Somewhere between audiobook and notepad: the Kobo Elipsa 2E
The Kobo Elipsa 2E lets you doodle straight into e-books, browse notes via the search function and enjoy audiobooks. This e-reader can do a lot of things, not all of which have been fully developed.
The Kobo Elipsa 2E has significantly more features than an ordinary e-reader. You can surf the web, create sketchbooks and play solitaire – as long as you have plenty of patience. Because compared to a tablet, this e-reader is home to modest hardware. But it makes up for it with a long battery life, good display and being pleasant to write with.
Recycled shell, casual core
The Kobo Elipsa 2 E comes in at 193 × 227 × 7.5 mm, including its wide frame. While bigger than a smartphone, it still sits comfortably in your hand. However, when used as a notebook and for comics, this size has advantages. Its 390 g weight is relatively heavy for an e-reader. To put this into perspective, an iPad Air only weighs about 100 g more. The ribbed back made of recycled plastic makes the reader non-slip. It also comes with the Kobo Stylus 2 for writing and a USB-C cable for charging.
Source: Michelle Brändle
Source: Michelle Brändle
The e-ink display is 10.3 inches and boasts a 1404 × 1872 pixel resolution. This gives you a density of 227 pixels per inch (ppi). It’s enjoyable to read on, the font is sharp and comes pretty close to looking like a page out of a book. However, it takes the tablet longer to load when opening pictures, notes or different tabs.
The device features a 2 GH processor as well as 32 GB of available storage. This equates to over 20,000 books. While the battery life isn’t specified, I find it lasts me a good two weeks with regular use. And by that I mean about two hours of reading and doodling every day.
Setting it up: connect your account and go
If you already have an e-reader account, you can link it up to the Kobo Elipsa. Otherwise, you can choose between a Google, Facebook or Apple account.
You can find your books on the start page. And your notebooks, the Kobo e-book store and the More category are in the lower menu bar. That’s where your wish list, Dropbox and beta features also live.
Source: Michelle Brändle
The pen: simple and practical
The Kobo Stylus 2 sits comfortably in your hand. The reverse acts as an eraser, and there’s a button near the top. If I press this, I can use the pen as a marker. Moreover, pressure sensitivity lets me alter the thickness of any lines I draw.
The stylus rarely responds before I’ve touched the screen. Then I restart the e-reader each time. I can replace worn tips to avoid scratching the Kobo Elipsa 2E’s display.
The pen features a small indicator light. If the battery starts to run out, the light flashes orange. I find the stylus lasts about eight days. Then I charge it via USB-C. Once the light changes to white when plugged in, the pen is fully charged. This takes about an hour.
Source: Michelle Brändle
Books: reading with notes and a blue light filter
First and foremost, the Kobo Elipsa 2E is an e-reader. You can leaf through books by tapping and swiping the page edges. If you tap at the bottom, a bar will appear that allows you to select a specific location in the book. Tapping on the top returns you to the main menu or lets you alter various settings. When you tap on a word, you can look it up on Wikipedia or Google. Duden would also be handy here for German speakers.
If you like to read in bed at night, it’s important to protect your eyes from blue light. This is what the natural light feature is for. It’s a blue light filter, which you can use in combination with a timer if you want. You can also adjust display brightness so you can clearly read the screen, even outside in bright sunshine.
Source: Michelle Brändle
I often scribble my thoughts straight into books themselves. With the Kobo Elipsa 2E, I can also do this in e-books using the stylus. If I need to, I can delete notes individually or all at once. Annotated pages should have an icon on them the next time you open the book, so you can easily view your notes again. Strangely enough, the display isn’t always there, and you can’t hide the notes either.
Source: Michelle Brändle
Notebooks for all your needs
If you don’t have enough space for your notes in the margin of the page, you can create your own notebooks – either basic or advanced. With the former, you get to choose from all available layouts. Meanwhile, advanced notebooks allow you to insert fields for drawings, diagrams, shapes and equations, as well as convert handwriting into printed characters. There’s only one page available for this. I’d rather a notebook that had all options.
Source: Michelle Brändle
Source: Michelle Brändle
Sketching feels nice on the rough display. However, the Kobo Elipsa 2E has to constantly recompute, which is annoying. If I want to rub something out afterwards, I can either erase whole lines or just parts of the sketch. In e-books, you can only do the former.
