Older E-book Reader Matrix
From MobileRead
This page contains e-paper screen products that are no longer manufactured or were prototyped and shown but never released. For current products see: E-book Reader Matrix. If you wish to compare an older product with a current product open the two pages in different browser windows.
Contents |
[edit] Older 5"-6" Devices
| Brandname | HanLin eBook | Sony Portable Reader | Amazon Kindle | STAReBOOK | COOL-ER | Kobo | Barnes and Noble | Spring Design | Brandname | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Model | Hanlin V2 | V3 | PRS-500 | PRS-505 | Pocket Edition PRS-300 | PRS-700 | Touch Edition PRS-600 | Kindle | Kindle 2 | STK-101 | Cool-er Classic | Kobo eReader | Nook | Alex | Model |
| Manufacturer | Jinke Electronics | Sony | Hon Hai Precision Industries | Netronix | Foxconn | Spring Design | Manufacturer | ||||||||
| Picture |  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Picture |
| Dimensions | 194 × 134 × 13.5 mm (7.6" by 5.3" by .5") | 184 × 121 × 10 mm (7.2" × 4.74" × .39") | 176 × 124 × 14 mm (6.9" by 4.9" by .5") | 175 × 122 × 8 mm (6.9" × 4.8" × .3") | 158 × 108 × 10 mm (6.2" x 4.2" x .4") | 175 × 128 × 10 mm (6.8" × 5.0" × .4") | 175 x 122 x 9.7 mm (6.9" x 4.8" x .4") | 190 × 135 × 18 mm (7.5" x 5.3" x 0.7") | 203 x 135 x 9 mm (8" x 5.3" x .36") | 188 × 118 × 8.5 mm (7.4" × 4.6" × .3") | 184 × 120 × 10 mm (7.2" × 4.7" × .4") | 189 × 126 × 8.6 mm (7.5" × 4.9" × .3") | 196 x 126 x 13 mm (7.7" x 4.9" x .5") | 225 x 120 x 14 mm (8.9" x 4.7" x .5") | Dimensions |
| Weight | 300g (10.6oz) | 200g (7.05oz) | 250g (9oz) | 250g (9oz) | 220g (7.8oz) | 283g (10oz) | 285g (10.1oz) | 292g (10.3oz) | 289g (10.2oz) | 176g (6.2oz) | 174g (6.13oz) | 200g (7.05oz) | 343g (12.1oz) | 310g (11oz) | Weight |
| Screen Technology | E Ink | E Ink Vizplex | E Ink | E Ink Vizplex | E Ink Vizplex | E Ink | E Ink Vizplex | Screen Technology | |||||||
| Display Size | (90 × 120mm) 6" 600 × 800 pixels, 167 ppi | (76 × 102mm) 5" 600 × 800 pixels, 200 ppi | (90 × 120mm) 6" 600 × 800 pixels, 167 ppi | Display Size | |||||||||||
| Grey Levels | 4 | 4 | 4 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 4 | 16 | 4 | 8 | 8 | 16 | 8 (16 capable) | Grey Levels |
| Controller | Apollo (PVI6001A) | Apollo (PVI6001A) | Apollo (PVI6001A) | Metronome | Metronome | Epson Broadsheet (S1D13521) | Epson Broadsheet (S1D13521) | Apollo (PVI6001A) | Epson Broadsheet (S1D13521) | Apollo (PVI6001A) | Epson Broadsheet (S1D13521) | Epson Broadsheet (S1D13521) | Marvell Soft EPD Controller | Controller | |
| Touch Screen | 254x96 LCD FSTN | no | no | no | no | yes (finger or stylus) | yes (finger or stylus) | no | no | no | no | no | Separate color LCD touchscreen, 480 x 144 pixels | Separate color LCD touchscreen, 480 x 320 pixels | Touch Screen |
| Full-screen Refresh Rate | 0.9s | 0.9s | 1.0s | 0.8s | ? | ? | ? | ? | 0.9s | 0.9s | ? | ? | ? | 0.3s | Full-screen Refresh Rate |
| Power | Li-ion 760mAh | Li-ion 950mAh (Nokia Phone battery) | Li-ion | Li-ion | ? | Li-ion | Li-ion | Li-ion 1530mAh | Li-ion 1530mAh | Li-ion 800mAh | Li-Polymer 1000mAh | Li-Polymer 1000mAh? | Li-Polymer 1530mAh | Li-Polymer 1530mAh | Power |
| Battery Life | 10'000 pages | 9'000 pages | 7'500 pages | 7'500 pages | 7'500 pages | 7'500 pages | 7'500 pages | with EVDO: "2 days", without: "up to a week" | with 3G: "4 days", without: "up to two weeks" | 8'000-10'000 pages | 7'000 pages | 8'000 pages | up to 10 days with wireless off | 7'500 pages, 6hrs media playback | Battery Life |
