The Kobo Sage Is Proof E-Readers Can Do So Much More

I just lately reviewed the brand new Amazon Kindle Paperwhite 5 Signature Edition and declared it the perfect devoted e-reader you should purchase. It’s true; it’s. But isn’t it time we begin anticipating extra from these gadgets than merely storing ebooks? With added assist for a stylus, the brand new Kobo Sage bridges the hole between e-readers and e-notes and provides some of the reasonably priced E Ink notepad options in the marketplace.

The predictions of E Ink’s demise by the hands of the iPad and different LCD tablets had been method off. Not solely have e-readers thrived, they’ve advanced into one other class of gadgets known as e-notes which can be designed to exchange paper notebooks, too. The reMarkable 2 stays the perfect E Ink note-taking gadget in the marketplace, however at $400 it’s additionally some of the costly, and it lacks a backlight, making it nearly ineffective as an e-reader. Alternatives just like the Onyx Boox Nova 2 and even Kobo’s personal Elipsa show that e-readers and e-notes can stay in concord as a single gadget, however why are all of them so large? That’s the query the brand new Kobo Sage asks and solutions. It seems an all-in-one E Ink gadget doesn’t have to be tablet-sized to be nice.

Easy on the Eyes

Finding printed books with enlarged kind for growing old eyes isn’t inconceivable, however it’s one of many many causes e-readers have remained standard: Readers can customise precisely how a web page of textual content seems to be for their very own preferences and desires, and Kobo’s gadgets have lengthy been particularly accommodating of that by permitting customers to even add their very own most popular fonts. The solely downside is that the bigger you increase the textual content dimension, the extra usually you’re turning the web page.

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With an 8-inch E Ink display, the Sage strikes a good size balance between the larger 10.3-inch Kobo Elipsa and the 7-inch Kobo Libra, which is a dedicated e-reader. It provides a small boost in the amount of text you can fit on screen, while still being a relatively compact and lightweight device you won’t mind tossing in a bag every day. As much as I like larger e-notes like the reMarkable 2 and the Kobo Elipsa, I simply find them too big for an everyday carry, and only pack them when I know I’ll need t0 be taking notes.

The Kobo Sage is powered by a 1.8 GHz quad-core processor paired with 512MB of RAM, which is a fairly powerful duo for these types of devices. Following the new Amazon Kindle and the Kobo Elipsa, it’s also one of the first devices to use E Ink’s new Carta 1200 electronic paper displays, which is what allowed Amazon to boast about the new Kindle’s 20% faster page turns. The Kobo Sage benefits from those upgrades too, as well as other improvements that Carta 1200 brings with it. One of the reasons the reMarkable devices lack screen lighting is because its creators believe it would hinder the writing experience (to their credit, the reMarkable 2 still offers the best e-note writing experience). The Sage not only includes screen lighting, but color temperature adjustments, too (which the Kobo Elipsa doesn’t) for those worried about throwing off their circadian rhythms with late night usage.

When compared side-by-side, the Kobo Sage’s screen looks every bit as good as the Kobo Libra’s, but while the Libra’s peek brightness looks ever so slightly more intense, text on the the Sage’s screen definitely has more contrast, and to the discerning eye, the new E Ink Carta 1200 screen looks like a definite upgrade.

To make reading with a one-handed grip easier, the Sage also carries forward the Libra’s raised edge and although the lip is much less substantial on the Sage, it works just as well. Unlike the larger Kobo Elipsa, the Sage also features a pair of forward and back navigation buttons for flipping pages without having to touch the screen. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Navigation buttons on e-readers are always a good thing and I’m glad to see Kobo still including them.

The new Kobo Sage also passes the USB-C port test with flying colors. Rest in peace, microUSB, minus the peace part—you deserve to suffer for what you put us through.

Note-Taking Is a Bonus

If you’re a prolific note-taker and go through legal pads like it’s no tomorrow, the new Kobo Sage probably isn’t for you. Your needs will undoubtedly be better met by larger, fuller-featured e-notes like the reMarkable 2 or the Kobo Elipsa.

