When it comes to swimming pools or bathtubs, people always try to avoid bringing close an e-reader. But, this will surely change now thanks to the new Kobo Aura H2O.
In general, liquids are considered to be the natural enemies of devices like tablets or e-readers. But, electronics are not the only ones that could be affected by water, for example books could be damaged, too.
Luckily, that is not the case with the new Kobo Aura H2O. As it names implies, this new e-reader was specially designed to resist in water. Unfortunately, this device also has some weaknesses that prevent people from strongly recommending it to their friends.
The new Kobo Aura H2O is not waterproof. This is one of the major downsides. But, the best part is that the company added an IP67 rating, which means that this device is highly water-resistant and dustproof.
The number 6 means that the new Kobo Aura H2O can be submerged in just over three feet of water for approximately 30 minutes and come out ready to be used.
The number 7 says that it is completely protected from dust. Its resistance is realized thanks to the plastic cover on the micro-USB port and microSD card slot situated on the bottom of the e-reader.
But, we must say that there are some concerns about the long-term durability of the cover, because it connects to the H2O by way of a thin plastic tang.
So, if people will constantly open and close the cover every time they want to charge the e-reader, this could cause it to break.
But, the rest of the new Kobo Aura H2O is solid and well-built. Thanks to its rubberized plastic cover, people will have a nice grip and it will not end up being slippery to hold.
The new Kobo Aura H2O measures 7.04×5.07x.0.38 inches in size. This means that this e-reader is larger than its main competitor, the Kindle Papwerwhite.
An interesting fact to know is that the new Kobo Aura H2O doesn’t offer buttons for turning pages. In fact, we must say that this e-reader doesn’t come with any buttons, apart from a power button situated on its backside.
This means that people will need to poke the display to interact with it. Unfortunately, the display is not so responsive and sensitive, and people will need to tap twice to move to the next page of the book.
The display measures 6.8 inches, which means that it is larger than the Kobo Glo HD and Amazon’s Kindle Paperwhite. Sadly, it has a lower resolution, featuring 265 ppi. We must add that Kindle Paperwhite features 300 ppi.
In the end, it is important to know that the new Kobo Aura H2O comes with 4GB of onboard storage. This amount of storage is enough for people to save thousands of books downloaded from the company’s eBook and Magazine store. But, people who will want to expand the e-reader storage could do it via microSD card.
