New $129 Kobo eReader Touch Edition to Hit Stores in June, Available Now for Pre-Order

Today Kobo announced the launch of their new eReader, the Touch Edition — a 6-inch, touch-enabled, eInk eReader with Wi-Fi connectivity and access to the company’s new Reading Life social networking service. Available for pre-order today and in stores by early June, Kobo is offering the Touch Edition at an attractive price: $129.

I got a chance to go hands-on with the Touch at Kobo’s launch event today and so far I’m impressed. Design-wise, I’ve always liked how light Kobo’s readers are, and the Touch Edition is no exception. It’s even smaller than the Kobo Wi-Fi since there’s no need for the D-pad and just about as thin. Kobo kept the soft-touch back — another favorite aspect — and the light weight. All good signs. They also added a new color to the mix and now offer Touch Editions with Blue, Lilac and Silver backs as well as an all-black model (my favorite).

The company has solved several of the problems that plagued the last version of their eReader, the Kobo Wi-Fi and added functionality that, thus far, only Sony has offered in the eInk space: true touch functionality. Just as with Sony’s Readers, the touch-ability on this device is driven by infrared signals instead of a resistive technology which puts an extra layer between the eInk screen and the user. With IR, I was able to experience the crispness of the Pearl display (the same technology used on the Kindle 3G). I found the Touch very responsive to tapping input, though there was some lag when moving between different sections. The units we saw were not final, though, so that may not be an issue later on.

Inside, the Kobo Touch Edition is running on Freescale’s i.MX508 processor, which was designed specifically for eReaders to deliver fast performance on eInk devices. This is the first device powered by this chip, and it’s a welcome change to the slightly sluggish eReaders of the past, including some of Kobo’s own devices. We’d have to test them side by side, but page turns looked just as fast as, if not faster than, the Kindle. I was glad to see that users have the option to either tap or swipe to turn, an improvement on the experience with Sony Readers.

Kobo also revamped the UI to make it more touch-friendly, and the overall effect is similar to eReading apps for smart phones and tablets. The PDF reading experience is better as well, since users are able to drag the page around and double tap to zoom.

The Reading Life social area allows owners to keep track of how much time they spend reading and offers badges (ala FourSquare) as they reach different milestones. Kobo says that soon the awards and badges will offer tangible rewards as well, so stay tuned for that. The Reading Life data, plus bookmarks and last page read will sync across all wireless-enabled Kobo devices and mobile apps.

Consumers can pre-order the Kobo eReader Touch Edition today for $129 at Borders.com in the U.S. It will hit Borders stores in June. You’ll be able to buy it in Best Buy and Wal-Mart stores by early July.

Quick Specs:

• Size: 6.5 x 4.5 x 0.4 inches
• Weight: 7.1 ounces
• Scree: 6 inch Pearl eInk, 16 shades grayscale
• Connectivity: b/g/n Wi-Fi
• Ports: microUSB; microSD card slot (32GB max)
• Internal memory: 1GB
• Battery: 10 days or 10,000 page turns
• CPU: Freescale i.MX508