John Lewis pitches 80-quid colour e-book reader
No mention of the T-word
If Samsung's 7in Galaxy Tab is too big for you - let alone Apple's 9.7in iPad - then how about this 5in "colour e-book reader" that the middle classes' favourite retailer, John Lewis, will be offering this Christmas?
Out under the name of UK electronics supplier Sovos, the SVEBK5-B has a 480 x 800 LCD and measures a neat 149 x 104 x 11mm.
It'll handle Divx, MPEG 2 and MP4 video files; JPEG and BMP pictures; MP3, WMA, AAC and Flac audio; and text, PDF, FB2, PDB and ePub e-books.
The gadget has 1GB of storage on board, but you can add more by slotting in an SD card.
The battery life stretches to seven hours' e-book reading, five hours of video playback or 30 hours of music listening, John Lewis said.
And it's only 80 quid. ®
COMMENTS
For £30 more you can have a Kindle.....
with e-paper and and 30 *days* of e-book reading on a single charge.
While this may make a fair compromise device if you are interested in watching video, if your primary concern is reading then the LCD screen is a major problem. It is harder on the eyes, will perform poorly in bright light and the display and backlight sucks the battery dry in a few hours.
I was initially sceptical about e-ink, until I tried it. I can read a Kindle for hours without any eye strain, whereas I can barely manage 30 minutes on an LCD before I'm rubbing my eyes and blinking.
LCD vs e-ink
LCDs are backlit. e-ink screens aren't (- they're reflective, like regular paper).
They really are much easier on the eyes.
no e-ink
An ebook should use e-ink or it should be called a tablet. They should make it an EU law ;)
no
you don't read your PC screen for hours you sausage. You look away, you type, you glance here and you glance there. That isn't like reading a book.
I have a scientific experiment called "me" because nobody knows my eyes better than me. e-ink affects my eyes like real paper. i.e. it doesn't. A backlit screen does. That's it .End of story.
