Review When so much of the cheap, no-brand electronics kit coming out of China is junk, it's nice to find something that, for once, works better than you expect it to.

Imagin IMEB-5: right size for an e-book reader

Case in point: the Imagin IMEB-5 colour e-book reader, produced by that household name Tivolli which is so well known that I really don't need to mention that it specialises in digital photo frames.

Not an auspicious ancestry, perhaps, and on paper you'd wonder why anyone would be daft enough to hand over the hundred notes that most retailers want for it. But used solely as a small, handy gadget for reading e-books, it's surprisingly good.

As the model number suggests, the IMEB-5 has a 5in display. Its resolution is an unimpressive 480 x 800, but for a screen this physical size, that makes for a pixel density capable of rendering reasonably crisp text.

Covers in colour

Being a colour LCD, it's capable of presenting still and moving pictures in a way that E Ink readers can't, but you're really not going to want to bother. A limited colour depth, that low resolution, a truly awful UI and a none-too-bright backlight made greyer by the screen's anti-glare coating make this a poor platform for photography and an even worse one for video.

Brought to book

An anti-glare coating may not give the IMEB-5 the ability to cope with bright sunlight that E Ink has, but it'll make a better stab than your average glossy screen. Size-wise, too, its 150 x 100 x 10mm - gently tapering to 5mm at the edges - is comfortable in the hand in a way that bigger, heavier - this boy is a mere XXg couple of hundred grams - tablets aren't.

Won't win any design awards

No touchscreen means you're stuck with buttons, but here they are themselves touch-sensitive, requiring only a gentle tap to trigger. Thoughtfully, there are page turn keys on both sides of the screen, catering for the sinistral as well as the right-handed.

There's a navpad too, and though its lack of a central action key initially confuses, you soon get used to tapping the button next to it - and the Back button next to that.

Yes, the UI is a little old-fashioned...

...and it's crying out for a touchscreen

Gift horse

The only other keys, respectively, call up a Zoom menu which is them controlled with the navpad and action key, and a play/pause button for music and movies. The power key is on the bottom edge of the IMEB-5, along with a 3.5mm earphone port, a Micro SD card bay, and a mini USB port for charging and drag'n'dropping content to the gadget's 2GB of Flash.

All in all, it's not actually a bad e-reader - especially for colour content

It has an aluminium back - the front is matte cream plastic - but it's no iPad: the build quality won't win any awards, the design neither, but cheap though it looks, it feels solid.

A decent array of formats complete the spec, including Flac and Ogg audio; AVI, Flash and MPEG 4 video; and ePub and PDF for e-books. The device supports Adobe's DRM, but not Amazon's or Apple's - though it does detect and use cover art pasted in to ePubs in iTunes.

Flaws? You can't change anything but the font size without leaving the e-book reader app and entering the system settings, many of which are presented as simple lists of numbers: brightness, for example, runs from 1 to 5 with no indication as to what the effect of selecting one will be until you do so. At least the change is implemented as soon as you hit the action key. It's none too quick at turning pages, or reflowing text, either.

Verdict

The IMEB-5 retails for £100, so it's cheaper than the basic Kindle and compatible with a greater range of content and e-book stores. WH Smith is offering it online for just £65, which makes it a bit of a bargain. Yes, it's crude; yes, it's a terrible PMP; but as a low-cost e-book reader, it just passes muster. ®

Thanks to Firebox.com for the review sample

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