It is a book from the Overdrive local library. Yes, it costs almost twice as much. Read as much as you’d like with Kobo Nia’s long battery life, where a single charge can last for weeks*. I got to nearly a full charge in an hour. CBZ and CBR comic books are also indicative of that. From here, you can step up to the Clara HD ($119.99), which is lighter and has a color-changing backlight. The Kobo Nia is the first e-reader that the company has released in 2020. The Kobo Nia is a fine little device for simple reading, especially if you're focused on borrowing things from your local library, and text quality is better than on the base Kindle. One reason the Nia feels so much smaller is because the bezels around the screen are thinner, while the body itself feels lighter. You can also look up definitions in a dictionary. Plenty of file types are compatible: PDF, EPUB, EPUB3, PDF, MOBI, TXT, HTML and RTF. It connects and downloads using 2.4GHz or 5GHz Wi-Fi; I had no trouble connecting to each. Google-Free Android Smartphones Are Now Available in the US, Verizon Support Suggests Turning Off 5G to Conserve Battery, Strike Up the C-Band: Opening New Lanes on the 5G Highway, Exclusive: Here's Where Americans Are Using Starlink's Satellite Internet Service, How to Free Up Space on Your iPhone or iPad, How to Save Money on Your Cell Phone Bill, How to Find Free Tools to Optimize Your Small Business, How to Get Started With Project Management, Read Amazon Kindle Paperwhite (2018) Review, How to Manage Your Amazon Kindle Devices and Content, No Kindle Needed: 10 Free eBook Reader Apps for Your Phone or Tablet, How to Put Free Ebooks on Your Amazon Kindle. The Kobo Nia is a new budget e-reader perfect for book worms and casual readers alike. However, the service doesn’t give you open access to the Kobo Store — only a very small portion of it. Kobo Nia’s a big deal in a small package: you can carry up to 6,000 eBooks with its 8GB of storage. FREE Delivery View Details. Kobo Clara HD SleepCover $44.95 . It has the same 6-inch display you find on the Kindle, the Kindle Paperwhite, and the Clara HD; Kobo just shaves off some of the bezel here. You can access it on any Kobo device (except the Kobo Mini and Kobo Wi-Fi), Kobo app and desktop web browser, so there’s no exclusivity device-wise. If you click an affiliate link and buy a product or service, we may be paid a fee by that merchant. Brand new, unopened box on EBAY was 30$ cheaper than the NIA. After you borrow an eBook from your library, you can read it on your Kobo eReader. Kobo's ebook readers, with their built-in OverDrive integration, bring the library home to you in a way that Amazon's models can't quite match. It’s not waterproof. share. FREE Delivery View Details. Learn how to get started with the OverDrive app here. Kobo's ebook readers, with their built-in OverDrive integration, bring the library home to you in a way that Amazon's models can't quite match. Kobo's ebook readers, with their built-in OverDrive integration, bring the library home to you in a way that Amazon's models can't quite match. The Forma ($249.99) is the priciest model, with the largest 8-inch screen. Amazon's control of so much of the ebook market makes it almost like a library system unto itself. With that amber filter to go easier on your eyes in the dark, it won’t be quite as relaxing in darkness before bedtime. Kobo also lacks Amazon's subscription reading deal, Kindle Unlimited, where you can read all the books you want for a fixed price per month. What makes Kobo compelling is its openness to other platforms. A lot of popular titles aren’t available through Plus. You can also use Pocket to save articles you find on the web and read them later on the eReader. PCMag.com is a leading authority on technology, delivering Labs-based, independent reviews of the latest products and services. Audiobook. 100% Upvoted. The display of third-party trademarks and trade names on this site does not necessarily indicate any affiliation or the endorsement of PCMag. The most surprising thing about the Nia is how small it is. Kobo Libra H2O SleepCover $44.95 . Battery life from the 1,000mAh cell is fine. On Kobo tablets (the Vox, Arc, and Arc HD, which are Kobo's discontinued, color-screen devices), you can install OverDrive's Android app to borrow and enjoy ebooks and more from your library. You can try it for 30 days first before committing a penny to it, and you will need that time, trust me. With OverDrive on a Kobo Nia, Libra H2O, Forma, Aura ONE, Aura H2O Edition 2, Aura Edition 2, or Clara HD, you can borrow free ebooks from your public library right from your device. This isn’t actually tied to the Nia itself, but did come out in tandem with the eReader’s launch in August. So the Nia is fine for reading EPUBs from places like the Baen Books site, but the Libra H2O is a better solution if you intend to read