It’s been a while since I last saw an eReader with wow factor. By and large, most eReaders are the same: an e-ink screen with a small amount of storage in various screen sizes. Once e-ink became easier to read and backlighting became more standard, there really wasn’t much more to add. And yet, the Kobo Elipsa 2E is an eReader worth being excited about. Though, at this price, it does almost make more sense to just buy an iPad.
Details: Kobo Elipsa 2E
| Australian website | Kobo Australia |
| Price (RRP) | $629.95 |
| Warranty | One-year Standard Limited Warranty |
| Other | Read more tablet reviews on GadgetGuy |
First Impressions: Kobo Elipsa 2E
Kobo is not trying to reinvent anything here with the design of the Kobo Elipsa 2E; it’s a black rectangle. It’s a nice, angular black rectangle. But it’s just a black rectangle. There’s some texture on there, though, so it’s not as slippery as other eReaders, and the fact that it’s marginally thicker than some competitors means it’s a bit more comfortable to hold.
The ‘E’ in the 2E seems to stand from environment, because there’s some recycled plastic included in the build, which is a nice gesture.
It’s also nice that the fancy pen comes in the box. Other competitors include a basic pen and then get you to pay extra for any fancy features, but I love this pen. Different pressures will give you slightly different kinds of brush strokes, and the eraser on the top is both adorable and practical. Having the button on the side to highlight is also a really nice touch. This is a pen designed with keen knowledge of how people want to use it, which is again not standard across the note-taking eReader world.
Screen
The 10.3” e-ink screen is gorgeous. Its refresh is quick enough, the backlighting goes bright enough to be read in a variety of lighting conditions. The slight texture on the screen pulls quadruple duty in making it a bit more comfortable to read, more interesting to hold, less reflective (for reading outdoors) and more pleasant to write on.
Compared directly to my Kindle Scribe, the Elipsa 2E screen is much nicer. The Scribe’s screen looks oddly sunken and a bit cheap, while the Elipsa 2E appears to be a bit more premium.
Libraries
One thing that I love about Kobo eReaders over Amazon Kindles is that Kobo eReaders are designed for reading, whereas Kindles are designed to sell you books. Kindles will display ads unless you pay for premium subscriptions, and you’re severely limited in the file types you can upload, markup, and which kinds of books you can access easily. This is a concern, given the issues with how Amazon pays authors.
- Write directly on eBooks and PDF’s and easily find all your notes
- Search to find keywords or specific notes in your personal notebooks quickly
- Organise your notebooks in folders and choose from a wide selection of templates
- Covert your handwriting to typed text and share with colleagues or classmates
- Exterior made with over 85% recycled plastic, including 10% ocean-bound plastic
Kobos aren’t perfect, there is now also a premium subscription service, and this move to subscriptions is tiresome. But, in addition to the Kobo store and a wide variety of file types you can upload through a variety of methods, you can also access library apps like Overdrive. Crucially, the range in the Overdrive app on Kobo is a bit smaller, because it appears you only have access to books that are both available in the library’s database and the Kobo store. But that’s still access to thousands of books for free through your eReader as long as you’re a member of your local library (and you should be, libraries are wonderful and free).
Note-taking
Note-taking is really easy with the fancy Kobo Stylus 2. There are four things to the stylus: a USB-C port (because the stylus will need charging infrequently), a nib (for the traditional writing part), an eraser head (for erasing) and a button (used to highlight stuff).
One thing that annoyed me about the Kindle Scribe is that I was very limited in the kinds of books I could make notes in. So far, on the Elipsa 2E, I haven’t found any such restrictions. Perhaps some DRM-protected PDFs? But I could take notes in books from the library, the Kobo store, my own PDFs, and random .epub files from Archive Of Our Own. It’s also really easy to export notebook pages in PDF or JPEG, so any notes you make during class or an interview can be exported to wherever you need them.
The stylus isn’t precise enough for drawing or detail work. Every now and then the screen would miss a line I made, or a letter would come out more squished than it would have otherwise. This is fine for most simple note-taking, but important to keep in mind if you want it for more than that.
Would I buy it?
Absolutely. This is what I wanted the Kindle Scribe to be. If my budget could stretch that far, and I needed an eReader I could take notes on, this would be the one I would buy.
Now, that said, there are a couple of caveats:
Firstly, most people do not actually need to be able to take notes on their eReader. This is great for students, academics, writers, journalists, and nerds in general. But if you just need an eReader, this is way overkill. A different Kobo would be a better pick.
Secondly, this is almost $100 more than an entry-level iPad. You can also read books on an iPad, and take notes using an Apple Pencil (which would bring the whole package up to $708). An iPad can do more things than just let you read books and take notes on them. At pure dollar-for-dollar value, the iPad is a much, much better buy.
However, an iPad is a whole other device. Sometimes you want a focused device that you can’t get distracted on, but don’t want the heft of a bunch of paper books. I currently use an iPad, a Kindle Scribe and a laptop in my day-to-day. These devices have a lot of crossover, but are for different purposes. It just depends on what your budget is and what you need.
But, in short, yes. The Kobo Elipsa 2E is a truly excellent eReader and I want one.
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