Kobo Libra Colour Review: Features and Performance of the Tolino Vision Color’s Sister Model

Although Kobo exited the German market after becoming a technology partner with Tolino, their e-readers have remained intriguing.

Now, with the latest e-reader generation, Tolino and Kobo have become nearly identical in terms of software, making it worthwhile to take a quick look at the Kobo Libra Colour. This device is the sister model to the Tolino Vision Color, which will debut in June.

Video Review (English)

Below is a summary of the test report presented as an English-language video review:

Build Quality and Features

Upon unboxing the Kobo Libra Colour, you immediately notice how comfortably it fits in your hand. The asymmetrical design from its predecessor (and the Tolino Vision 6) is largely retained, but the edges are now more rounded, making it even more pleasant to hold.

In particular, the rounded side in the grip area further improves ergonomics.

Improved ergonomics with the redesigned casing

One minor critique remains with the page-turn buttons, whose pressure points become stiffer towards the center, making them sometimes difficult to press depending on how your hand and fingers are positioned. Nevertheless, these buttons are a valuable addition that enhances the user experience.

The physical page-turn buttons are a major plus

The casing, made from recycled plastic, also recalls the previous model and is well-built. The power button, now located on the back, is convenient and prevents accidental activation when rotating the Libra Colour, which, in contrast to its smaller siblings Clara B&W and Clara Colour, also includes a position sensor.

Display

The Kobo Libra Colour’s 7-inch display uses E-Ink Kaleido 3 technology. This technologye works by placing tiny semi-transparent red, green, and blue (RGB) subpixels on top of the black-and-white E-Ink Carta display (300 ppi resolution), in an additional layer (150 ppi color resolution), and selectively darkening the E-Ink display beneath these subpixels.

R(W)GB matrix of E-Ink Kaleido 3 up close and under the microscope

This darkening allows only the free subpixels to reflect light without filtering, making the screen appear colored to the naked eye. And since E-Ink can also render grayscale, up to 4,096 colors are possible.

Technically, the panel uses an R(W)GB matrix: in addition to red, green, and blue, a portion of the matrix remains clear—essentially white. This is likely to ensure better reflectivity or may be related to the manufacturing process.

Comic in color on the Kobo Libra Colour

This color technology is certainly a very welcome innovation that greatly enhances the reading experience, but there are some aspects you should be aware of before buying—just like with other color E-Ink devices, some trade-offs are necessary.

Firstly, the display is darker than a standard black-and-white E-Ink screen due to the semi-transparent color filter layer. This results in a somewhat dimmer image, but the effect can be easily offset by increasing front lighting.

The Libra Colour (left) display is significantly darker without front lighting compared to a normal black-and-white screen (right, Libra 2).

Secondly, the display appears somewhat grainier—also a consequence of the additional RGB layer—which is barely noticeable at normal reading distances but becomes apparent up close.

Readability is excellent with lighting enabled

Thirdly, colors are subdued and lack the brilliance of an LCD screen. This is typical of current E-Ink color displays and is something users quickly adapt to—unless they are continually comparing them with other devices.

Another key aspect is front lighting. Although the light is good, it does not reach the uniformly bright levels achieved by the Kobo Libra 2.

At maximum brightness, the visible differences in illumination can be somewhat distracting. Nevertheless, since the maximum brightness of approximately 120 cd/m² is rarely necessary, reducing it to a more comfortable 50 cd/m² significantly minimizes these differences.

Also comes with night light feature

As mentioned, due to the technology, the color saturation on the Kobo Libra Colour is generally lower than on smartphones or tablets with LCD screens. Even compared to other E-Ink Kaleido 3 devices, the Kobo e-reader generally appears slightly less vibrant. Kobo has evidently chosen to emphasize color accuracy rather than using software tricks to boost saturation.

The advantage of this approach is that color gradients look especially good compared to other Kaleido devices, making colors look fairly natural. Still, in my opinion, a touch more saturation would have been welcome. Unfortunately, there is no setting to adjust color saturation directly, as is possible on PocketBook devices.

At least, by enabling the hidden developer menu (by entering “devmodeon” in the search function), you can tweak the CFA (Color Filter Array) mode to extract a bit more color saturation.

Software and Features

The Kobo Libra Colour’s user interface is, as always with Kobo, minimalist and user-friendly. A small disadvantage is the required registration with a Kobo account.

The addition of color book covers on the home screen and in the library is a notable innovation.

There are numerous filtering and sorting options that help make library management easier. The font controls also remain among the most versatile on the market, allowing standard adjustments like font size, line spacing, and margin width, as well as the ability to fine-tune font boldness via a slider.

This device also supports Bluetooth for audiobooks. The user interface for purchased audiobooks matches the overall design, but the audiobook player for files uploaded by the user (not purchased directly from Kobo) is rather basic and not very appealing or user-friendly.

Notetaking

However, the notetaking function on the Kobo Libra Colour is a real highlight. The optional pen allows for precise handwriting with low latency. The need for occasional charging is not a major drawback, as battery life can last several months depending on how often it is used.

Notetaking in a basic notebook

There are both basic and advanced notebooks, offering features such as handwriting recognition for converting notes to text. Overall, the essential functions are present, but keep in mind that the device is still primarily an e-reader. If notetaking is your main priority, it may be worth considering a dedicated digital notebook like the Remarkable 2.

Notes are synchronized and backed up automatically, making their use especially convenient.

Comics and PDFs

Functions for comics and PDFs still have room for improvement.

Basic features such as easy adjustments to color representation and special viewing modes are lacking. For comics, the software can actually get in the way, becoming unnecessarily complicated if you wish to zoom in. Specifically, when you fit a comic page to the screen width, you must manually scroll up and down to view other parts of the page. Even after turning a page, the last display position is retained, so you constantly need to reposition the page vertically.

The display modes for comics are not very well implemented

Of course, you can also view comics in a zoomed-out view, but on a 7-inch screen this can sometimes make the text too small, so comfortable zooming would be a significant benefit.

You can also annotate PDF files with the pen

The same is true for PDFs: special display modes are missing, which makes reading them less comfortable. Nevertheless, taking notes directly on a PDF using the pen works very well. Once finished, you can easily copy the annotated PDF back to your computer.

Battery Life

The battery life of the Kobo Libra Colour is solid. With the front light set at 70% (about 50 cd/m²), the battery lasts for approximately 20 hours. This is a respectable figure, which also bodes well for the battery performance of the upcoming Tolino Vision Color. This is especially reassuring, considering that the Tolino Vision 6 initially struggled with battery problems at launch.

With a battery capacity of 2,050 mAh, the Kobo Libra Colour can provide several days of reading on one charge. However, frequent notetaking or viewing comics and PDFs will reduce the battery life accordingly.

Conclusion

The Kobo Libra Colour is a very compelling e-reader with many excellent features. Its notetaking capabilities and color display, in particular, are clear advancements over its predecessor.

The front light is decent, though somewhat disappointing given that the Libra 2 (and Vision 6) offered more uniform illumination. In particular, further improvements to the software are still needed when it comes to handling PDFs and comics.

The Kobo Libra Colour is a well-executed color e-reader with minor drawbacks that already creates anticipation for the Tolino Vision Color

Overall, the Libra Colour delivers a convincing reading experience and represents a notable step forward for color e-readers. The color display significantly enhances the user experience, even if the technology is not yet perfect.

While the Tolino Vision Color will differ in certain details, the strong showing of the Libra Colour already provides good reason to look forward to this Tolino sister model—a detailed review will follow after its release.