As is clear by the truth that Kobo hasn’t even included the “My Notebooks” part on the Sage’s dwelling display screen prefer it does with the bigger Elipsa (it’s as an alternative accessible below the “More” choice), even Kobo sees note-taking as enjoying second fiddle to the Sage’s e-reader performance.

But that’s not to say the Sage disappoints as an e-note. From my testing it performs just as well as the larger Elipsa does, with basic options for the type of stroke you’re using, as well as the ability to convert hand-written notes into editable text. Neither device can compare with the note-taking customizability offered by the reMarkable 2—even the Sage’s choice of background templates is limited to just four basic options. While it performed well with cursive writing, the simulated pen on paper experience starts to lag just a bit when I’m quickly jotting notes using my own awful handwriting technique that falls somewhere between all-caps printing and chicken scratch.

Kobo also doesn’t offer the Sage as a bundle with the Kobo Stylus. If you intend to use it as an e-note you’ll have to add $40 to the Sage’s $260 price tag. On top of that, Kobo doesn’t utilize Wacom’s battery-free stylus technology that devices like the Onyx Boox Nova Air do. The stylus runs on a single AAAA battery that will occasionally need to be replaced, and while it does include very useful shortcut buttons for highlighting or erasing text, if you don’t like the design, that’s too bad. Unlike Wacom-based devices that work with any Wacom-compatible stylus, the Kobo Stylus is the only option for the Kobo Sage.

A Strong Case For a Better Case

For a couple of years now, Kobo has made a folio-style case for its e-readers that does the standard methods like awaken or put the gadget into sleep mode when the quilt is opened or closed, with the added bonus of a lid that may be folded origami-style to create a stand.

It’s a easy gimmick however the $50 Kobo SleepCover works properly in each panorama and portrait orientations, and with the Sage, Kobo has discovered a strategy to make it work even higher.

Instead of the e-reader snapping right into a plastic housing, the brand new SleepCover magnetically attaches to the again of the Sage, making it particularly straightforward to take away (and shortly reinstall once more) once you’re holding the gadget one-handed and need it to be as mild as attainable.

A new $80 Kobo PowerCover is also available. While we weren’t able to test it ourselves, it features an additional battery that continually charges the Sage’s own 1,200 mAh power pack through a series of small contacts. The PowerCover case dramatically extends the e-reader’s battery life, and provides a spot to securely store the Kobo Stylus should you opt for it. Otherwise, unlike other e-note devices, the Kobo Stylus can’t magnetically dock itself to the edge of the Sage for storage.

Is It Time to Buy an E-Note?

If you’ve been curious whether an E Ink device will finally let you ditch the mountains of Moleskines, notepads, and random sticky notes cluttering your desk, the Kobo Sage is currently the cheapest e-note option on the market, and might be the best place to start. At $300 (with the stylus) it’s still far from cheap, but it’s $50 cheaper than the Onyx Boox Nova Air, and $100 cheaper than the reMarkable 2. It’s also not the most feature-rich e-note available—the Onyx devices run Android, which gives users access to thousands of apps, including multiple ebook stores, while the reMarkable 2 includes its own cloud-syncing ecosystem instead of simply relying on Dropbox like Kobo does. But should you decide digital note-taking on the Kobo Sage isn’t for you, you’ll be left with one of the best e-readers on the market featuring the latest and greatest electronic paper technology from E Ink.

If you don’t have any curiosity in saying goodbye to your fancy leather-bound tomes stuffed with inspirational concepts, the Kobo Sage is extra money than you want to spend on a superb e-reader. The Kobo Libra 2, which debuted alongside the Sage for $80 much less, offers you an identical glorious E Ink Carta 1200 display screen, the same design that’s straightforward to make use of one-handed because of devoted web page flip buttons, and a bigger battery. If you’re not already dedicated to the Amazon e book retailer, Kobo’s e-readers stay a superb different.