Skip to main content

Want to read ebooks in the shower? Try the Kobo Aura H2O ereader

Officially announced by Kobo earlier today, the Aura H2O is a new ereader that’s been designed with withstand water, dust and sand. Ideal for taking on vacation to read by the pool or perhaps toss in the sand on a beach, the Aura H2O is capable of sitting in three feet of water for up to 30 minutes as long as the port cover is closed. Similar to smartphones that are being touted as water resistant, waterproofing is ideal for any type of water-related accident. The device also comes with a drying cloth to wipe down the screen after getting wet, however any type of cloth will work to dry the device.

Speaking about a consumer need for this type of device, Kobo CCO Michael Tamblyn said “When we asked our customers what held them back from reading more ebooks, many told us they love to read in the bath, by the pool, or on the beach, but believed that devices and water didn’t mix. As we dug deeper, we found that more than 60% of customers surveyed said they would love to be able read near water without worry. We designed the Kobo Aura H2O, our latest premium eReader, so that ebooks could be just as common at the beach or in the bath as they are on the bus or in bed.”

Recommended Videos

Kobo-in-the-poolRegarding the hardware specifications, the Aura H2O is very similar to the Aura HD ereader. The Aura H2O offers a 6.8-inch touchscreen using Carta E Ink technology at a resolution of 1430 x 1080 (265 dpi). The screen also includes ComfortLight technology for reading in the dark, similar to a Kindle Paperwhite.

The screen is powered by a 1 GHz processor and offers 4GB of internal storage space. Kobo has also included a microSD card slot to add an additional 32GB of memory to the device. Kobo indicates that users will be able to store 3,000 books on the internal storage and an additional 30,000 books using the expansion slot.

According to the specifications page, the Kobo Aura H2O supports file formats that include EPUB, EPUB3, PDF, MOBI, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, TIFF, TXT, HTML, RFT, CBZ, and CBR. Regarding language support, the Aura H20 will offer support for English, French, German, Spanish, Dutch, Japanese, Italian, and Portuguese at launch and will expand to more languages in the future. Regarding battery power, Kobo rates battery life at 2 months before needing to recharge the ereader. Kobo defines normal use as reading for 30 minutes a day and turning pages once per minute.

Regarding availability, Kobo will start taking preorders for the Aura H2O on September 1, 2014 at a retail price of $179.99. The device is expected to ship by October 1, 2014 and will be made available to people living in the United States, Canada, the UK, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, and Spain. At this time, Amazon does not sell a waterproof version of the popular Kindle ereader. However, consumers can purchase a version of the device, from companies like WaterFi, that’s been treated with a waterproof solution to make it completely resistant to all water damage.

Mike Flacy
By day, I'm the content and social media manager for High-Def Digest, Steve's Digicams and The CheckOut on Ben's Bargains…
This watchOS 26 feature has me excited for the Apple Watch again
A person wearing the aluminum Apple Watch Series 10.

Ahead of Apple’s long-awaited WWDC keynote earlier this month, the company was widely reported to be working on a new AI-powered doctor that could potentially help you diagnose common conditions, recognize potential illnesses, and understand your overall health. 

The rumored Apple AI doctor had me excited for WWDC, but as we saw, Apple held off on announcing this feature, presumably for a later date. However, WWDC 2025 did introduce a new feature to WatchOS 26 that isn’t a doctor, but rather a friend in the gym who keeps you motivated. 

Read more
Do web browsers on the Apple Watch make sense?
Ant Browser facilitates web access on the Apple Watch.

“It’s a solution for people to reduce their dependence on their phones.” 

That’s what Australian developer Jonathon Lau told me in an interaction about building web experiences for the Apple Watch. We were discussing the Ant Browser, a freemium browser he made specifically for the Apple Watch. But why? 

Read more
5 Android 16 tips and tricks you can try on your Pixel right now
The Android 16 logo on the screen of the Pixel 9 Pro Fold

Google pulled off a surprise this year by releasing Android 16 months ahead of the usual schedule. The stable build for its Pixel smartphones was released in the second week of June, and at the moment, QPR builds with experimental features are being tested. 

The release, beyond the hype, has been somewhat bittersweet. On one hand, we got a glimpse of all the exciting new changes that are landing with the OS upgrade. On the flip side, a few of the more remarkable features are yet to appear. 

Read more