PDFs. Kobo Nia’s a big deal in a small package: you can carry up to 6,000 eBooks with its 8GB of storage. You can put holds on books and check your holds on the device. Here are the most common questions about the OverDrive service. Kobo ebook readers can't read Amazon ebooks. Your device will now prompt you to login to your account or create a new one if you never have used … The Kobo Nia is fitted with a 1,000 mAh battery, which seemed to drop by about 25 percent a week with an hour or so of reading a day. Required fields are marked *. I thought of it in utilitarian terms, and I’m certain you would, too. Mobile Health Clinics Leverage Tech to Provide Car... How good is Freedom Mobile’s LTE network? Kobo limits you to 15 eBooks for offline reading over a 30-day period. Get a card from your local public library and you can use OverDrive on the Nia to borrow digital books. There is one other tidbit to note. Bask in the sun with your favourite read on its glare-free 6” touchscreen, or snuggle up with a bedtime story thanks to adjustable ComfortLight. He's the head of our Fastest Mobile Networks projects in the US and Canada, runs our Race to 5G tracker, and writes opinions on tech and society. Audiobook. For those kinds of works, the extra screen size of the Libra H2O really helps. There's no 3G option, unlike with Kindles. This one does allow borrowing ebooks from your local library, though no Overdrive on the Kobo itself. One of the coolest features I fell in love with was the OverDrive app on the Kobo Nia, which allows you to connect with an online library feature to check out books through the built-in Wi-Fi feature. Wondering if Nia's display is good enough! The microUSB port notwithstanding (it really should be USB-C at this point) to charge the battery and load up non-eBook content onto it from a computer, there is 8GB of storage to work with. Kobo's ebook readers, with their built-in OverDrive integration, bring the library home to you in a way that Amazon's models can't quite match. Kobo's one downside is Amazon's superior subscription-reading options, whether through Kindle Unlimited, Prime Reading, or Audible. But I still prefer the Kobo's more upscale Libra H2O and the Kindle Paperwhite for a range of reasons, particularly waterproofing. While he's a fourth-generation Manhattanite, he now lives in Queens with his wife and daughter. … Here in Queens, New York, our libraries haven't been browsable for months due to COVID-19. If you have simple needs when it comes to an eReader, the Kobo Nia is built to offer little else but actually reading. You should know that you can only have one active OverDrive account at a time per Kobo, though you can keep deleting and switching accounts if you belong to multiple library systems as I do. Your subscription has been confirmed. You get 11 typefaces with a range of sizes. Certified Refurbished Kobo Aura H2O Edition 2 £129.99 . Kobo Nia’s a big deal in a small package: you can carry up to 6,000 eBooks with its 8GB of storage. It’s pretty drab, otherwise. And when you’re ready for your next read, the Kobo eBookstore is … Kindle basic model. 4 GB. Photo Kobo Nia. The Kobo Nia's 6-inch E Link screen is sharp for its price, but not exactly impressive. Rakuten bought OverDrive in 2015 and then sold it in 2019, but it’s still well integrated into the Kobo platform. Kobo Nia. That’s probably for the best, given there’s not much to rave about as far as features go. Like the base Kindle, the Nia isn't waterproof. Hear what everyone's liste ning to. In this article, we will compare Kobo vs Kindle to find out the difference between them and what are the little and big things that set them apart. Reviewing the Kobo Nia By: Ted Kritsonis October 3, 2020 If you ... Get a card from your local public library and you can use OverDrive on the Nia to borrow digital books. A lot of manga and comics fans like Kobo because of the company's broad file support, but the screen is just a bit too small for viewing pictures. If you’re thinking of alternatives, the Libra H2O is $200, while Amazon’s Kindle Paperwhite starts at $140. Bask in the sun with your favourite read on its glare-free 6” touchscreen, or snuggle up with a bedtime story thanks to adjustable ComfortLight. You need to select your ebook reader ecosystem based on content. It’s accessible in a different way, which is to say you can use it one-handed and put it in a pocket. Your experience may vary depending on the document in question, but it was patently obvious to me the Nia was best at reading eBooks tailored to its screen. Escape into a story, learn something new, and remember why reading is fun. 6" 167 PPI. FREE Delivery View Details. Our top audiobooks. Unlike Kindles, there's no Goodreads integration; like Kindles, there's an experimental web browser. It's super easy to hold, and not slippery at all. I downloaded John Scalzi's The Last Emperox and it looks great. That said, I still prefer Kobo's Libra H2O by far. Audiobook. Certified Refurbished Kobo Aura 2 £69.99 . It’s about the only way you can add some colour to this thing. Kobo's website is now listing the Nia for 130$. 