The Kobo Nia: A Budget-Friendly, Yet Limited E-Reader Option
Comprehensive Assessment of Kobo Nia Digital Book Reader
The Kobo Nia is the first e-reader released by Kobo in 2020, designed for novice e-reader users or those with older Kobo devices more than five years old. This device shines in reading eBooks, borrowing eBooks from OverDrive, or reading articles from Pocket. However, it falls short when it comes to handling PDF files effectively or using the experimental web browser, due to its lack of hardware power.
Design
The Kobo Nia boasts an all-black, sleek design, with a six-inch E INK Carta HD capacitive touchscreen display with a resolution of 1024×758 and 212 PPI. The screen is slightly sunken and not flush with the bezel, and it lacks amber LED lights for a more evenly lit and comfortable reading experience when compared to the Kobo Clara HD. Additionally, the Nia's frontlit display has only five white LED lights that provide adequate lighting for nighttime reading.
Hardware
The Kobo Nia is powered by the energy-efficient i.MX 6ULL processor, which includes an advanced implementation of a single Arm Cortex-A7 core operating at speeds up to 900 MHz. It comes with a meager 256MB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage, housed on an SD card soldered onto the motherboard. The device can connect to the internet via WiFi 802.11b/g/n and is powered by a relatively small 1,000 mAh battery. It weighs 172g and measures 112.4 x 159.3 x 9.2 mm.
Software
The Kobo Nia operates on a customized version of Linux and offers a user-friendly interface that caters to various reading preferences. The home screen showcases the last few books opened or purchased, and the rest of the screen is dedicated to similar titles and links to the Kobo online store. The library menu displays content in list and cover view, and users can sort by author, date added, or publisher. It also enables the creation of custom collections to manage preferred books easily.
The Kobo Nia allows seamless integration with Pocket, enabling users to push website and blog articles directly to their e-reader for later reading convenience. This device also offers OverDrive functionality for accessing digital collections from public libraries in supported regions, including Canada, the US, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore.
Limitations
The Kobo Nia is not waterproof, so it cannot be used in the bath or at the beach. Additionally, its limited hardware components result in slow performance when accessing menus, sub-menus, browsing the internet, or viewing PDF files, which often take a long time to load and are prone to crashing. When testing, the interview browser crashed multiple times on popular tech websites.
Pros
- Integration with OverDrive and Pocket
- Decent industrial design
- Ideal for eBook reading
- Compatible with kids' books
Cons
- Underwhelming hardware performance
- 212 PPI display
- Poor PDF experience
- No SD card slot
- Mediocre front-light system
- The touchscreen on the Kobo Nia, a budget-friendly e-reader, is a six-inch E INK Carta HD capacitive display with a resolution of 1024×758 and 212 PPI.
- The Kobo Nia operates on a customized version of Linux and offers reading apps such as Pocket, enabling users to push articles directly to their e-reader for later reading.
- Despite being a compact gadget with a sleek design, the Kobo Nia's firmware updates may be slower due to its limited hardware components, resulting in slow performance when accessing menus, sub-menus, browsing the internet, or viewing reading apps like PDF files.