In terms of writing, there’s a search function for my handwritten notes. The Kobo Elipsa 2E automatically digitises what I write and recognises searched words. However, due to the device’s meagre processing power, this takes a long time even with just a bit of text.
The result is satisfactory. In my note about the German municipalities Hagen and Sören, the device searches for instances of Sören when I ask it to. When I click on one of the displayed results, it highlights that area in the text.
Source: Michelle Brändle
I can also delete entire pages of notes. The respective commands Erase page and Delete page are self-explanatory.
The bookstore tests my patience
Kobo has its own store for books and audiobooks; there are three ways to access it. Either directly from your e-reader if you have Wi-Fi, via the app on your smartphone or on the website using your computer. Whichever route you choose, the book you buy will synch seamlessly with your e-reader via your account. However, the only convenient option is using the website.
Source: Michelle Brändle
The tablet version is confusing and load times are extremely long. Also, I automatically get directed to French-language titles, even though I have the reader set to German. It’s not like it just happens once; it’s every time I open the store, which is tedious. As for the Android app, it’s faster but also confusing. The shopping experience on the website is definitely the best.
You can also get comics in the store. The only ones I’d recommend are manga. Because they’re black and white, latency is contained. The Elipsa 2E loads colour comics slowly. And the image can look blurry. That’s why it’s best to check out a sample beforehand, if possible.
Source: Michelle Brändle
Thanks to Bluetooth, you can listen to audiobooks from the store directly on your Kobo Elipsa 2E. The jury’s still out on how useful and practical this is. But for me, this e-reader is too bulky.
What else this e-reader can do
The Kobo Elipsa 2E has a few more integrated features. But because of poor quality hardware, the web browser isn’t usable. The images and layouts don’t display properly, and loading and scrolling take too long. Games also had to be kept to a minimum in order to run on the Kobo. Solitaire makes even less sense because of the lack of colour. The only practical thing is Dropbox.
Source: Michelle Brändle
Source: Michelle Brändle
Dropbox for your files
You can upload PDFs to your Dropbox and read and annotate them on the e-reader, which is convenient. It’s quick to open my 70-MB PDF on art history, which contains a lot of images.
It’s rare for the Kobo Elipsa 2E to struggle and give in. If I restart it, I can continue reading where I left off. However, annotating and highlighting takes quite a long time with large files such as this.
Source: Michelle Brändle
The settings are too much of a good thing
There are some useful settings, such as the blue light filter and sleep mode for saving energy. If you have reading difficulties, being able to enlarge the font is helpful. However, some functions just overcomplicate things.
Having to choose between 14 similar fonts doesn’t make much sense. Or left justifying the text. Or separating the page-turning controls into four.
Flip cover as an accessory
The flip case you can buy separately is minimalistic. It protects the screen, and when you flip the cover shut, the e-reader goes into sleep mode. There’s space for the stylus on the left side. When the case isn’t on, you can also clip it magnetically on the top right. The back of the reader, meanwhile, remains unprotected. The cover is only secured by a wide magnet at the rear. This poses disadvantages when you’re holding the Kobo Elipsa 2E, as it makes it even wider and not flush at the back.
Source: Michelle Brändle
Verdict: what’s the Kobo Elipsa 2E actually for?
This e-reader leaves me perplexed. A lot of minor flaws bother me. The Kobo Elipsa 2E is too bulky and heavy for reading. It’s most suited for sketching and taking notes. But even then only to a limited extent because it’s sluggish. For a price tag of just under 450 francs/euros, I’d rather have a tablet with a colour OLED display, fast loading times and significantly more options for art and note apps.
There are advantages in the long battery life, which lasts about two weeks. Equally, reading and writing are more pleasant on an eInk display than a tablet. Especially in sunlight. However, latency, menu structure and limitations detract from the overall package. That being said, competition is small in the world of 10-inch eInk tablets that include a pen.
Lenovo’s Smart Paper really wowed me. But it’s not available until mid-July and will set you back more than 600 francs/euros. I was able to try it out at MWC.
An alternative is the reMarkable2. But it’s only available in their store. Admittedly, this device is faster and easier to use than e-readers and notepads.
Is there anything else you’d recommend? Or an e-reader you’d like me to review?
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In my world, Super Mario chases Stormtroopers with a unicorn and Harley Quinn mixes cocktails for Eddie and Peter at the beach bar. Wherever I can live out my creativity, my fingers tingle. Or maybe it's because nothing flows through my veins but chocolate, glitter and coffee.