| OS | Wolf Linux | Linux | Linux | Linux 2.4.17 | Linux | Linux 2.6.23 | Linux 2.6.23 | Linux 2.6.?? | Linux 2.6.22 | Linux | Linux 2.6.18 | Linux 2.6.18? | Android 1.5, Linux 2.6.27 | Android 1.5 | OS |
| Boot Time | 15s | 16s | ? | ? | ? | ? | 15s | ? | ? | 15s | 30s | ? | ? | ? | Boot Time |
| SDK | yes | yes | no | no | no | yes | no | no | no | no | no | no | ? | ? | SDK |
| CPU | Samsung® S3C2410 (ARM920T core, 200MHz) | Samsung® S3C2410 (ARM920T core, 200MHz) | Freescale Dragonball MC9328MXL (ARM920T core, 200MHz) | Freescale i.MXL MC9328MXLVP20 (ARM920T core, 200MHz) | Freescale i.MXL MC9328MXLVP20 (ARM920T core, 200MHz) | Freescale i.MX31L (ARM1136JF-S core, 532MHz) | Freescale i.MX31L (ARM1136JF-S core, 532MHz) | XScale PXA250 (400MHz) | Freescale i.MX31L (ARM1136JF-S core, 532MHz) | Samsung® S3C2410A (ARM920T core, 250MHz) | Samsung® S3C2440 (ARM920T core, 400MHz) | Samsung® S3C6410 (ARM1176JZF-S core, 667MHz) | Marvell Monahan PXA303 (Xscale core, 624MHz) | CPU | |
| CPU | 64MB Ram + 64MB Flash, 512MB SD Card included | 32MB RAM, 512MB Internal, 2M NOR Flash, 512MB SD Card included | 64MB RAM, 2MB(NOR) + 128MB(NAND) Flash (91.9MB user accessible) | 64MB RAM, 2MB(NOR) + 256MB(NAND) Flash (~210MB user accessible) | ?MB RAM, 512MB Internal (440 MB User Accessible) | 128MB RAM, 256MB(NAND) Flash (~180MB user accessible) | 128MB RAM, 512MB(NAND) Flash (~420MB user accessible) | 128MB RAM, 256 MB Flash (180 MB user accessible) | 128MB RAM, 2GB Flash (1.4GB user accessible) | 64MB RAM | 128MB RAM, 1GB Flash | ?MB RAM, 1GB Flash | 256MB RAM, 2 GB Flash | 256MB DRAM, 2 GB Flash | CPU |
| Expansion Slots | SD/MMC | SD/MMC up to 4GB | MMC/SD/SDHC, Memory Stick Pro Duo | MMC/SD/SDHC, Memory Stick Pro Duo | none | MMC/SD/SDHC, Memory Stick Pro Duo | MMC/SD/SDHC, Memory Stick Pro Duo | SD/MMC | none | SD/MMC | SD up to 4GB | SD up to 4GB | MicroSD/SDHC | MicroSD/SDHC | Expansion Slots |
| Other Interfaces | USB 1.1, headphone | USB 1.1 (charging), headphone | USB 1.1, headphone | USB 2.0, headphone | USB 2.0 (charging) | USB 2.0, headphone | USB 2.0, headphone | USB 2.0, headphone, EVDO/CDMA | USB 2.0 (charging), headphone, 3G | USB 2.0, headphone, mono speaker | USB 2.0 (charging), 2.5mm stereo | USB 2.0 (charging), Bluetooth | Micro USB 2.0 (charging), 3.5mm stereo, WiFi, 3G/GPRS | Micro USB 2.0 (charging), 2.5mm stereo, WiFi | Other Interfaces |
| Supported Formats | PDF, TXT, RTF, EPUB, LIT, PPT, WOLF, DOC, CHM, FB2, PRC/MOBI, HTML, DJVU, MP3, TIFF, JPEG, GIF, BMP, PNG, RAR, ZIP | PDF, EPUB, TXT, RTF, LIT, PPT, WOLF, DOC, CHM, FB2, PRC/MOBI, HTML, DJVU, MP3, TIFF, JPEG, GIF, BMP, PNG, RAR, ZIP | BBeB (LRF/LRX), PDF, EPUB, TXT, RTF, JPEG, BMP, GIF, PNG, MP3, AAC | Kindle (AZW and TOPAZ), PRC/MOBI (non DRM), TXT, MP3, Audible (format 4, Audible Enhanced (AAX)), MP3; | Kindle (AZW and TOPAZ), PRC/MOBI (non DRM), PDF (non DRM), TXT, MP3, Audible (format 4, Audible Enhanced (AAX)), MP3; | STK, MP3 | PDF, EPUB, FB2, RTF, TXT, HTML, PRC, JPEG AND MP3 | PDF, EPUB | PDF, EPUB, eReader, PDB, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, MP3 | PDF, EPUB, HTML, TXT, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, MP3, MIDI, WAV, MPEG2/4, 3GPP, Flash | Supported Formats | ||||
