| At a highly anticipated product launch today in New York City, Kobo unveiled a brand new 10-inch tablet, the first they have ever issued. The Kobo Arc 10 HD seeks to capitalize on the recent industry trend of a large device to consume media and read digital books. In the past, Kobo has only developed seven-inch tablets, so they are stepping outside their comfort zone in a big way. Hardware The Kobo Arc 10 HD features a stunning 10-inch capacitive touchscreen with ten point multitouch. It has one of the best resolutions in the business with 2560×1600 pixels. To give you a sense of how great it is, the Apple iPad 4th generation is only capable of displaying 2048 × 1536 pixels. This tablet is powered by an Nvidia Tegra 4 quad-core 1.8 GHZ processor, which puts it faster than the other tablets Kobo revealed today. It also packs an impressive 2 GB of RAM and 16 GB of storage space. The entire internal structure is somewhat of a milestone for Kobo, as they have never released a more polished looking device, which seeks to really give them a competitive advantage over most large screen devices on the market. Kobo is actually in the best position to make a 10-inch tablet work because of their relationship with major booksellers all over the world. Canadians will really see these devices shine with the new Indigo Tech areas in forty different stores all over the country. If you decide to just watch videos, listen to audiobooks, or play a game, this tablet really performs. It has dual speakers at the very top of the rear panel, which even when lying on its back still gives you superb sound. It has Tru Audio settings, so you will be able to easily increase the low, mid, and high ranges to give it an extra boost. You can hook the Arc 10 HD directly up to your television with the included Micro HDMI port. You could even engage in a quick video call via the built in Microsoft and front facing 1.3 MP camera. There are not many buttons on this tablet, other than a power and volume buttons. The exact dimensions are 253 x 172 x 9.9 mm and it only weighs 627 grams. Typical users should be able to get a solid nine hours of battery life out of it with reasonable use. Like all tablets, if you tend to play HD games for hours at a time, it will drain faster. There's a very efficient Dual Band Wi Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n with 2×2 MIMO, Bluetooth v4.0, Miracast support for Wi Fi media streaming. On paper, this is the highest resolution tablet on the market with the best hardware as a driving force. Software The Kobo Arc 10 HD is running one of the most current versions of Android for a new product hitting the market. Most tend to launch with Android 4.1 and say that they will get an upgrade soon after launch. This rarely, if ever occurs, and if it does, it's normally a painfully slow process. Kobo intends to release it with Android 4.2.2, which should provide a number of new features. Kobo signed a deal with Google a few years ago that made all of their tablets officially Google certified. This allows customers to access Google Play and select from over 500,000 apps currently available. You will also have a number of the essential apps on it, like Maps, Gmail, and Google+. There are also a number of new apps that will ship on it such as Pocket, Feedly, Cinema Now, MacAfee, Skype, and much more. Reading Experience Kobo currently has a massive eBook ecosystem with over 3.5 million titles. They are unveiling a new magazine service in New York which I will report more on soon. There is no word yet on whether the Tapestries UI will be bundled on this, or if they are working on something new. What we do know is Kobo is revamping their library and collections menus. You can see from the picture above that they are going for a bookshelf approach when organizing your personal collections. This is actually fairly innovative, companies tend to just clone the way iBooks does their organizing, by having a wooden bookshelf with cover art appearing there. Kobo is thinking differently. The main library shelf has cover art with larger images to make it more touchscreen friendly. Wrap Up I am live in New York attending the Kobo press conference and will be providing videos, pictures, and more information in a few hours. This review will constantly be updated as more information comes in and I get a chance to interview some of the Kobo leads and developers. This is a small preview based on advanced press briefings and follow-up interviews with my contacts. MRSP – $399.99 (US & Canada), €379.99 (EU), £299.99 (UK), $499.95 (Australia), $599.00 (New Zealand)
Hands-On with the Kobo Aura 10 HD is a post from: E-Reader News |
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Hands-On with the Kobo Aura 10 HD
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