E-Reading in 2026

A few months ago I lost my Kobo Libra H2O during a long trip. Apparently my brain failed me, and I left it somewhere in an airport or on a plane, and I was unable to retrieve it through any lost-and-founds. An e-reader is a wonderful thing, so I found myself in the market for a new one. Shopping was hard, for reasons I was kind of surprised by: Kobo has eliminated black-and-white from it’s middle of the road e-reader lineup. If I wanted the most direct match to my lost reader, I’d be looking at the Libra Colour... but I didn’t want colour! It’s lovely in theory, but in practice it’s still not there, in my experience of looking at it in store. It’s noticeably lower contrast and at least a little less pleasant to read. As someone who is mostly looking to read books I really had a hard time telling myself that colour would be the right choice. I was quite interested in Boox: the idea of a full Android e-ink reader was appealing, as I would be able to read articles from my RSS feed…