I went back to my hometown Tianjin from the US where I spent my New Year's holiday. I got a chance to visit Jinke and saw a sample of the Hanlin V9. My first impression: so pretty! Compared to my Sony PRS-505, it's definitely bigger. The V9 also adds new functions such as WiFi, CDMA/EVDO and handwriting that can help accessing e-books, newspapers, RSS and blogs through the Internet.
Supported file formats are the same as for the V3, including various open formats such as Epub and PPT. And language support covers almost every corner of the world.
For me, the most intriguing thing is the effect of the A4 screen, allowing without zooming to display A4-sized PDF file almost as clear as on paper; only the font size may look a little small. With zoom-in (half page will be displayed on one screen), the font in turn is bigger than the original font of the paper.
The V9 also has a stylus; it realizes the click function, and allows making notes while reading.
Otherwise, the software and hardware are about the same as for the V3.
All in all, I was positively shocked by the V9 -- I believe everyone who sees it will like to get one right away.
According to Jinke, PVI can not yet mass-produce 9.7-inch displays. The MP is delayed until at least June; also the controller designed by E Ink still has a bug. Epson is busy with designing a new controller; the ASIC can be available in next month. The price is not set yet, probably somewhere between $599 and $699.
Some live photos of the V9 are attached.