| Supported DRM Formats | Wolf | Wolf and MobiPocket or Adobe ADEPT (EPUB/PDF) | Marlin DRM (BBeB), Adobe ADEPT (EPUB/PDF) | AZW and TOPAZ | .stk? | Adobe ADEPT (EPUB/PDF) | eReader (EPUB/eReader), Adobe ADEPT (EPUB/PDF) | Adobe ADEPT (EPUB/PDF) | Supported DRM Formats | ||||||
| Font Sizes | 3 | 3-9 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 6 | ? | 8 | 5 | 6 | ? | Font Sizes |
| Search functionality / Dictionary lookup | no | no | no | no | no | search using touchscreen | built-in dictionary and search using touchscreen | search using keyboard, built-in dictionary using select wheel | search using keyboard, built-in dictionary using 5-way | no | Yes | No? | search using touchscreen keyboard, built-in dictionary | search using touchscreen keyboard, ?built-in dictionary? | Search functionality / Dictionary lookup |
| Note taking / highlighting / underlining | no | no | no | no | no | using touchscreen | using touchscreen | using keyboard and select wheel | using keyboard and 5-way | ? | no | ? | using color touchscreen | using color touchscreen | Note taking / highlighting / underlining |
| Text to Speech | no | yes | no | no | no | no | no | no | yes | no | no | no | no | no? | Text to Speech |
| Software | WOLF Maker, WOLF Printer | WOLF Maker, WOLF Printer, Adobe Digital Editions | eBook Library, Adobe Digital Editions | NetFront web browser & MobiPocket Java Reader | eREAD Editor | Adobe Digital Editions | Adobe Digital Editions | Adobe Digital Editions | Adobe Digital Editions | Software | |||||
| Services | iStation, ReadMan | Sony CONNECT | Amazon Kindle Whispernet. E-mail conversion of DOC, HTML, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP and PDF | Isoshu | Sync Kobo ebooks across multiple devices. | 3G via AT&T | Services | ||||||||
| Content Partners | Random House, Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, Libri.de, Thalia.de, Online-Artikel.de, cyberblogger.de, Thalia.ch, stauffacher.ch | Amazon | Isoshu | Cooler Books | Kobo Books | B&N eBooks | Spring Design | Content Partners | |||||||
| Price | US$349 | US$239 | US$329 | US$299 / €300 / £199 | US$149 | US$349 | US$169 | US$299 | US$189 | US$420 | US$249 | US$149 | 3G $199 / WiFi $149 | $399 / 449€ | Price |
| Release Date | Q2 2006 | Q3 2007 | 26 September, 2006 | 2 October, 2007 | 25 August 2009 | 14 October 2008 | 25 August 2009 | November 2007 | Ordering began 02/09/09 | 11/2006 | 7 July, 2009 | May 2010 (Canada), Summer 2010 (US) | 30 November 2009 | March 2010 | Release Date |
| Misc Info | Company has been selling e-book devices since 2000 (V8 not shown). | Company has been selling e-book devices since 2000.
Sold under other names worldwide: lBook V3, DigiBook Reader V3, Apollo-Hanlin V3, Walkbook, Papyre 6.1, BEBOOK One, Astak EZ Reader Basic, Kolibri V3, ECO Reader. V3 supported by open source e-reader firmware Openinkpot |
Company has been selling e-book devices since 2004.
PRS-500 was only available in the US, PRS-700 only in US and Canada. |
Amazon pays for the wireless connectivity for Kindle so there are no monthly wireless bills, data plans, or service commitments for customers.
USA Only Annotations stored in plain text files. |
Amazon pays for the wireless connectivity for Kindle so there are no monthly wireless bills, data plans, or service commitments for customers.
