Electronic book battle heats up between Kobo and Amazon with new big-screen reader coming

AMAZON’S closest rival is stepping up the e-book reader battle with a bigger, bolder, sleep-friendly, water-resisting e-book gadget out before Christmas.

Kobo's new e-book reader, the Kobo Aura One, features a significantly larger screen and waterproof body.

AMAZON’S market-leading Kindle e-book readers are under fire after competitor Kobo released a rival waterproof device with a significantly larger, more technologically advanced screen.

Kobo’s e-book reader, the Aura One, will launch in stores this October and is the first premium e-book reader with a 7.8-inch screen and a blue-light filter designed to assist sleep.

By comparison, e-book readers from Amazon offer smaller screens and no water resistance.

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Rakuten Kobo chief executive Michael Tamblyn said the company designed its new top model with feedback from a group of nine prolific readers.

Kobo's new e-book reader, the Kobo Aura One, is designed to withstand splashes.

“The insights and feedback gleaned from working with some of our top customers were instrumental in the design of this new device,” he said.

“As we build new devices, we are trying to keep the reader’s entire reading life in mind — where and when do they read, how can we make things easier, how can we combine beautiful design with pushing the envelope of what technology can do.”

The Kobo Aura One will feature a 7.8-inch, 300 dots-per-inch screen, compared to the 6-inch screens used in all Amazon reading devices, and will also feature an adaptive light sensor, and a blue-light filter, as seen in some phones and tablets, that promises to let users read books without it affecting their sleep.

Ryerson University Sleep and Depression Laboratory director Colleen Carney said reading for 20 minutes before bed could assist sleep but some troubled sleepers avoided reading on devices to prevent disruption to their sleep cycles.

“That’s the last thing I want you to do,” she said.

“We require red spectrum light to stimulate melatonin, a hormone that regulates our body clock. This device pays attention to the timing of blue and red spectrum light to protect sleep quality.”

The Kobo Aura One features a large screen and blue-light filter.

Kobo’s Aura One is also designed to survive dunks in up to 2m of water for an hour, allowing poolside reading.

The device is heavier than its Amazon Kindle equivalents at 230g, however, does not feature a mobile network connection, and will cost $350, making it more expensive than the Kindle Voyage ($299) but not the more pocket-friendly Kindle Oasis ($449).

Both Kobo and Amazon face stiff competition from tablet computers and physical books, however. The Association of American Publishers reported e-book revenue fell 11.3 per cent over the past year.