Kobo Nia: Will the new e-reader overthrow the Amazon Kindle? - 20 Minutes

  • Bulimics of reading will be able to give heart to joy this summer with the new reading lamp Nia by Kobo, launched at 99 euros.
  • Wanting to compete with Amazon and its famous Kindle, Kobo delivers a well thought-out device with a 6-inch screen and 8 GB of memory.
  • But the eternal rival already has the parade by aligning the price of its Kindle Paperwhite reader, more sophisticated, on that of the Nia.

Want to eat a few cobblestones this summer? The Kobo Nia reader is perfect! Launched at 99 euros, the new rival of the famous Amazon Kindle can hold up to 6,000 books. The holidays will not be enough, but the suitcases of frequent readers will gain in lightness. 20 Minutes devoured a few chapters before the Nia went on sale on July 21…

93% more reading time during confinement

Exit in the long term Clara HD, place in Nia. Kobo (now owned by Rakuten) takes over the shelves with its brand new reader. This obviously wants to compete with the sales champion, the Amazon Kindle, now offered at 69 euros.

The screen of the Kobo Nia displays a resolution of 1024 x 758 pixels for 212 dpi. - CHRISTOPHE SEFRIN / 20 MINUTES

While Kobo saw the reading time of users of its e-readers increase by 93% during confinement, Nia first targets bulimics of the summer with an entry-level e-reader and 8 GB of memory (against 4 GB for the Kindle).

The screen of the Kobo Nia is 6 inches, the equivalent of a paperback. - CHRISTOPHE SEFRIN / 20 MINUTES

Taken out of its pocket, the device is as wide, but a little less tall than a pocket book (112.4 mm x 159.3 mm for 9.2 mm thickness). Nia holds it in one hand and holds it well. The very slightly grainy finish of its plastic shell ensures excellent grip. Reading with Nia in the hand for a long time (we swallowed the novel  La Commode aux tiroirs de couleurs , by Olivia Ruiz, in three hours) posed no problem for us. At any time, it is possible to choose your font among the twelve proposed, to adjust the size, to adjust the line spacing and the margins and to opt for such or such justification. A dictionary is also on board and it remains possible to annotate passages that will be selected.

The comfort of adaptive brightness

Important criterion: the brightness. That of Nia can be adjusted as needed on a scale of 0 to 100%. It goes without saying that this setting influences the autonomy of the device that we could not check during our test over a weekend, but announced several weeks with the integrated battery of 1.000 mAh. Little reminder: digital e-readers use a display process based on "electronic" ink, which is extremely energy efficient. CQFD

The readability of the Kobo Nia is good with a brightness that can be adjusted from 0 to 100%. - CHRISTOPHE SEFRIN / 20 MINUTES

The reading comfort offered by the Nia is very real. The 6-inch (15.24 cm) screen without reflection is large enough so that the gaze is not lost. It offers a reading experience close to that of a paper book. Its resolution of 1024 x 758 pixels and 212 dpi is better than that of the Kindle which appears at 167 dpi. Dpi? "  Dot per inch  ", the number of dots per inch. The more there are, the finer the image.

In the sun or in the middle of the night, we experienced no discomfort. For insomniacs, the ComfortLight process automatically softens the brightness so that it does not disturb the person who sleeps sleep right next to you.

The Kindle Paperwhite in ambush

Small flat: nothing is planned to reduce exposure to blue light, a technique reserved for high-end reading lights from Kobo, such as the Kobo Aura ONE (229 euros), or the Forma (279 euros). We also regret the lack of watertightness of Nia, this development being there also reserved for more sophisticated devices, such as the aptly named Kobo Libra H2O (179 euros).

The Kobo Nia has a 1000 mAh battery for a range announced for several weeks. - CHRISTOPHE SEFRIN / 20 MINUTES

Attention, the people of Kobo: Amazon does better on this point with its Kindle Paperwhite which is water resistant, has a 6 inch screen of 300 dpi, a memory of 8 GB. And by chance its price just dropped by 12 euros, to be displayed at 99 euros… the same as that of the Nia.

The Kobo, on the other hand, keeps the advantage of being able to read ePub files, very widespread, which the Kindle do not allow for which, unless to be satisfied with reading PDF, the proprietary format of Amazon remains in use.

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