The Kobo Elipsa 2E will be a great alternative to the Kindle Scribe in high-end e-book readers and will be available in mid-April with many improvements over the previous model.

Reading is a pleasure and if you use a physical book, the experience is unmatched. But a big advantage is the possibility of carrying thousands of digital books in a backpack, which is why electronic readers have become faithful companions for many of us. There are dirt-cheap entry-level models under $100, and there are higher-end ones that offer additional typing features. That’s where the new brand of Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten, the biggest competitor to Amazon’s Kindles, fits in.

Kobo Ellipsa 2E, more than an eReader

The new model maintains 10.3 inch touch screen from the previous version, but increases its resolution to 300 ppi. Its e-ink panel improves front lighting with ComfortLight PRO technology, which provides automatic brightness and color temperature adjustment, anti-glare treatment and blue light reduction for increased comfort during long days of use. Its design has also been improved, which focuses on better ergonomics while maintaining similar dimensions: 193 x 227 x 7.5 mm and a weight of 390 g.

The writing capacity, as another function of top readers, has been improved with the new product stylus kobo stylus 2, with which you can highlight, underline, or write annotations that can be converted if you want to write typed text. It has an eraser and a button to highlight important passages. It can be easily stored in the reader using the integrated magnet.

As for the internal hardware, the new Elipsa packs a 2GHz CPU, we assume an ARM SoC with a lot of features for this type of product. Same in internal storage, 32 GB, a feature you won’t see on lower-end readers. In terms of connectivity, it supports Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth and has a USB-C port for data and battery charging, which according to the manufacturer will offer two weeks of autonomy.

And of course reading. It supports up to 15 file formats including the main ones in eReader such as EPUB, MOBI and PDF. It has 12 different native fonts and more than 50 styles to customize the font. It also supports several audiobooks that are gaining ground, and you can connect to Kobo’s library (or use third-party libraries) to download or buy thousands upon thousands of e-books.

Kobo will soon add Google Drive cloud service to the already supported Dropbox, it import documents or export personal notebooks to share. You can also check all your notebooks on kobo.com, and the reader is compatible with the third-party service Readwise and lets you sync notes with tools like Notion, Roam or Evernote.

The Kobo Elipsa 2E is already available for pre-order in many countries (including Spain) and will be available on April 19 at the official price 399 euros. As an introductory promotion, the official SleepCover is 50% off if you pre-order the reader. It’s definitely not an economy scope, but it’s very full-featured, and not just for reading. A safe bet if you’re looking for a wide range of e-readers.