Kobo has announced a slew of new products to take on Amazon’s successful line of Kindle tablets. The company has announced a new eReader, as well as two new Android tablets that compare favourably to cheaper Android tablets, including the new Nexus 7 from Google and Asus.
First up is the Kobo Aura, a cheaper alternative to the HD eReader the company introduced earlier this year. The regular Aura drops the 1440×1080 display – as well as display size to 6-inches – but still features a front-lit e-ink display for crisp text that’s legible in bright sunlight. Kobo says that the eReader includes 4GB of internal storage, a microSD card slot, and battery life that should be good for “up to two months”. It’ll go on sale on September 16th for £120.
Wait another month, though, and you’ll have a choice of two interesting Android alternatives. The first is the Arc 7 HD, featuring a 1920×1200 7-inch display, along with a Tegra 3 quad-core processor, 1GB of RAM, and a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera. The tablet is running Android 4.2.2 out of the box, and will be made available for £160. The base model will include 16GB of storage, although a version with 32GB will increase your spend to £190.
The Arc 10 HD, meanwhile, has just about the best specs you can get in a 10-inch tablet right now. Nvidia’s latest Tegra 4 chip is onboard, as is a high-resolution 10-inch 2560×1600 display. The RAM has been bumped to 2GB over the 7-inch tablet too, and Kobo has included the same front-facing camera, as well as dual stereo speakers, Bluetooth 4.0, and Miracast support. There’s full access to the Play Store, and a promised 9.5 hours of battery when the tablet is placed into “Reading Mode”. The tablet will also undercut the Nexus 10, priced at £300 versus Google and Samsung’s £319 asking price.
The Android tablets will be available on October 16th directly from Kobo, as well as through retailers such as WH Smith and Staples.
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