Text and photos by Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla
Kobo has sure come a long way from being an upstart eBook reader maker. Aside from constant innovation and improvement, the company has created valuable social reading applications that enhance the reading experience and they have also aspired to take on the best in the market in terms of hardware. The Kobo Arc is their flagship device.
With increasing competition from powerful, multifunctional and increasingly affordable Android tablets like the Nexus 7, hybrid eReaders like the Kobo Arc and the Kinde Fire are a tough sell since they are readers with coloured screens and offer limited access to the Android ecosystem via a curated (albeit greatly reduced in number) app store.
Unlike their monochrome standalone readers, which are cheaper and are designed purely for reading with no tablet OS or apps present, hybrid devices which are a little bit of both are hard to pin down.
The Kobo Arc sells for $199 and has 16GB of storage space. It boasts an ultra crisp HD display capable of showing 16.4 million colours, it is powered by a 1.5 GHz TI OMAP 4470 processor, and 1 GB of low-power RAM which is decent for today's standards and certainly exceptional for a souped-up ebook reader.
The Kobo Arc also features stereo speakers at the bottom and a front-facing camera for Skype video calls within WiFi range and it also runs a recent build of Android OS Jelly Bean which gives it access to Google Now's intuitive search application.
As an evolution to previous Kobo tablet/eReaders like last year's Kobo Vox, the Arc is clearly an improvement in almost every way. While the Vox felt cheaply put together and flimsy, the Arc is dense and feels like a more premium device.
The screen is vastly improved and even squeezes a higher resolution than many tablets like the iPad mini and the Nexus 7. Not just ideal for reading, the 1280 x 800 HD resolution; 215 ppi; displays 16.4 million colour spec will do a great job for videos and some of the available games.
I see the Kobo Arc as an ideal device for users who want a coloured reader and who are interested in apps, entertainment and all the benefits that tablets can bring.
Now, whether it is better to purchase the Kobo Arc or an actual Android tablet or iPad mini that can run various eReader apps concurrently, including Kobo's software, is one question buyers need to answer for themselves.
Personally, I don't see the benefit of choosing a coloured eReader over a 'true' tablet, specially if you consider that the pricing isn't all that different since the 16GB Nexus 7 retails for $209.
While I like the look and the feel of the Kobo Arc, I was dismayed to find out that it is even heavier (at 364 g.) than the Nexus 7 (340 g.) and the iPad mini (308 g) and you quickly realize that this impacts long term one-handed operation.
So, it seems that while the Kobo Arc is a step forward in terms or eReaders, it isn't a particularly great deal for a tablet, specially if you consider that there is a lot of competition with similar or better specs and thinner, lighter form factors that do offer the broad spectrum of Google Play apps and features.
Unless one is heavily invested in Kobo's social reading ecosystem, it is hard to reccomend the Kobo Arc over other full-featured tablets that also run eReader software as well as thousands of apps.
Rating: 2 out of 5