Kobo Nia: At a Glance
The Kobo Nia succeeds the Kobo Aura and is positioned by the Canadian-Japanese e-reading specialist as an entry-level device. For German customers, the eBook reader is no stranger, since under the Tolino umbrella the device had already appeared with minor changes as the Tolino Page 2.
The most noticeable feature is the design, which follows the Tolino Shine 3 and Kobo Clara HD. The device borrows from the design language originally introduced by the Kobo Glo: a symmetrical body with a grip area below the screen. This sets the Nia apart from the newer Kobo releases in the higher price segment (Libra, Elipsa, Sage), all of which feature an asymmetrical design.
On the technical front, you get the usual solid fare: the Kobo Nia uses a 6-inch E Ink Carta display with a resolution of 1024×758 pixels, resulting in a pixel density of 212 ppi.
The screen can be illuminated by built-in LEDs, as is common in this segment, but you can’t adjust the color temperature.
Interestingly, the weight at 172 grams is slightly higher than the Tolino counterpart (Tolino Page 2: 166 grams), which could be due to manufacturing tolerances, since the technical specifications are otherwise the same: the internal storage is a sufficiently generous 8 GB (since there’s no audiobook support) and the battery capacity is likewise a rather modest 1,000 mAh.
The Kobo Nia offers a solid technical entry into e-reading, but at around 100 euros it isn’t a standout value. The Tolino Page 2 usually goes for around 90 euros, and often even cheaper.
Kobo Nia: Technical Specifications
| General | |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | Kobo |
| Market launch | 2020 |
| Device type | E-Reader |
| Device category | Entry-level |
| Price (USD / EUR) | 110 |
| Available colors | black |
| Size & Weight | |
| Size (L × B × T) | 159.3 x 112.4 x 9.2 mm |
| Weight (g) | 172 |
| Display | |
| Technology | E-Ink Carta |
| Flexible Display Technology | No |
| Size (inch) | 6 |
| Resolution (px) | 1024×758 |
| Pixel density (ppi) | 212 |
| Colors | No |
| Color depth | 16 greyscale |
| Touchscreen | Yes, capacitive |
| Built-in light | Yes, single-tone frontlight |
| Flush display | No |
| Connections | |
| USB | Micro-USB |
| Bluetooth | No |
| Wi-Fi | Yes |
| Cellular connectivity | No |
| GPS | No |
| Hardware Specs | |
| CPU Cores | Unknown |
| CPU Type | |
| RAM (GB) | |
| Internal Storage (GB) | 8 |
| Internal Storage up to (GB) | |
| Storage Expansion | No |
| Speakers | No |
| Microphone | No |
| Battery (mAh) | |
| Operating system | Linux |
| Features | |
| Text-to-speech | No |
| Page turn buttons | No |
| Water protection | No |
| Accelerometer | Unknown |
| E-book store | Yes |
| Supported file types | EPUB, EPUB3, FlePub, PDF, MOBI, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, TIFF, TXT, HTML, RTF, CBZ, CBR |
All information provided without guarantee.
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