Netronix unveils 6-inch EB-100 and 9.7-inch EB-300 e-books

Original Post from March 12th 2008.

Engadget is reporting here and TeleRead here on these new eReaders, from Netronix (partially owned by PVI!).

You can find the Netronix product page here.
Quoting Engadget:
"The EB-300 has a 1200 x 825, 170 dpi, 4 grayscale screen, and measures a mere 14mm (0.55-inches) thick. There's 4GB of NAND storage on board, along with 64MB of SDRAM and some SD card expansion. There's also WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity for good measure. EB-300 runs Windows CE 5.0, while little brother EB-100 runs Linux and a 6-inch 800 x 600 screen -- and loses most of the other connectivity and storage perks as well. No word on price or availability for either of these."

EB-300 specs:

• Screen: 9.7" E Ink e-paper, touch-enabled
• Resolution: 1200 x 825 pixels, 170 dpi, 4 grayscale
• Dimensions: 255mm(H )x 195mm(W) x 14mm(D)
• Memory: 4Gbit NAND type (Flash), 64MB (SDRAM)
• Storage: SD Card
• Connectivity: 802.11g Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
• Power: 3.7V 2100mAh Li-ion
• Interfaces: 2x USB, 1x stereo
• OS: Windows 5.0
• E-book formats: TXT, PDF, RTF, HTML, BMP, JPG, GIF, PNG, MP3, AAC

That display on the EB-300, being higher resolution and larger size than the iRex Illiad display will make reading un-reflowed or un-reformatted PDF and office documents that much better, and cover a larger percentage of the documents you may want to read in your "daily life" (work and personal) - although at the cost of size and portability of course. They quote 5000 page turns on a battery charge.

Reading the PDF specs from Telread page and looking closeley at image there are a few things that seem interesting:-
- Horizontal and vertical "bars" as part of UI - I wonder how used
- Bluetooth connectivity - get books via your mobile phone?
- TouchScreen - "for use with stylus and finger"
for 5000 page turns on a charge I have to assume that's with the touchscreen turned off!
I wonder what battery life is like with it turned on?
- USB "power jack" - so I assume USB charges, at last some sense!
- Font Support - separate downloadable fonts?
How many more vendors can this market accept at this stage?
Will it grow fast enough to allow them to survive?
How fast will they start dying off, to leave the winners for the long-term?
For players without a major content source, or play - just offering a device - I guess the entry barriers are pretty low so we will see more and more small players coming in and trying their luck.