So I'm not worried! I wanted an e-reader so I don't spend so much time on my phone doom-scrolling. I also thought this might save the wallet and physical space in the long run as I won't be buying as many books and having to store them since this device connects to my local library and I can check out books! There's a couple things I don't like about this reader, when I imported my e-books all the covers were all sorts of different sizes, and it drove me absolutely nuts, so I stuck my books in Calibre and had all the covers sized as 1072x1448, if you have Calibre get the "resize cover" plugin and select all your books and set it to this size and it'll automatically set all your covers to this size and that way it'll fit perfectly on your screen and also make all the covers the same size when you are browsing your library. As for the battery life, I really need to let it drain the majority of the way down and then charge it again to actually start seeing how accurate this device is in terms of how long it'll last. Because this device is so new to me and I'm just so excited I think the device's battery drain is a bit more at the moment, for example, I've only read on it for a total of 8.5 hours and I charged it pretty much completely yesterday but the total reading time was in the span of the last few days except this morning it's already at 75% so I think I've just been doing a lot of fiddling around with it to make the battery drain. haha. So I'll update battery later. I love the physical buttons on this device and the fact that it also is a touch screen. It gives me multiple ways to turn the page. I mainly use the buttons as I'm more comfortable with those than touching the screen, I do a lot of reading in the bed and the buttons are great for lazy page turning, I just position my hand on a button and get comfortable and it works perfectly. I love the size of this thing, it's not too big and not too small either, and I can zoom in or out on books, it also remembers the zoom for each book, for example, if I zoom up really close to my Sudoku puzzle and then go to a regular book it won't be super zoomed up, which I really appreciate this small detail! Because that would be super annoying to zoom back and forth from book to book. I will come on here and update my review when I get a pen and tell you how well it works on my stuff. UPDATE (still December 2025): I got the Metapen M1 and have been using it with my Kobo, I love writing on it but the only thing I don't like is the palm action, I have switched it to "swipe to turn page" and also turned off "pinch to zoom" and my palm still reacts to the screen which is very annoying but other than that the pen with the device is great! As you can see in my images I do Sudoku on it when I don't want to read. I also have coloring books on there, just take picture of your coloring book pages and stick it in a document, I use Canva at 1072x1448 document size and then export the document as a PDF and stick it on the eReader. As you can see I colored very little of the coloring page, it is great but I don't see myself doing too much coloring as I don't have that much time on my hands but have it on there JUST IN CASE I am bored, haha. I've even added habit, gratitude journals just to help me keep track of things since I plan on carrying this device with me EVERYWHERE I go. It's almost like my new phone without all the notifications and doom-scrolling social media stuff. After using the device for a bit longer I noticed it would be nice if they added just a LOCK all rotate feature, meaning they do have a lock rotate but it only locks orientation, like if I turn the device sideways it may not rotate but if I turn it completely upside down it will rotate, sometimes I don't want it to rotate AT ALL. Also, another cool feature would be to JUST have pen usage and turn off all touch controls and only use buttons to turn page and then using the pen to do stuff and if I want my touch controls back on then a button on the pen could pull up the menu and then I can just navigate to the "turn touch back on" type of thing....but I imagine this might be hard to do, I just hate my palm reaction so much, I do have one of those drawing gloves but the material still reacts to this screen so that didn't help much and I hate writing in a hovering position, my handwriting looks awful if I have to hover. But overall I still absolutely love this little e-reader and I hope it lasts me for MANY MANY years!

