The Kobo Clara HD offers a very similar experience to its biggest rival, but that's not an issue. If you're looking for a mid-range ereader to take on holiday or read on your commute, this could well be it.

Gorgeous screen; Easy to hold in one hand; Packed with storage

More limited store than Kindle; Not waterproof; Divisive design

The Kobo Clara HD is the best all-around e-reader for anyone who borrows books from public libraries.

Leading public library support; Excellent native file format support; Small and light; Color-changing front light.

Not waterproof.

The Kobo Clara HD is a minimalist alternative to Amazon’s Kindle Paperwhite. It's lightweight and offers impressive backlight controls. We spent some time playing with the e-reader, and here's what we think.

The Kobo Clara HD is a brand new six inch e-Reader that is the spiritual successor of the Kobo Aura Edition 2 and the Kobo Glo HD. It has a front-lit display so you can read in the dark and the same Comfortlight PRO orange LED system as the Kobo Aura One employs.

Comfortlight PRO; Great build quality; Advanced reading features; Security Features; Solid Price

No SD Card; Screen not flush with bezel; No Overdrive; 6 GB of memory is not enough; No audiobook functionality

The Kobo Clara HD offers a very similar experience to its biggest rival, but that's not an issue. If you're looking for a mid-range ereader to take on holiday or read on your commute, this could well be it.

Gorgeous screen; Easy to hold in one hand; Packed with storage;

More limited store than Kindle; Not waterproof; Divisive design

We like the Kobo Clara HD, but we don't like the hefty £109 price tag for what it does. Its greatest merits are its ComfortLight PRO feature, slightness, and battery life; but with the Paperwhite at the same price bracket, you would expect the Clara to compete with even more features, especially since Amazon's e-book library is also larger. But the features we've described that make the Clara HD different to the Paperwhite may just make its price worth it to some – it comes down to how you plan on using the e-reader. It's clear Kobo has geared the Clara HD towards commuters and busy people who want a no fuss option to reading, and who want to store as many books as possible internally without having to connect to Wi-Fi (which is limited if you're commuting on the subway, for instance). If you find yourself in this company, the Kobo Clara HD may be for you.

Kobo's $129.99 Clara HD e-reader throws your public library experience into overdrive. With a new software update, it now has the best interface available for borrowing and reading books from US-based libraries that use Overdrive software. That's enough to earn our Editors' Choice recommendation, which it shares with the Amazon Kindle Paperwhite. Even if you don't borrow from libraries, this is a lovely device. The Clara HD is the e-reader boiled down to the essentials: a sharp screen in an easy-to-hold body with long battery life and a comforting, color-changing front light. As long as you don't have an existing library of Amazon books, this is a better buy than the Paperwhite. Kobo is a big deal in several countries outside the US, most notably Canada. It runs its own ebook store, which recently had everything we looked for that isn't published by Amazon. It works with Overdrive books from public libraries, and supports a wide range of other formats natively: EPUB, PDF, RTF, t...

The Kobo Clara HD is the best all-around e-reader for anyone who borrows books from public libraries.

Leading public library support; Excellent native file format support; Small and light; Color-changing front light

Not waterproof