E-reader with E Ink Vizplex launched: NUUT NP-601

[Alexander Turcic]

We received word (thanks Eric!) of a new e-reader device launched in South Korea today. Take the hardware case of the STAReBOOK and equip it with the latest technology E Ink currently has to offer, and what you get is the NUUT eBook Reader. And while it's not the size of its screen that is going to impress your friends (6-inch is de facto standard today), it's most likely to be the doubled refresh speed and the 20 percent boost in brightness compared to previous E Ink readers.

The Vizplex Imaging Film technology was only recently introduced by E Ink.

The specs:

• Weight: 178g
• Screen: E Ink Vizplex (6-inch / 168dpi / 600x800 pixels)
• CPU: ARM-compatible 32bit RISC CPU (250Mhz) operated at 200MHz
• Memory: 8MB (Boot ROM) + 32MB (SDRAM) + 512MB (RAM)
• Battery: Li-ion (one charge for 7'500 pages)
• Expansion Slots: SD Card
• Other Interfaces: USB 2.0, headphone

Street price will be around US$300.

If you can figure out which e-books format the NUUT supports, feel free to comment here.

[kapoira]

this 20% of brightnesss i suposse it's compared to the sony reader or the STAREBOOK

and about the iliad¿?¿? the same brightness, less , more ?¿?¿?

anybody

[Hadrien]

The Bookeen reader will most likely use Vizplex too (that's what PVI will be producing from now on).

[Alexander Turcic]

Originally Posted by Hadrien

The Bookeen reader will most likely use Vizplex too (that's what PVI will be producing from now on).

That's great news, Hadrien. Makes me wonder when Sony is going to upgrade the production line of the Reader to build on Vizplex.

[TadW]

Well... if PVI still makes the panels for Sony, and if Hadrien is right in that they will only produce with Vizplex technology from now on, then we can suspect future Sony Readers to feature that technology as well.

So, is it time to sell my Reader?

[CommanderROR]

great news...another ereader!

New eink technology is also cool...the interesting thing now would be when/how this thing will be sold in US and Europe...

The price seems pretty attractive in comparison...but it's still rather high. Format support should be the interesting part here...if it can offer a broad base of open formats and maybe mobipocket as DRM then it should sell very well.

[Hadrien]

I'm not an expert on hardware issues at all (there's more than enough work with software), but from what a few people in the industry told me, the screen itself is basically the same, but the controller is different.

[TadW]

Originally Posted by Hadrien

I'm not an expert on hardware issues at all (there's more than enough work with software), but from what a few people in the industry told me, the screen itself is basically the same, but the controller is different.

Vizplex also includes an enhanced imaging film compared to previous E Ink technology.

[tofuman]

One of the Korean FAQ pages says :

NUUT supports commercial XML type e-books and TXT and mp3. Due to the small display size, PDF support is not being considered.

another page says :

XML is the de facto standard in Korean e-book market

[igorsk]

Apprently LVD has a sample unit. Cyrillic doesn't look very nice.
http://www.the-ebook.org/forum/viewt...?p=85082#85082

[CommanderROR]

Looks exactly like the stuff my STAReBOOK likes to do with english/german text...^^

actually...it looks exactly like the original STAReBOOK firmware...look at the little "paper-imitation" corners and everything...I think they just added a couple of fonts to the STAReBOOK...maybe it's just a .stk file being displayed?

[jindor]

Another steady step towards the ideal ebook... more so because it is now on sale in South Korea where I happen to live : ) But I would not sell my Librie off and get a NUUT for a replacement yet. Having used Librie for more than two years, now I know what exactly I expect from the ebook.

1) Despite the improvement of the refresh speed (allegedly up to double), I'm not convinced whether it would be as good as I want.

2) Maybe it's just me but some sort of SDK available for add-on development is a must from the experience with Librie. Andrew Jennings' simplereader on Librie plus SDK provided by Sony opened lots of doors to the support of popular formats which I believe are still ongoing. DRM-protected contents and a simple ASCII file viewer won't be enough.

[Mikou]

I just read an article linked on the Teleread blog. According to 20minutes.fr, the NUUT reader will be only $280. If that's the case, I can only hope that prices for the readers continue to drop and encourage hesitant buyers.

[TadW]

Originally Posted by Mikou

I just read an article linked on the Teleread blog. According to 20minutes.fr, the NUUT reader will be only $280. If that's the case, I can only hope that prices for the readers continue to drop and encourage hesitant buyers.

Thanks for the link.

Content availability is a particularly attractive aspect of NUUT. As of today, over 300.000 volumes of e-books can be read on NUUT. That number is many times the largest number of e-book volumes available for any single e-book device previously.

300k volumes of e-books? And where do they get them from?

[JSWolf]

Are you sure that 300,000 ebooks is more then the number of ebooks in Mobipocket format? The iLiad does support Mobipocket.