Kobo Elipsa 2E: The perfect in-flight companion if you struggle with self control

This device allows users to read, write and listen on the go, but not all at once – and for some, that might be its biggest selling point.

Kobo's new 10.3-inch Elipsa 2E.

On a recent flight from Sydney to Bali, I drew up plans to renovate my parents’ home.

The plans were far from extravagant, and looked little better than most first-year primary school students could do with a piece of paper and a pencil.

But the Millennial in me had a great deal of fun, and in a couple of months I plan to deliver the new and improved floor plan to the forewoman, who is my mother, for approval.

It’d be safe to assume most people wouldn’t go looking down the e-reader aisle for a device that allows them to sketch digitally. But maybe they should.

Sketches and graphs on the Elipsa 2E.

Over the past few months, The Australian has been reviewing Kobo’s latest device, the Elipsa 2E ($629.95).

The 10.3-inch device has a glare-free E Ink touchscreen coupled with new backlighting which is much easier on the eyes than the blue light most devices emit.

The device comes with 32GB of storage and a battery which gives us about two weeks of playtime, with an average of an hour reading each day.

Those details, while important, are far from what we loved most about the device. What did it for us was the option to read, listen or scribble with it.

While those three free functions are the bare minimum on any tablet in 2023, e-Readers and eNotebooks aren’t built to compete in the same manner.

The device can be used to take handwritten notes.

Rather, the real selling point is allowing the reader – or listener or scribbler, if you will – to concentrate on a single task at once, free from notifications, noisy applications and a bright screen.

Not everybody has laser-sharp focus or can give their complete attention to a single task at any one time, especially in the age of social media which has been said to be reducing our attention spans, and in many ways that’s the beauty of devices like this.

Although we do have to say, it would be nice to be able to sketch or take notes on the device while listening to an audiobook.

Speaking of which, a stylus which magnetically attaches to the device and to its sleep case, does come with the device.

As always with Kobo, we’re big fans of its integration with Get Pocket, a software service that allows users to save articles and read them later on the device.

The Elipsa 2E in its sleep case.

For those who regularly read work documents, Kobo can integrate with Google Drive and Dropbox which allows users to mark up, sign and make notes on PDFs. Any documents drawn up within the device can be exported as a word, html or text file to either of those drives, or by connecting to a computer.

The device has supported some integration with Readwise, Norton, Roam and Evernote.

What’s more, it can connect to OverDrive allowing users to borrow eBooks free from libraries in Canada, the US, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore.

The device can be used to mark up PDFs.

The verdict? Like most people, we’ve become so accustomed to multi-tasking that knowing we could be sketching or taking notes while listening to podcasts feels kind of like reaching for the top shelf and being a couple of centimetres too short.

But other than that, the device is great.