Kobo has revealed its latest premium ereader and it has the largest e-ink screen you can buy right now.
The Kobo Aura One boasts a 7.8-inch screen - most ereaders are currently 6-inch options - a waterproof design and access to Kobo's store of five million titles.
Even though the screen has been increased in size it still has a pixel density of 300 pixels-per-inch - the same as the Kindle Paperwhite, Voyage and Oasis and higher than the Kindle Aura H20.
ComfortLight Pro is a new RGB front lighting technology which is a feature on the Aura One that changes throughout the day to mimic the sun's natural progression and help you sleep better at night.
Michael Tamblyn, Kobo CEO told TechRadar, "It starts as a crisper blue light in the morning and over the course of the day the color temperature switches towards more yellows, oranges and reds by the time you get to bed time.
Colleen Carney, Associate Professor and Director of the Sleep and Depression Laboratory at Ryerson University 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."
Similar technology has been included in iOS 9.3 with Apple's Night Shift feature for iPhone and iPad. With Night Shift, Apple uses your device's clock and geolocation to work out when the sun has set and then shifts the blue light emitted from your phone or tablet's display into warmer colors to help make it easier to sleep.
Tough competition
Kobo CEO Tamblyn believes the Aura One offers a lot more to customers than Amazon's new Kindle Oasis ereader.
Tamblyn said, "What I loved about our main competitor's premium device is that the screen size didn't change, there's no waterproofing, it didn't solve the blue light issue so users can bring their ereader to bed at night. They took an existing device and made it thinner.
"It was a gift to us. We are able to bring something out that really does push the boundaries of what an ereader can be."
The Aura One also comes with 8GB of storage, a month long battery life, Wi-Fi connectivity and a new scheme to download ebooks from your local library, if it supports a service called OverDrive.
Kobo will release the Aura One on September 6 in the UK and US (October or November for Australia) at $249.99 (£189.99, AU$349.95).
Kobo is also updating its Aura ereader with a second edition that includes a 6-inch screen with 212ppi, two month battery life and 4GB of memory.
At $119.99 (£99.99, AU$189.95) it's much cheaper than the Aura One and will launch on September 6 in the UK and US, while a release date for Australia is still unclear.
