RealClear Summary
Posted On January 23, 2013
The world of low-cost, 7-inch Android tablets is brimming with competition. Into the fray comes Kobo's Arc, a $199 tablet designed to serve up content from both Kobo's bookstore and Google Play. While it's running Android 4.0 it does offer some of its own customizations, including Tapestries, a content recommendation engine that helps you find books, music and more.
On the hardware side, you'll find a 1280 x 800 display, a 1.5GHz processor, 1GB of RAM and dedicated POWERVR graphics core. A pair of stereo speakers and front-facing 720p HD webcam round out its features.
Most reviewers were modestly pleased with the Arc. It's not a tablet on-par with the Nexus 7, largely considered the flagship 7-inch Android tablet. Yet for casual users, avid readers or consumers looking for a low-cost "first tablet" to play around with, the Arc was deemed worthy of a look.
Reviews Sources
Placed against the low, low standard of last year's Vox, the Kobo Arc is a winner. Compared to the rest of the 7-inch tablets in the world, however, it's a non-starter.
If you want the latest and greatest that Android has to offer from a small tablet, you buy a Nexus 7. If that's not the case, and you're in for something a little different, then the...
We'd recommend the Kobo Arc as an impressive 'my first tablet'. However, overall the Kobo Arc is probably happiest being the e-reader-based tablet that offers by far the most freedom.
The software isn't quite as polished as the Nexus's and it doesn't have the latest version of Android, but the Arc still makes a very tempting alternative for the price.
The Kobo Arc is the best tablet the company has ever released. It perfectly blends cutting edge hardware with a very unique Android experience. It runs basically any app or game that...
The Kobo Arc has everything you might look for in a tablet today: a high-resolution screen, a sturdy build, lots of memory, and the full Android experience but it can't beat the Nexus...
Capable of hosting any other app or game from Google Play, the Arc impresses elsewhere with its unique Tapestries skin within an otherwise open Android experience. It definitely feels...
| Approve | Mostly Approve | |
Mixed/Caveated | Mostly Disapprove | Disapprove |