174 g. Click for Price. vs. Kobo Clara. The Libra H2O ($169.99) is our Editors' Choice, with its flat front, waterproof build, and physical buttons. See the full list. 8 comments. They don't make the it waterproof, but they do protect the screen. Battery Life: Solid after the first charge . If you prefer Amazon's one-stop shopping, go with Amazon. It then resets after you’ve connected to Wi-Fi and either opened 15 eBooks or reached the end of the 30-day period of offline reading. Click the questions below to learn more. Rakuten bought OverDrive in 2015 and then sold it in 2019, but it’s still well integrated into the Kobo platform. This will bring down a drop down menu. At the entry-level, Amazon has been a tough nut to crack. For protection against splashes or spills, you'll have to opt for the Kobo Libra H2O or the Kindle Paperwhite. The Nia doesn’t really offer any of that. (For even larger e-ink screens, look at the Onyx Boox series of tablets). The Nia has a single-color, blue-white frontlight with a brightness level you can adjust manually. … You may unsubscribe from the newsletters at any time. Brad Moon. The reason you get a Kobo is to read free ebooks. FREE Delivery View Details. The Nia is the base model in Kobo's four-tier lineup. Reading on it is fine, and you get some of the latest software features the company brought in the last couple of years. You’ll notice that when you searching through it before even signing up. FREE Delivery View Details. Twitter . The Kobo Nia is now open for pre-orders at $100 with shipping set to start on July 21st. Text is nice and sharp, and the screen is responsive when tapping it to flip pages. Arguably, features like waterproofing on Amazon’s Kindles wouldn’t exist if the Kobo didn’t add it first. Kobo has its own store that has all the popular, major-publisher books that you'll find at Amazon, but it lacks Amazon's many exclusives, self-published books, short stories, novellas, and such. Having focused the last couple of years on more expensive models, like the Libra H2O and Forma, for instance, this device is basic by comparison. Kobo's flagship and new entry-level eReaders, the Forma and Nia. Bask in the sun with your favourite read on its glare-free 6” touchscreen, or snuggle up with a bedtime story thanks to adjustable ComfortLight. Kobo Libra H2O SleepCover £34.99 . Getting Started. But that’s by design because the company is going after readers who don’t want every new feature. The Kobo Aura Edition 2 is probably the most basic and cheapest Kobo model currently on the market. Do you miss your public library? Overall, the Kobo Nia is very user-friendly. See the … Features: native Overdrive support, full file compatibility; Price: starts at $149.95; Both the Kindle Paperwhite and Kobo Nia are 6-inch e-readers designed for mainstream audiences. The Kobo Store has 4 million eBooks available, which you can browse through anytime you’re on Wi-Fi. Segan is also a multiple award-winning travel writer. If you want to download EPUB books and spend a lot of time in OverDrive, Kobo is the way to go. FREE Delivery View Details. I checked my online Kobo account and it too shows my book at 1%. OverDrive is a free service that lets you borrow eBooks from your local library’s digital collection. From the Home screen, tap the menu button on the top corner. There is a navigation bar along the bottom with icons for Home, My Books, Discover, and More. Like all other Kobo ereaders, the Nia comes with OverDrive support in many countries, so borrowing ebooks from a public library is seamless. report. FREE Delivery View Details. Thanks guys. The home screen is pretty straightforward. The $99 Kobo Nia brings OverDrive local library access to a new price point and offers a higher-quality alternative to Amazon's $89.99 Kindle. Or at least a return of sorts. The only physical button is the power button on the bottom, next to the micro USB charging port. 6" 212 PPI. Audiobook. At 6.20 by 4.40 by 0.36 inches (HWD), it's the smallest ebook reader currently available. Kobo Nia £89.99 . Your email address will not be published. FREE Delivery View Details. Skip this list. PCMag.com's lead mobile analyst, Sascha Segan, has reviewed more than 1,100 smartphones, tablets and other gadgets in more than 15 years with PCMag. There are no real bells and whistles, nor a flashy design to brag about. You can now borrow books from OverDrive directly from the Kobo catalogue if you have a Kobo Nia, Kobo Libra H2O, Kobo Forma, Kobo Aura, Kobo Clara HD. You can plug OverDrive into the native store here, letting library results come up when you search the Kobo store for books (something Kindles can't do). About a million of them are actually free downloads, so if you’re on a tight budget, you may find something to read for nothing. Kobo Nia $149.95 . View all Check out these great audiobooks. Kobo Nia. Kobo Clara HD SleepCover £24.99 . The Nia has a buttonless front with a touch screen, and a hard plastic back with a stippled texture to make it easy to grip. So if you’re looking into a slightly cheaper Kobo, but still want a high-resolution screen, this one might be worth looking into. You might want to spend an extra $30 on a Sleepcover case to give the Nia some protection when you’re transporting it or leaving it lying around. Kobo's website is now listing the Nia for 130$. 