In the years that it took for eBook readers to become objectively decent, prices haven’t really come down much. Foxit seeks to take on Sony and Amazon with a solid reader at under $250.
The eSlick, manufactured by the same company that builds the Kindle for Amazon and sold by a company more famous for their free alternative PDF reader than anything else, looks like a capable device, with a respectable 600×800 reflective screen, 128MB of RAM and a claimed 8000 page battery life. It’ll ship with 2GB of additional storage and room for expansion via SD cards or USB sticks. Where the eSlick falters, however, is in the areas of Wi-Fi and cellular connections—for the time being, it has none.
Foxit says a later version of the device may ship with Wi-Fi, but don’t indicate whether or not that’ll affect the price. As it stands, your options for loading and viewing content of the eSlick look to be fairly limited: files, mostly PDFs, are loaded through the USB port. MP3 support could also make the eSlick an attractive podcast player, assuming the media player app is serviceable.
The lack of connectivity won’t be a problem for many, as the artificially limited data capabilities of the competing Kindle won’t leave feeling like you’re missing too much. More importantly, the price—$229 in January and $259 afterwards—and sleek design have offerings from Sony and Amazon squarely beat. [PCWorld]
Post a Comment