Internationally available as of October 2009. Annotations stored in plain text files. |
eREAD is a Taiwanese company (also available in: China and New Zealand). | Hardware is an EB-600 variant. Cool-er is out of business. Other brand names for the Netronix EB-600 with Netronix standard software include iLiber, Inves-Book 600 and Elonex 600EB (sold by Borders UK). | Hardware is an EB-600 variant. Software by Kobo. | US only, free WiFi in B&N stores, digital lending. B&N pays for the wireless connectivity for Nook so there are no monthly wireless bills, data plans, or service commitments for customers. | Browse the entire Web, send and receive emails, play mp4 or flash apps, built-in MP3 media player, Annotate or record comments, connect free using Wifi,built-in bookmarking and speaker. Sold under other names worldwide: Papyre 6.S Alex (Spain) | Misc Info | ||||
[edit] Older/Canceled Large Devices
| Brandname | Sony Portable Reader | iRex | QUE | Skiff | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Model | Daily Edition PRS-900 | DR800SG | iLiad (discontinued) | Digital Reader 1000 (discontinued) | QUE proReader (canceled [1]) | Skiff Reader (unreleased) |
| Manufacturer | Sony | iRex Technologies | Plastic Logic | ? | ||
| Picture |  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Dimensions | 209 × 122 × 15 mm (8.1" × 5" × 0.6") | 193 × 149 × 10.7 mm (7.6" × 5.9" × 0.4") | 216 × 155 × 16 mm (8.5" × 6.1" × 0.6") | 268 × 217 × 12 mm (10.6" × 8.5" × 0.5") | 279 × 217 × 7 mm (11" × 8.5" × 0.3") | 279 × 229 × 7 mm (11" × 9" × 0.27") |
| Weight | 360g (12.7oz) | 360g (12.6oz) | 435g (15.3oz) | 570g (20.1oz) | 488g (17.2oz) | 498g (17.6oz) |
| Screen Technology | E Ink Vizplex | E Ink Vizplex | E Ink Vizplex | E Ink Vizplex | E Ink Vizplex on flexible plastic | E Ink Vizplex on flexible stainless steel |
| Display Size | (90 × 154mm) 7.1" 600 × 1024 pixels, 167 ppi | (122 × 163mm) 8.1" 768 × 1024 pixels, 160 ppi | (122 × 163mm) 8.1" 768 × 1024 pixels, 160 ppi | (163 × 203mm) 10.2" 1024 × 1280 pixels, 160 ppi | (160 × 214mm) 10.5" 944 × 1264 pixels, 150 ppi | (175 × 234mm) 11.5" 1200 × 1600 pixels, 174 ppi |
| Grey Levels | 16 | 16 | 16 | 16 | 8 | ? |
| Controller | Epson Broadsheet
iRex Delta |
iRex Delta | iRex Delta | Marvell ARMADA 166E (integrated) | Marvell ARMADA 166E (integrated) | |
| Touch Screen | yes (finger or stylus) | yes (Wacom Pen) | yes (Wacom Pen) | yes (Wacom Pen, DR1000S & DR1000SW editions) | yes (finger) | yes (finger or stylus) |
| Full-screen Refresh Rate | ? | ? | 1.3s | 0.85s | ? | ? |
| Power | Li-ion 1400mAh | Li-ion 2800mAh | Li-ion 2200mAh (2x 1100mAh cells); 2nd Edition ~20% larger | Li-ion 1140mAh | ? | Li-ion |
| Battery Life | 12'000 pages | 6'000 pages or several days | 15 hrs with larger battery | 10 hrs | "measured in days not hours" | One week |
| OS | Linux | Linux | Linux | Linux 2.6.24 | Microsoft Windows CE | ? |
| Boot Time | ? | 55s | 44s | 50s | ? | ? |
| SDK | no | yes | yes; many Linux apps have been ported | yes | ? | ? |
| CPU | Freescale i.MX31L (ARM1136JF-S core, 532MHz) | Freescale i.MX31L | Intel X-Scale 400MHz | Freescale i.MX31L | Marvell ARMADA 166E 800MHz | Marvell ARMADA 166E 800MHz |
| Memory | 128MB Ram + 2GB (NAND) Flash (~1.6GB user accessible) | 128MB Ram + 2GB Micro SD | 64MB Ram + 128MB free Flash | 128MB Ram + 1GB SD | ??MB Ram + 8GB (~7.6GB user accessible) | ?Ram + 4GB (~3GB user accessible) |
| Expansion Slots | MMC/SD/SDHC, Memory Stick Pro Duo | Micro SD/SDHC | MMC, CF Type II, USB Memory | SD/SDHC | none | SD/SDHC |
| Other Interfaces | USB 2.0, headphone, 3G (AT&T) | USB 2.0 (charging); 3G (Verizon); [DR800S as European version have no 3G] | USB 1.1, headphone, WiFi 802.11b (NOT for Book Edition), 10/100 LAN | USB 2.0 (charging); 1000SW only: WiFi 802.11b/g and Bluetooth | USB 2.0 (charging), headphone, WiFi 802.11g, 3G (US: Sprint) | 2 x USB, headphone, WiFi 802.11b/g, Bluetooth, 3G (optional), 1.3 Megapixel camera, internal microphone and speakers |