172 g. Click for Price. Audiobook. Subscribing to a newsletter indicates your consent to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. 8 GB. … You can also link your Kobo to Pocket and read articles from Pocket on the device. Certified Refurbished Kobo Clara HD £89.99 . Pocket is available on computers, phones and tablets, so whatever links you set aside on those devices will be available on the Nia, too. Announced in July 2020, the Nia is the latest ereader to join the Kobo ranks, and also the company's cheapest device. Kobo Nia review: Display. Click on Settings then OverDrive. Our expert industry analysis and practical solutions help you make better buying decisions and get more from technology. Audiobook. Any advice on what I should do to try and fix these issues? Depending on your requirements and budget, you can choose the Kobo or Kindle model that is a perfect match for your needs. Kobo Nia’s a big deal in a small package: you can carry up to 6,000 eBooks with its 8GB of storage. Technology Plays with Virtual Sports, Virtual Fans, Virtual Athletes, Tech Categories That Are Growing Like Wildfire Due To The Pandemic. Read as much as you’d like with Kobo Nia’s long battery life, where a single charge can last for weeks*. Audiobook. Kobo Aura Edition 2. Is the clarity for Kobo Nia comparable to Kobo Clara? save. Read as much as you’d like with Kobo Nia’s long battery life, where a single charge can last for weeks. If you’re familiar with Kobo, there are no real surprises here. Amazon is one of the pioneers in the … I got through Lawrence Wright's 380-page The End of October on a charge with about 20 percent remaining; you'll probably want to charge the device once per large book. The downside is that some of what’s missing feels like it’s missing. Netflix: a user evaluates the Canadian experience, Telus will unlock any of its phones for $50 fee. Audiobook. Competition pushes innovation forward. Other than its relative safety from a fall or contact with water, this is your basic eReader that will just get you through whatever titles you want to read. (I've torn one Kindle screen until the backlight shone through, something I like to call "a rip in the universe."). Battery life won’t be a problem here, since it will last for weeks before you need to recharge. You can add one of three different $29.99 leather Sleep Covers that the Nia slides into. Bask in the sun with your favourite read on its glare-free 6” touchscreen, or snuggle up with a bedtime story thanks to adjustable ComfortLight. FREE Delivery View Details. Troubleshooting on the Kobo website doesn't really list any of the issues I'm facing. We provide news, reviews and features by some of Canada’s best tech writers, run regular contests for the hottest new products, and keep our readers current with the latest tech news with our monthly newsletters. My library's OverDrive browsing page is pretty spare⁠—it shows me new releases, but not nicely categorized shelves⁠—so I went in through the Kobo store and just started putting holds on books I want (a big part of the e-library-reading game is putting down a whole bunch of holds, then seeing the books pop up over the upcoming weeks). For $130, you’re getting what you pay for, and if you’re on the fence, read on here to find out why. On the other hand, Kobo's broad native file format support means you can download PDF, EPUB, and MOBI books from a range of sites and stores, and copy them over to your Kobo using a USB cable. Last Updated: 05 February 2021 12:30 PM. With Kindles, you have to go through the library's site on your phone or PC—not a huge deal, but an extra step that gets in the way. It’s also the most convenient ebook … Luckily, these books are free—I’ve been downloading one every few days from my local library on the Kobo Nia, a new ebook reader. Follow the steps below to sign into OverDrive and get started. Bask in the sun with your favourite read on its glare-free 6” touchscreen, or snuggle up with a bedtime story thanks to adjustable ComfortLight. Escape into a story, learn something new, and remember why reading is fun. Kobo, which is owned by the Japanese company Rakuten, needs to exist. And when you’re ready for your next read, the Kobo eBookstore is … Your email address will not be published. