New Color Libra and Clara now advertised in US

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

The Libra 2 has noticeably better contrast and more even frontlight than the original Libra.

Maybe there is model variation. Mine look the same!

[shamanNS]

Maybe your eyes are inferior models :P

[Cootey]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I feel like the dark horse in all this is the Clara B&W. It's an improvement on the already nice Clara 2E with a lower price. That interests me more than either of the color readers do.

Yeah, it *is* tempting. I went with the Libra Colour bc I am interested in the color annotation abilities. However, my Clara 2E is such a favorite ereader of mine, I am tempted to upgrade it with a higher res screen.

[Cootey]

Originally Posted by DNSB

As yet, we do not know if any of the new models have an internal µSD card which is fairly important to allowing upgraded storage or recovery from a damaged card.

I’ll be disappointed if the µSD can’t be upgraded, but then it’ll be my fault for jumping on it before finding out. I’m holding out hope because of the Repairability marketing angle.

[John F]

Originally Posted by DNSB

...

As yet, we do not know if any of the new models have an internal µSD card which is fairly important to allowing upgraded storage or recovery from a damaged card.

There is a thread on Kobo moving towards repair-ability; maybe they will provide a method for removing and reapplying the waterproofing for a uSD card?

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Cootey

Yeah, it *is* tempting. I went with the Libra Colour bc I am interested in the color annotation abilities. However, my Clara 2E is such a favorite ereader of mine, I am tempted to upgrade it with a higher res screen.

I think the Clara B&W has the same resolution as the HD and 2E. 300PPI. It's just the screen is a newer generation than the 2E (Carta 1300, vs Carta 1200). I'm not sure the B&W will be a significant upgrade from the 2E. The Carta 1200 is already pretty nice. But I'd be happy to be proven wrong.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Cootey

…
However, my Clara 2E is such a favorite ereader of mine, I am tempted to upgrade it with a higher res screen.

There hasn't been a higher resolution screen on eink since about 2014, the E Ink Carta HD. The prior Carta was 212 ppi, in january 2013.

Kindle 2014, Voyage, just before Paperwhite 3 (300 ppi)
Kobo 2015, Kobo Glo HD.

Carta was the first to use "regal" waveforms which reduce ghosting and thus less full freshes needed (slow and a black flash).

The original E Ink Carta display was renamed to Carta 1000, and refinements in Carta 1100 and Carta 1200 improved response times and display contrast.[52] A later refinement in Carta 1250 improved response times and contrast again.

One of the methods to help contrast is combining the the capacitive touch on the panel to reduce layers by at least one. Not sure if that's 1200, 1250 or 1300.

As the Voyage with Carta 1000 (originally called Carta HD) is one of the best, yet first 300 dpi, it proves the versions since have marginal value to standalone percieved performance (not side by side comparison).

The original Vizaplex was poor (Kindle 2007), and Pearl in 2010 (Kindle Keyboard /Kindle 3 and DXG) has pretty good contrast, but is slower than Carta and doesn't have "regal". Apart from the resolution it's not a bad reading experience.

The Kobo Mini and Sony PRS350 are 5″ rather than 6″, but the same number of pixels, so are higher resolution than Kindle Touch at 200 pp rather than 167dpi. I think also Pearl. My 5″ PRS350 is still pretty good.
The 2012 Kobo Glo 6″ is allegedly Pearl 1024x768 213 ppi. The Kindle Basic continued to be 167 ppi even on the 2019 model release with added front light. The current Kindle "basic" is a little like the Paperwhite 3, having finally 300 ppi.

So really E Ink Corp ink basic technology is matured since 2014, ten years ago. The changes since are tinkering and minor refinements. Triton was simply using the filter used on a mono LCD for colour. Kaleido is a more expensive to tweak using a filter optimised for mono eink.

It's taken them a long while to upgrade approximately 10″ to 300 dpi.

The ACeP, now at Gallery 3 is a different technology for signage, unsuitable for ereaders.

No doubt the Voyage used a too expensive set of top layers to achieve the clarity and contrast.

Hence new models more about USB-C, or more storage, or note taking or audiobooks (pointless on eink) than a better reading experience.

[Aleron Ives]

Originally Posted by Cootey

I’ll be disappointed if the µSD can’t be upgraded, but then it’ll be my fault for jumping on it before finding out. I’m holding out hope because of the Repairability marketing angle.

I'm definitely curious how Kobo is going to square the repairability angle with the waterproofing angle. Ratta has gone full speed ahead with repairability on the Supernote A6X2, but it doesn't try to resist water at all.

[Quoth]

It's not sealed waterproofing. Just a protective coating easily dissolved with acetone (nail varnish remover) which will dissolve some plastics too, so wash off with meths or IPA. If you want to re-coat, then polyurethane (not acyrilic) will work, but takes ages to dry. Brushed is less likely to have holes than sprayed.

[Barty]

Very positive review of Libra colour. Reviewer has had it for 2 weeks

[DNSB]

Just a heads up. That video has been posted multiple times already. It if was posted with the youtube tags, you could at least recognize the image instead of having to remember the video identification code.

[Aleron Ives]

Who doesn't instantly recognise gKDjWrC? Those are some of the best letters!

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Barty

Very positive review of Libra colour. Reviewer has had it for 2 weeks

The video has a major flaw. There is no review of how the Libra Color looks with no light displaying just black text. Without that, the review is (IMHO) worthless.

[Gone]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The video has a major flaw. There is no review of how the Libra Color looks with no light displaying just black text. Without that, the review is (IMHO) worthless.

Of course, totally worthless...

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Claude_C

Of course, totally worthless...

The thing is, we know how the color screens look in color and with the light on. It's how it looks with the light off reading a normal novel that we want to know.