Quote:
Originally Posted by amiami
Readius by Polymer Vision (2008)
Astak Mentor (2008)
BeBook Reader by Endless Ideas (2008)
GeR2 by Ganaxa (2007)
Kindle by Amazon (2007)
Cybook Gen3 by Bookeen (2007)
FLEPia by Fujitsu (2007)
Hanlin eReader by Jinke
Sony Reader by Sony (2006)
ILiad by iRex (2006)
Librié by Sony (2004)
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Good sources of information are the
E-book Reader Matrix and
OpenInkpot. Some you can definitely exclude:
- Readius (small, low resolution, not available)
- Libre (1st gen Sony, no longer sold)
- FLEPia (very expensive, available only in Japan)
The BeBook is a Jinke Hanlin V3 (so are lBook V3, DigiBook Reader V3, Apolo-Hanlin V3, Walkbook). The GeR2 is a rebaged Netronix EB-600 (so also are Explay TXT.BOOK, STAReBOOK STK-101, Orsio b721). The Cybook Gen3 is the same EB-600 hardware, but with different software.
The iLiad is hands down the best at displaying A4 PDFs. Of the devices with 6" screens, I don't know if there is a best. The Kindle has no native PDF capability, but this may not matter because the most broadly successful approach is off-line conversion to images. There are probably more off-line converters for the PRS-505, but that does not help if they are all less than what you want. Some people are happy with one approach or another for A4 PDFs on 6" E-Ink, but most people are not. The Astak line is not yet available, but if its 6" screen device runs WinCE, it might have a different PDF reader to try than the current Linux based devices. Similarly, like the Sony PRS-505, if it comes with Adobe Digital Editions it will presumably have Adobe's best technology for displaying PDFs on smallish screens. The 9.7" Astak, like any device with this screen, will have a huge head start in displaying A4 PDFs (since the screen is essentially A5 size). None of the 9.7" devices will be available until late this year at best.