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. If you do load up JPEG, TIFF, GIF, PNG and BMP images, you may find they don’t look as great on this screen. There’s no ComfortLight blue light filter, nor any waterproofing, so this is the kind of product you’d have to be careful with near water or at night. Its 6-inch E Ink Carta display is lower in resolution, yet still offers a respectable 212ppi pixel density. With its 6-inch, 212ppi E Ink screen, the Nia is best for reading plain text. The book I was reading is back to 1% read. Other than his home town of New York, his favorite cities are Barcelona and Hong Kong. You can make bookmarks, highlights, or jump to a page or chapter. It's like having a small, digital library card. Waterproofing, blue light filtering and more internal storage were just three of the extras the company threw in to make the devices more accessible. It’s easily the most portable eReader Kobo currently has in its lineup. And when you’re ready for your next read, the Kobo eBookstore is … In recent years, Kobo opted to go with larger screens and bigger form factors to make its eReaders more appealing and durable. The biggest difference that I can see is that the Clara has a 300ppi resolution where the NIA is a 212 ppi. Pocket is available on computers, phones and tablets, so whatever links you set aside on those devices will be available on … If you have one of these eReaders, you have access to the built-in OverDrive feature. This one has a 6” glare … True, that’s the whole premise behind an eReader, but for Kobo, the Nia is something of a change. Kobo Nia’s a big deal in a small package: you can carry up to 6,000 eBooks with its 8GB of storage. This thread is archived. Kobo's real strength is in its integration with OverDrive, the ebook system that most libraries use. Keep an eye on your inbox! A personal favourite is the scrubber to navigate and move along book pages with ease. You can also use Pocket to save articles you find on the web and read them later on the eReader. WhatsYourTech.ca is an exciting, independent collection of grass-roots technology blogs by Canadians for Canadians. Sign up for What's New Now to get our top stories delivered to your inbox every morning. Jemisin, and others, you'll have to read them on a Kindle (yes, there are ways to break Kindle DRM, but we don't advise breaking terms of service on purchased items). PCMag Digital Group. Thank you for the chance- helpful,fun prize. But if you're going to read a large number of books over the course of a few years, that difference is absolutely worth it for a flat front design, physical page-turn buttons, a bigger screen with a higher resolution, and waterproofing, earning it our Editors' Choice. The ComfortLight Pro filtering is definitely one of them, as is the fact that eBook PDFs and other documents don’t look as good on a 6-inch screen as they would on one that was 7- or 8-inches. Kobo Plus is basically a subscription service brought over to Canada that gives you unfettered access to “hundreds of thousands” of titles for $9.99/month. Copying over EPUB and PDF files via USB to the Nia, I found that the device maintained the internal links and formatting in EPUB and PDF files, but page flips in large PDFs were slow and there was ghosting when I had several pages with dark backgrounds in a row. hide. PCMag, PCMag.com and PC Magazine are among the federally registered trademarks of Ziff Davis, LLC and may not be used by third parties without explicit permission. Since these tablets run the Android operating system, you can use our Android articles for more help. The "refresh" rate is similar? © 1996-2021 Ziff Davis, LLC. I'd also note that with the small screen, PDFs of larger-size pages aren't easily readable. Kobo Clara HD. I know I do. You turn pages by tapping the sides of the touch screen. The entry-level Kobo Nia is a cute, compact way to read library books and EPUB files, but we think it's worth spending a bit more for waterproofing. Originally, I thought this would be good enough for hours because I wanted to read … Trying to not overspend in terms of e-readers, already have a Kindle but my counry's libraries resources are only available through Kobo Overdrive. This newsletter may contain advertising, deals, or affiliate links. The Kobo Nia came with a 50 percent charge when I first pulled it out of its box. For example, if you want to read the Forward Collection of sci-fi short stories by Andy Weir, N.K. Like other Kobo devices, plug this one into a computer and you can transfer over documents and files at your leisure. Given that Amazon dominates the ebook market in the US, the company's tying of content and hardware should probably merit antitrust prosecution, but it hasn't so far.