I'm a long-time Kindle user, and my last three Kindles have been high-end: the Voyage, Oasis, and Scribe. The bungled release and poor handling of the Colorsoft made me look into Kobo after I decided the Scribe was a little big for casual reading (I still love it, though). I was a little concerned that after years of metal and glass Kindles, I'd be disappointed in something "less," but this was not the case once I got the Libra Colour in my hands for the first time. The build quality is excellent and I like the form factor. I love the page-turn buttons; I found I missed them after I got rid of my Oasis. Buttons aside, the form factor and curved-up edge where the buttons reside make this a joy to hold in any orientation, including landscape. While I prefer the flush screen of my Kindles to the slightly recessed screen of the Libra, it's a minor complaint, and one the page-turn buttons mitigate. The plastic feels sturdy, the device is lightweight without feeling cheap, and I like the location of the power button and USB port. The Kindle Scribe made terrible choices for power and USB, in my opinion. The fact that Kobo made this device intentionally repairable is a huge plus for me, though it feels durable enough I doubt I'll ever need to, barring major accidents. Coming from Kindle, figuring out the user interface wasn't a challenge. It's not identical, but most of the conventions are close enough that in 10 minutes of poking around I had everything set up as I wanted. I think the UI is better than Kindle, overall. Once I got my Kobo account set up, purchasing books from the device was simple. The lighting temperature (from cool to warm) has a broad range, as does the overall brightness. The color presentation is excellent. No, it's not super saturated and vivid like an OLED or LCD screen, but it's not supposed to be. I vastly prefer the color presentation on the Libra to my wife's Kindle Colorsoft. So does my wife. Text is clear and easy to read, if not quite as sharp as black-and-white eInk screens. I knew this going in; it's just how color eInk panels are currently. Again, I think the Libra's text looks better than the Colorsoft's. It does feel slightly slower than the Colorsoft, which I admit feels extremely snappy. But in practice, I don't really notice it unless I'm comparing it side-by-side. The Kobo Store experience falls behind Amazon's shopping experience, but I expected this. You won't find any books that are part of Kindle Unlimited on the Kobo store, as Amazon requires KU books to be exclusive. Otherwise, there's a vast selection, and certainly, the bestsellers and popular books are there. I find it a little harder to find what I'm looking for on the Kobo store, but part of that is my familiarity with shopping on Amazon and my newness to Kobo. Honestly, this was my biggest concern when switching devices and platforms, but overall, it was pretty painless. All in all, I love this device.

First - I’ve ordered 2 items from BlueProton (KLC and the Kobo Stylus) and both came earlier than expected, which is always nice. The E-reader: amazing!! The UI is a thousand times better than my Kindle Paperwhite SE. It’s fast, the quality/screen is beautiful, and best of all - you’re not locked into the amazon bs. Love the color and using the stylus for notes, highlighting, and crossword puzzles. Honestly haven’t been able to put the thing down. Yay reading!

This is my first e-reader and I can say that I really love it and will use it a lot more than I had originally anticipated. There are a handful of other reviews that talk about ghosting. I can confirm that this has also been the case with me. Especially with the key pad. (This is the 1 star deduction) this issue isn’t something that bothers me tho because I don’t use the keypad hardly ever and the ghosting on the screen outside of that only happens if the brightness is super high. I keep mine pretty low (under 30%) and it doesn’t happen. Everything else is really great. It’s not heavy at all for its size and the screen size is great. There are a lot of features that you can use to change the size of the words, the font, and the boldness of the words to fit your reading comfortability. There’s also a built in dictionary so you can look up words as you’re reading. I love that I can use Libby on it without having to send it over to the device through my phone, like you have to do if you use a kindle. The clarity is great and not fuzzy. And it doesn’t lag. I can’t attest to it’s durability bc I haven’t had it that long but it seem very well made. I also bought the pen and that works really well too. It’s super simple to use and very accurate so it’s not hard to write legibly with. The battery life was my biggest concern. I HATE charging things bc I always forget. I’ve used my kobo everyday for several hours a day and I’ve only had to charge it once (it came with 40% battery life out of the box. I charged it to 90% 2 nights ago. It’s only down to 81% as of current). With that being said, keep in mind that my screen brightness stays low and I keep the WiFi/ Bluetooth off unless I need to use them. WiFi was super easy to connect to and the Bluetooth paring for the pen was also easy. No issues with either of those. The color on the device is good. Not super bright but not dull/ muted either. Over all I’m very happy with this purchase and would recommend it to anyone who wants an ereader.

