Kobo unleashes new Kindle tablet and ereader rivals: Has it stolen Amazon’s show?

The Gadget Show  Thursday 06 September 2012

Amazon’s got a big press conference scheduled for this evening in California, where it’s widely expected to unveil a range of new Kindles, as well as the Android-powered Kindle Fire 2 tablet. Not to be outdone, rival Kobo has outed its own new line up this morning, and they’re suspiciously similar to all the Kindle rumours we’ve been hearing – but super cheap too.

First up are the company’s new black and white ereaders. There’s the £99.99 Kobo Glo, which has an LED sidelight to let you read the paper like screen in the dark. That’s just like the backlit Nook ereader we heard is coming to the UK, as well as one of the rumoured new Kindles expected to be announced later today.

Check out the top five tablets on video right now

Then there’s the Kobo Mini, a £59.99 bargain with a five-inch screen, 2GB of storage (space for thousands of books), Wi-Fi for easy downloads and snap on back covers in teal, red and purple.

Perhaps the biggest news however is the Kobo Arc, a new tablet from the company running Android 4.0. Much like the Kindle Fire, it’s packing a seven inch display, Wi-Fi and a front facing camera. Unlike Amazon’s tablet, it also has access to Google’s Play Android app store, and all the content you’ll find on there. It comes in two flavours, 8GB (£169.99) and 16GB (£199.99), though it may struggle to stand out against the £159 Google Nexus 7.

Intrigued? All three new Kobo devices are out in November in the UK, available through WH Smith.

Want to see what the current Kobo ereaders are like? Check out the video below and find out: