We’re big fans of the new generation of ebook readers that pull double duty as a digital notebook, allowing you to jot down notes on your portable E-Ink library. They’re awesome. And Kobo has one of the best options in the category with the Elipsa from 2021. The new Kobo Elipsa 2E takes that digital notebook and makes it even better.
No, it’s no a complete reboot of the Elipsa model. Instead, it’s more like an improved iteration, with more versatile lighting settings, an improved stylus, and various other quality of life updates that should make using it a much more elevated experience.
The Kobo Elipsa 2E has a 10.3-inch E-Ink Carta 1200 touchscreen panel, which is essentially the same screen as its predecessor, so it should have equivalent 1404 x 1872 resolution, 227 PPI, and 16-level grayscale. While we would have preferred a newer E-Ink Carta panel (like the 300 PPI one on the stylus-supportive Kindle), this model is still really good for current-generation ebook readers. It comes with the outfit’s ComfortLight PRO technology that adds front lighting for better visibility while reading or writing in low-light conditions. For this iteration, though, the lighting comes with adjustable color temperature, including a setting designed to reduce blue light for all your nighttime reading.
It includes a redesigned Kobo Stylus 2 that, the outfit claims, deliver improved ergonomics for a better and faster writing experience. An eraser at the back end allows you to wipe away mistakes similar to a pencil, while a highlighter button makes it easy to mark important passages on both ebooks and PDF files alike. It also magnetically attaches to the ebook reader, so you can keep them together at all times, while the AAA battery slot has been removed in favor of a rechargeable panel, so you only need to plug it in to replenish the battery.
The Kobo Elipsa 2E has al the features of the original Elipsa, so you can read ebooks, annotate them, and even create notebooks using various templates that you can arrange into separate folders, as well as listen to audiobooks over Bluetooth. You can also search handwritten notes via a Search tool, covert handwriting to typed text that you can transfer to other platforms, and even make quick edits on your doodles using a lasso tool. Of course, you still get access to the Kobo Bookstore to easily find new reading materials, as well as read saved articles from your Pocket account. All books and notebooks are stored to the 32GB of onboard storage, with option to backup everything on the Kobo Cloud.
It work with all common ebook formats, including EPUB, EPUB3, FlePUB, PDF, MOBI, CBZ, and CBR, along with support for various image, text, and comic book formats. Other features include 12 different font types, 50 different font styles, import and export via Dropbox and Google Drive, Readwise support, and weeks’ worth of reading and writing between charges.
The Kobo Elipsa 2E is now available for preorder, priced at $399 bundled with a stylus.