Open: This reader doesn't lock you into any particular vendor. It supports fully offline handwriting recognition for notes. It's compatible with the metapen. It can show library books from Libby or CloudLibrary. It allows direct transfer of color PDFs, epub, and CBR files, so you can buy content from any of the open format stores including from Humble Bundle. Direct transfer is bidirectional and requires no special software: the Kobo shows up as a storage device and does all the conversion work on the device itself after you eject it. Color: The color reproduction is similar to other e-ink readers. It's muted but works fine for comics, diagrams, and illustrations. e-ink technology isn't for photographs, so set your expectations accordingly and you won't be disappointed. Accessories: get a metapen and Kobo's Notebook Cover. The third party covers are bulky, Kobo's is not. Summary: It works with open formats. It can be used with or without cloud features. The battery lasts forever. The interface is easy to use. The color display is as good as possible for e-ink. Kobo's Libra Colour better than the colorsoft it replaced is every way.

I will air my grievance early, then get into details: I’ve ordered THREE Kobo Libra Colour 2’s and all three have had dead pixels. After doing some research and reading other users’ experiences, I discovered many, MANY people experiencing the same issue. Some have ordered 5+ devices, all with dead pixels. From what I’ve gathered, there’s a set amount of dead pixels that manufacturers allow per device. If this is true, as consumers, we deserve to be told that!!! There’s only 7 inches of screen. I don’t understand why a flawless display on a NEW device is impossible to achieve. 2/3 that I ordered had large dead pixels near the center of the screen which would’ve been incredibly distracting to see while reading - ESPECIALLY if you’re a user of dark mode! Completely unacceptable. It concerns me that Kobo’s quality control is this lackadaisical. To those wondering, the pixel IS noticeable, especially in certain lighting or angles. I have not gotten used to it with time. Some days I notice it, some days I do not. But I am always aware that it’s THERE. For a new device, it’s a huge letdown. On to the good news… I am a first time e-reader. If you are new to this world as I am, be prepared for a device that feels and responds differently than a tablet. The screen looks a bit different - like a cross of an actual page of a book and a screen. This is much easier on your eyes over long periods of time than a phone. However, the smallest particle of dust or debris will cast a shadow beneath itself, making every imperfection noticeable. I don’t think this is a Kobo related flaw, it’s just a different device than a phone/laptop etc. Everything takes just a fraction of a second LONGER. Powering on/off, turning pages and so forth. The page turning buttons are effective and responsive. You can also turn by swiping or tapping, or modify your settings to only turn the page with one of the aforementioned modalities. You can also change the orientation of your display as you see fit. The device itself is comfortable to hold and fairly easy to travel with. I recommend getting a sleep cover as opposed to a screen protector, which may make the device less responsive to touch. The sleep cover puts the Kobo to sleep every time you close it while also keeping your display protected. The battery life is just okay for an e-reader. It certainly will not live up to the reports of Kindle users who go weeks without charging theirs. I believe I’ve gotten somewhat prolonged battery life by disabling wifi. You can set your bedtime and auto dimming, which automatically reduces white light as your bedtime approaches. I don’t feel guilty about reading late into the night knowing that I’m not further exciting my brain. You can also change the font itself, size, margins and more. You can even download new fonts! I have taken to finding books in epub form on my Macbook and converting them to kepubs with Calibre. It’s seamless and painless. Kepub files will show your progress percentage and hours to completion of your book. You may also subscribe to Kobo plus or use overdrive with your local library. I took to buying my own epub files, as the wait for any well known books through my library’s overdrive are 20+ weeks. I love that you can adjust brightness by sliding along the left side of the screen. It allows you to look up a word in your book without being connected to wifi. I haven’t purchased the stylus, but even without, you can highlight words. The colors are muted but still give the book life! It’s a pleasure to have color, especially in graphic books. I have had it freeze once or twice, but nothing infuriating. All in all, it’s a very capable reader and easy to use. I’m just highly disappointed with the imperfect display.

This has been absolute dream! I was on the road for the past two years and had trouble finding a way to read (books are heavy, difficult to ship on the move, ect) and this has been a game changer. I don't think I'll ever go back. I can read at night with all the lights off and it doesn't bother my husband next to me, I have access to unlimited amount of books, and super light weight. The quality is fabulous, color is cute, love the easy buttons on the side to flip pages. Its incredible you can look up the definition of words by pressing on it. It's awesome! I researched for a while before pulling the trigger and am so happy I went with Kobo!