Kobo Forma waterproof ereader takes its cues from Kindle Oasis

Love the style of Amazon's Kindle Oasis ereader, but don't want to be locked into Jeff Bezos's machine? Kobo has a new ereader, the Kobo Forma, that looks strikingly similar to the top-of-the-line Kindle, excepts being free of all the Amazonian trappings.

The Kobo Forma has an 8-inch E-Ink Mobius display and, like the Kindle Oasis, has page turn buttons sat on one side of the screen for improved one-handed ergonomics. 

However, unlike the Oasis, it appears to have a slight lip, allowing the edge with those page turn buttons to act as an angled desktop stand when combined with the reader's case.

Watery words

Coming in an 8GB capacity (with a 32GB version exclusive to Japan for picture-heavy manga files), the Kobo Forma is also waterproof up to IPX8 standards, meaning it can survive unscathed from a six-foot-deep, 60 minute dunking.

With that E-Ink Mobius display apparently stress tested to be more resilient than any ereader that's come before it, the Kobo Forma also feature a backlight that will intelligently adjust blue light levels (the sort that keep you awake at night) throughout the day.

Pre-orders open on October 16th in the US priced at $279.99 (about £215 / AU$390), with store sales opening in the US, and UK from October 23rd. Australia will get the tablet from early 2019.

• Best Kindle: which Amazon ereader should you buy?

from TechRadar - Mobile computing news https://ift.tt/2NfY4jr