Samsung E60 e-book reader
iPad envy? Newton envy more like...
Review I once took possession of an Apple Newton MessagePad. I still have it, and occasionally waste a pack of four AAs for old times' sake to remind myself what handheld computing was like back in the mid-1990s. I get the same sense of nostalgia using Samsung's e-book reader, the E60.
Samsung's E60: cream'n'chrome, anyone?
Part of that is down to the monochrome E Ink display, but that would be true of any dedicated e-book reader. However, Samsung also appears to have looked back rather than forward. So though the E60 has a touchscreen, it's one that requires a stylus to operate. Even Windows Mobile phones don't force plastic pens on their owners any longer.
To be fair, there's a reason why a stylus is included: the E60 allows you to pen your own marginalia. And if you don't need to digitally deface your e-books, you can push up the screen to reveal the reader's five-way navpad, along with the gadget's two speakers and a quartet of buttons, including the bizarrely named 'EmoLink', which sounds like a dating service for Goths but is a device-to-device file sharing system.
The slider used to hide the navpad only adds to the reader's bulk
Incidentally, the slider mechanism makes the E60 much thicker than it needs to be - it's about as thick as three of the latest Sony Readers. Why not just put the navpad on the front? Everyone else does, and it's not going to put too many punters off. But whether you have to reach round the back for the stylus, or push up the slider, there are all these extra steps you need to walk to reach your content. That may have been fine in past times, but these days we expect to do so more quickly.
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COMMENTS
Rip Off!
£300?? A Kindle is £109 with Wi-Fi, so you can't touch the screen, boo hoo, it's for reading, not scribbling on! And as several people have said, get a Sony if you want touch and lower price. I think Samsung are having an Apple moment - huge prices for mediocre products, their Galaxy Tab would be another example of an Apple moment.
For £200...?
Each to their own, but is it *really* worth shelling out a couple of hundred quid for an e-reader?? OK, it may have other bells and whistles, but nothing most mobile phones won't do (other than screen size, I suppose). Like the review implies, 15 years ago it may be a goer, but I still would have plumbed for a Palm Pilot.
As a parting shot, my local bookshop sells paperbacks from less than a pound. I can stuff 'em in my bag without worry of damage, and they don't need batteries. Probably just me, but I can't see the attraction of e-readers.
Agree most of the way...
I agree with you most of the way, but these things do have their uses.
As someone with a visual impairment, I have to use a hand magnifier to read paperbacks and newspapers. That's fine when I'm at home, but when I'm on the bus or train it's cumbersome and looks odd. I've always envied those who could read papers on the train or lounge around on the sofa with a paperback held at arm's length (or even use laptops, but that's another story!), for me reading can be something of a chore.
These devices are a great *compliment* to traditional books. In public I can use one to increase the print size so I don't have to have the thing up against my face and on that long journey I don't have to have loads of papers and books around. But at home I can goggle through my magnifier at my beloved 1950s paperback collection or chuckle at Private Eye.
One thing stopping me from going out and getting a Kindle or whatever tomorrow is the content. I haven't looked into it properly, but I'm guessing that alot of older, more obscure (or non-American!) material isn't available in ebook form.
Books will never die, but anything that lets me and millions of other blindies enjoy reading again can only be great news.
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