There is a pair of new Kobo e-readers that have been spotted on the FCC site. However, before you get too excited, here is the catch. None of the upcoming e-readers can be considered new. Rather, they happen to be slightly modified versions of two of its latest e-reader offerings, the Clara BW and the Clara Colour.
As reported by the eBook Reader Blog, both the listing has been found on the FCC Netronix page. The two devices mentioned have the same model number as the Clara BW and Clara Colour, save for the addition of ‘B’ at the end. This likely points to the upcoming devices being essentially the same as the two e-readers but with only minor enhancements.
All of this comes on the back of an earlier revelation wherein it was found that Kobo had introduced a new Clara BW model which sported a slightly higher capacity battery. While the original Clara BW came with a 1500 mAh battery when first launched in April 2024, it launched a new version of the e-reader sometime around April this year, which came with a 2000 mAh battery. The extra power should be enough to allow for another week of reading time and is always a welcome enhancement.
However, what is intriguing is that Kobo never went to town boasting about the development. The new Clara BW has the model number P365 while the original model had the model number N365. The same for the latest model is N365B. That makes for three versions of the Clara BW, along with two models of the Clara Colour. Things start to get confusing from this point henceforth, it must be said.
Kobo had also switched to a different OEM – the Taiwan-based Top Victory Electronics – for manufacturing the new Clara BW with the larger battery. This is a significant development considering that Kobo had always relied on Netronix for assembling its devices since its inception. Many had since been speculating if TPV would be manufacturing all future Kobo devices. What is evident now is that Netronix is still in the loop.
However, it is not clear at the moment why would Kobo devote its resources to fiddling with a device launched just over a year back. One reason could be that some of the parts that went into the production of the original Kobo devices may not be available anymore. It could also be that Kobo is experimenting with some new concepts. It had also released a new software update recently, which was meant for only the Clara BW and Colour.
Who knows, Kobo might surprise us with something new in the future, though what is evident is that it does not have any new devices lined up for launch in the rest of 2025.