Introduction

I have wanted an e-ink based e-reader for a while. Reading on my

computer is ok. Reading on my phone is doable, but is very annoying. If

I don't keep my finger on the screen, it will go blank and then I have

to make sure and press the power button to bring the screen back to life

before it locks. A tablet would probably be a nice compromise, but I

really wanted to try out an e-ink display, and didn't want the potential

distractions of a more multi-purpose device. I wanted not only and e-ink

display, but also one that ran a linux operating system, and a reader

that I could potentially put a different Linux distribution on, or

modify myself somehow. When asked what I wanted for Christmas this year

by my wonderful girlfriend, I sent her a link to the KOBO Libra H20.

KOBO Libra H20 specification

processor - Freescale i.MX6 SLL 1 GHz

RAM - 512 MB

hard drive - 8GB

display - 7 inch HD 300 PPI E Ink touchscreen with 1680 x 1264

resolution

dimensions - 6.3 by 5.7 by 0.3 inches (HWD) and 6.8 ounces or 159

by 144 by 7.6 mm and 192g

battery - 1200 mAh. Good battery life. Currently I use it

infrequently, and have charged it maybe 4 or 5 times of the last

year

Connectivity -WiFi 802.11 b/g/n and Micro USB. I have it

connected to my home network. Have only used WiFi to update the OS. I

use the USB port to transfer books I've downloaded to my computer, and

to charge the Kobo.

Calibre ebook management

I knew about Calibre, but had never used it. So far it has been a

great e-book manager. Has very nice features for editing meta data and

organizing my books. It will also transfer the books to the Libra H20

and update its internal database. One thing I found is KOBO does have

its own EPUB format that it uses to optimize display of books. In

particular, it fixes an issue where images in standard EPUB format don't

scale to the size of the page. Calibre has a plugin system, and a 3rd

party plugin is available that will convert a standard EPUB format to

KePUB when you transfer the book to the e-reader.

Conclusion

I have been enjoying my KOBO reader. It can feel a little slow at

times, especially rendering pdf files where the page is a picture of the

text and not made up of electronic characters, and it does render images

in standard epub format a bit small at times. Other than these two

things, it is very easy to read in all lighting settings, and I enjoy

reading using the KOBO.

References

KOBO website

KOBO

Libra H20

Kobo

Libra H2O manual

Kobo

Libra H2O review; Sharmishta Sarkar, Dan Gardiner; May 20,

2020

Calibre ebook

management

How

to Convert EPUB to Kepub Calibre; Ada Wang; 2/13/2020

Kobotouchextended

E

Ink