| Supported Formats | BBeB (LRF/LRX), PDF, EPUB, TXT, RTF, JPEG, BMP, GIF, PNG, MP3, AAC | eReader, ePub, PDF, TXT, JPEG, BMP, PNG | PDF, HTML, TXT, JPEG, BMP, PNG, PRC/MOBI, DJVU (via FBReader: fb2, CHM, Plucker, zTxt, TCR, RTF, OEB, EPUB) | PDF, HTML, TXT, JPEG, BMP, PNG, PRC/MOBI (via FBReader: fb2, CHM, Plucker, zTxt, TCR, RTF, OEB, EPUB, via evice: DJVU) | PDF, ePub, eReader, TXT, GIF, JPEG, PNG, BMP | ? |
| Supported DRM Formats | Adobe ADEPT (EPUB/PDF) | eReader, Adobe ADEPT (EPUB/PDF) | MobiPocket | MobiPocket | eReader, Adobe ADEPT (EPUB/PDF) | ? |
| Font Sizes | 6 | 16 | 16 | 16 | 5 | ? |
| Folder Navigation | no (collections) | no (available with firmware edit) | yes | yes | yes | ? |
| Search functionality / Dictionary lookup | built-in dictionary and search using touchscreen | search using touchscreen | using touchscreen | using touchscreen | search using touchscreen | ? |
| Note taking / highlighting / underlining | using touchscreen | not initially, available later | using touchscreen | using touchscreen | using touchscreen | ? |
| Text to Speech | no | no | no | no | no | ? |
| PDF Capabilities |
Full Page; Landscape; Autocrop Margins; Arbitrary Zoom; Single Page Reflow; Table of Contents; Hyperlinks; Text Search; Dictionary Lookup; |
Full Page; Single Page reflow; Table of Contents; Hyperlinks; Text Search; |
Full Page; Landscape Continuous Autocrop; Two Column; Manual Crop Margins; Arbitrary Zoom; Table of Contents; Hyperlinks; |
? | ? | ? |
| Services | Sony CONNECT via 3G | Barnes&Noble ebook store via 3G | iRex Technologies Delivery Service (iDS) | Barnes&Noble ebook store via wiFi and 3G | Skiff store via wiFi and 3G | |
| Content Partners | Random House, Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, Libri.de, Thalia.de, Thalia.ch, stauffacher.ch | Barnes&Noble | De Tijd, IFRA, Les Echos, NRC Handelsblad, MobiPocket | Barnes&Noble | ? | |
| Price | US$249 | US$399 / €499 | 2nd edition: US$699 / €599; Book Edition: US$599 / €499 / £399 | DR1000: US$??? / €???; DR1000S: US$859 / €699; DR1000SW: US$??? / €???; | US$799 | US$??? |
| Release Date | December, 2009 | January, 2010 [DR800S released on January 18, 2010] | Q3 2006; 2nd Edition Q3 2007;
Book Edition 7 May 2008 |
DR1000 ?;
DR1000S Oct 1st, 2008; DR1000SW ? |
Summer 2010 (never) | 2010 (never) |
| Misc Info | Sony pays for the wireless connectivity (via AT&T, for Sony CONNECT access only?), so there are no monthly wireless bills, data plans, or service commitments for customers. US-only. PRS-950 with an E Ink Pearl screen will be available November 2010. | DR800SG released in the US only. The DR800S (no 3G) available in Europe. | Company was established in 2001 as a Royal Philips Electronics spin-off.
2nd Edition iLiad beefs up the case frame and upgrades with larger battery. Book Edition is the same as 2nd Edition without WiFi and lower priced |
Company was established in 2001 as a Royal Philips Electronics spin-off.
Base DR1000 without touchscreen, DR1000S adds touchscreen. DR1000SW adds WiFi and Bluetooth. Only the DR1000S has been released. Annotations stored in plain text files and only exportable to Windows (and perhaps only for PDFs). |
Plastic Logic is making its own screens with a flexible backplane. Sold by B&N, with wireless provided by AT&T, in the US. A version without 3G and with 4GB of memory is $649. | Skiff Reader will be sold from Sprint Stores in the US. There are no details on format support, and the Skiff Store may be the only source for DRMed content. Extra adverts will be injected into some content (e.g. newspapers) at the point of delivery. |
