8% of 458 verified Kobo Clara BWowners don't recommend it, and 1 describe specific problems — based on real owner comments from Reddit, enthusiast forums, and YouTube.
For balance: 81% recommend it. This page collects the complaints so you know what you're signing up for — read the full owner report for both sides. How we score
“the screen lighting is too uneven to work for me when in any kind of the night mode warm color. I am loving going back to such a smaller size device though.”— PixelSquish on Reddit
“Cá em casa temos um Kindle (Paperwhite 12) e um Kobo (Clara BW). Pessoalmente, prefiro de longe a experiência de utilização e o sistema operativo do Kindle, é muito mais rápido.”— BlameScienceBro on Reddit
“I like my pocketbook verse a lot, I returned a kobo Clara bw for it. I like pocketbooks UX and app, especially that it will sync side loaded content to their cloud.”— sunflowersandcitrus on Reddit
“I’m having the exact same issue on my Kobo Clara BW I purchased recently. Sometimes when tapping to turn the page it’ll become unresponsive. When tapping it again it’ll skip two pages.”— heezii on Reddit
“Now I'm based in the US tried kobo clara BW and KLC and I had some personal flaws about them, and so I went back to kindle. (they were accessibility issues regarding vision).”— thedeadp0ets on Reddit
“I bought Kobo Clara BW recently, after day 2 it broke. I didn't even drop it, I put it between the bed and bed frame, which really isn't a lot of pressure. Even had the cover on. What a bullshit.”— hooodoo on Reddit
“I found the quality of the KC BW screen similar, but didn't care for the cheap feeling of its build and lack of buttons (besides, it crashed when I was trying it... never a good sign).”— Vellmar on Reddit
“I bought a kobo clara bw as replacement (basically to spite Amazon) and I've been very disappointed. It's baffling how a modern kobo manages to be inferior in every way to a kindle of 10 years ago.”— HugeBob2 on Reddit
“I'm experiencing it now with a new Kobo Clara BW. If I can't work out which file is causing it I think I'll just factory reset it, then transfer books one file at a time, which might reveal the culprit”— gma on Reddit
“I bought a Kobo clara BW this week and it's going back. Maybe I'm not tech savvy enough but the whole thing seems to be aimed at selling you ebooks, after having sold you some expensive kit to read them on.”— KittyCritter987 on Reddit
“this is my Kobo Clara BW. Claims to be the best screen for BW, running the stunning Carta 1300. Yup, still has the yellow tinge with 100% brightness.”— Qubezo on Reddit
“The reason I'm sticking with the KPW though is that the UI for reading is more adaptable and better. For instance, when zooming in text it can take forever to readjust on the Kobo.”— shadowscar248 on Reddit
Not complaints — practical notes from owners that didn't affect the score.
“I have a Kobo Clara BW, but I'd like a bigger one for reading manga. I'd like something in the Clara style, but without a button, I can't find anything interesting right now.”— Onitaz on Reddit
“I bought a Kobo Clara BW a couple months ago and have converted all my Kindle books. I'm kind of balancing between the two, mostly using the Oasis still”— agrannymoose on Reddit
“I own the Clara BW and can confirm that it is unable to detect any of the many 5 GHz WiFi signals in my neighbourhood.”— flatgroundfreak on Reddit
“My kobo Clara bw does not agree with magnets. I suggest you Find an alternative with suction cups instead.”— Knappologen on Reddit
“I have Kobo Libra 2 and Kobo Clara BW and I'm using dropbox integration for both so no cables necessary.”— sawasawa12 on Reddit
“My Kobo Clara BW displays 4 pages: Home and My Books which only show the books I side loaded, already purchased from the Kobo store, and checked out from the library. I have to click on the Discover page to get to the Kobo store. The last page is More which includes settings etc.”— cozylilwitch on Reddit
“I initially had a mag safe popsocket on my Kobo Clara BW, but I noticed the magnet would turn the device on/off when it was close to the middle/bottom left (when taking off the popsocket). I tried turning off the automatic sleep function, but the popsocket would still affect on/off. So I took it off and haven't had any problems since.”— Pink-Zebra-7304 on Reddit
“[send.djazz.se](http://send.djazz.se) works well for sending books to my Kobo Clara BW from my Windows laptop.”— AlertPotato5291 on Reddit