Name: Kobo Libra Colour
Brand: Kobo

Our verdict

The Kobo Libra Colour is a 7-inch e-reader with a Kaleido 3 E Ink screen. E Ink is the paper-like display used by e-readers. Text shows at 300ppi (pixels per inch), so words look sharp, but colour drops to 150ppi, so pictures look less detailed than text. Physical page-turn buttons let you read one-handed, and 32GB of storage holds a large library. You can write notes on the screen, but only with the Kobo Stylus 2, which costs £69.99 extra. Its UK RRP is £239.99. We have not tested it ourselves: this review draws on Kobo’s specifications and hands-on reviews by TechRadar and WIRED.

Buy it if

You read regularly and want physical buttons for turning pages
Illustrations, diagrams or colour highlights help you read
You want to jot occasional handwritten notes and accept paying for the pen

Skip it if

You only read plain novels, where colour adds little
You need to write a lot on full-page PDFs
Most of your books are copy-protected purchases from another store, such as Kindle

Everyday use

Library books on the commute

If your library supports OverDrive, you can borrow ebooks directly on the reader and turn pages with the buttons while holding a rail with your other hand.

Marking up a study text

Colour highlights make it easier to find marked passages later. With the Stylus 2, you can add short handwritten notes, although the 7-inch screen limits how much you will want to write.

Illustrated and picture-led books

Covers, comics and diagrams gain the most from colour. Expect softer, less vivid images than on a phone or tablet, because colour is shown at half the sharpness of text.

The details, in plain English

The colour screen and what it changes

The screen uses Kaleido 3, a colour version of E Ink. Black-and-white text shows at 300ppi, which is sharp enough that words look crisp. Colour is shown at 150ppi, so coloured covers, maps and illustrations carry less fine detail than the text around them. That trade-off matters most for picture-led books. If you mainly read plain novels, you will see the colour on covers and highlights and very little else, so you would be paying extra for a feature you rarely use.

Buttons, size and weight

The 7-inch screen is a step up from the 6-inch screens on smaller Kobo readers, and two physical page-turn buttons sit beside it. WIRED liked the buttons, and they suit anyone who finds repeated screen taps tiring or awkward one-handed. Kobo gives the weight as 199.5g before you add a case. Kobo rates it IPX8, which it says covers up to 60 minutes in 2 metres of water. That is a controlled test, so it is still best kept dry.

Writing notes with the Stylus 2

Handwriting needs the Kobo Stylus 2, sold separately for £69.99. TechRadar found the smooth screen less pleasant to write on than paper, and the small screen limiting for longer notes. WIRED saw ghosting in the notebook, meaning faint traces of earlier strokes that sometimes cleared when it changed pages, and found that exported notes lost their template lines. TechRadar did not see ghosting. Neither review tells us how often a current unit will show it, so treat handwriting as a useful extra rather than the main reason to buy.

Battery life

Kobo claims up to 40 days, based on 30 minutes of reading a day at 30% brightness with wireless connections off. That is a long stretch of light use, not 40 days of continuous reading. TechRadar used a white unit for about two weeks of reading, writing and listening, with Wi-Fi on and brightness at 20%, and its charge fell from 82% to 19%. That is a partial run, not a full battery test. It charges by USB-C.

Books, libraries and audiobooks

You can borrow UK library ebooks through Kobo’s OverDrive integration, but you need a participating library, a valid library card and a title that is available. The reader opens EPUB and PDF files, but copy-protected Kindle purchases will not transfer. Some Adobe-protected library files may need Adobe Digital Editions on a computer first. Bluetooth lets you listen to Kobo audiobooks through headphones. You do not need a subscription to read compatible books you already own, though books and optional subscriptions cost extra.

Strengths and drawbacks

What it does well

Physical page-turn buttons, so you can read one-handed without tapping the screen
Colour E Ink makes book covers, diagrams and highlights easier to tell apart
Optional handwriting keeps notes alongside your books, if you buy the Stylus 2
IPX8 water resistance and 32GB of storage for a large library

What to watch out for

The stylus is not included, which adds £69.99 if you want to write
Colour shows at 150ppi, half the sharpness of text, so pictures look softer
A 7-inch screen is cramped for full-page PDFs and longer handwritten notes
Reviewers disagree on notebook ghosting: WIRED saw it, TechRadar did not
Copy-protected Kindle purchases will not transfer to it

Kobo’s Clara BW (black and white) and Clara Colour are smaller 6-inch readers with 16GB of storage, worth comparing if you want something more pocketable. If most of what you read is full-page PDFs, or you plan to write a lot, a larger writing tablet is worth looking at. We have not compared current prices for these alternatives or tested them side by side.

Alternatives we have reviewed

Product	Our verdict	Price	Buy
Kobo Libra Colour (this one)	A comfortable e-reader for regular readers who want physical page buttons and colour for covers, illustrations and highlights.	£239.99RRP · 32GB black, standalone (pen extra, RRP recorded 5 Oct 2026	Check price
Samsung T7 Shield 2TB	Fast and well built for carrying large photo and video files between computers.	£250.99RRP · 2TB black MU-PE2T0S/EU, RRP recorded 5 Oct 2026	Check price
HP OmniBook 5 16	A roomy, affordable 16-inch laptop for light work, but this 8GB version falls below our preferred 16GB/512GB long-term standard.	£3798 GB memory · 512 GB storage, Price recorded 1 Aug 2026	Check price
Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3 14	An affordable, portable laptop with a good screen shape and plenty of ports, as long as you accept 8GB of memory and 256GB of storage.	£3798 GB memory · 256 GB storage, Price recorded 1 Aug 2026	Check price

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Where our findings come from

This review is based on Kobo’s UK product page, launch announcement and help pages, and on hands-on reviews by TechRadar (Sharmishta Sarkar, a white unit used for about two weeks) and WIRED (Medea Giordano). Their observations are credited to them in the text, and where they disagree, as on notebook ghosting, we say so. The white and black versions share the same core specifications, but finish observations from a white unit may not apply to black. Prices were checked on 5 October 2026.

Kobo Libra Colour review