Tech
CES 2010 ebook readers can't knock the B&N nook from my hands
I was a bit worried about just buying my Barnes & Noble nook (see my review) just a few weeks before CES knowing there would be lots of announcements at CES 2010. There were indeed lots of ebook readers at CES this year, as shown in the image gallery that Andrew put together. I was extremely busy and unfortunately I did not have a chance to see all of these myself, but I did see the QUE proReader, Spring Design Alex, Entouraged eDge, and Samsung e6. After reading the details on all of these, I have to say I made the right choice and the nook is still the best device for ebook reading. Too many of these new devices have web browsing, note sharing, etc. packed into them and I don't want this on my book reader. I just want the best reading experience and the best content support, which is what the B&N nook provides.
Here is my personal take on each of the ebook readers that Andrew has in his gallery:
- The Skiff looks interesting if you are into magazines and newspapers, but doesn't look like it fits well in a bag because of its very large size and does not appeal to me.
- The QUE proReader looks excellent for enterprise users who make a lot of annotations and need to carry PDF documents with them all the time.
- The Spring Design Alex is focused on web browsing too much, which does not appeal to me and I have no need for such a large lower color display.
- The Samsung e6 is way too expensive, has limited content support, and felt a bit cheap to me.
- The iRiver Story looks much like the Kindle and I am not a fan of a dedicated keyboard taking up so much room on an ebook reader.
- The Entourage eDge is a very large device that may appeal to those with trade books available. It is not a consumer-focused ebook reader, but rather an enterprise device like the QUE proReader.
- Aluratek's Libre Pro is a lower priced ebook reader that does not use eInk, but a monochrome display. There wasn't a ton of information available, but it may be a good lower cost contender with support for lots of popular formats like Adobe DRM and ePUB.
- The Bookeen Cybook Orizon ereader has a pretty basic form factor, along with a capacitive display for touch navigation. I would have to see the display because touch usually takes away a bit from clarity. Then again Plastic Logic did it properly with the proReader.
- DMC Worldwide showed off six ereaders in two lines and these appear to be decent ebook readers with prices from $199 to $299 so they appear to be priced well. I am not sure what formats or stores they support, but they may be competitive.
As you can see I think there are a couple that may appeal to me eventually, but details on the content and ebook store support need to be presented before I can tell for sure. My nook is performing very well and gives me everything I need from a trusted company with a HUGE ebook catalog and content supports.