Hanvon taps E Ink for Vizplex tech in N510 e-book reader

If you've been disinterested in the current wave of e-book readers due to their size, have a gander at Hanvon's N510. Yeah, you'll have to look a little harder than usual given its diminutive size, but it's there (we promise). Hailed as the world's first five-inch e-book to use electrophoretic technology, this power-sipping device relies on an E Ink Vizplex display and offers up 180-degrees viewing, an 11-millimeter thick frame and support for TXT, HTML, PNG, JPG, PDF, XEB, CEB, MP3 and MTXT formats. The daylight-viewable screen boasts an SVGA (800 x 600) resolution, and it comes loaded with a 1GB SD card and a mini USB port. There's no direct mention of availability, but it should start floating around soon (somewhere in the world, at least) for $295.

[Via Slashgear]

[Patrick @ Nov 4th 2008 2:23PM]

sexier than the kindle...

[TareX @ Nov 4th 2008 2:26PM]

Expensive but sexy.

But still expensive. I'd rather have a big-screen (>3") hi-res smartphone with ebook reader software.

[Greg @ Nov 4th 2008 2:40PM]

$4 cheaper than the Sony reader, but one inch smaller. Doesn't sound like much of a bargain.

Its always the price, isn't it? I understand e-ink is expensive, but why can't someone come up with an inexpensive 6" LCD reader for less than $150? While I understand the benefits of e-ink, I can read on LCD screens just fine. Surely, I'm not the only one out there. There's that shady ECTACO/Jetbook LCD monstrosity, but its $300 too.

[16-bit @ Nov 4th 2008 2:44PM]

You're not the only one, and don't call me Shirley.

[solarpos @ Nov 4th 2008 3:41PM]

Folks such as Franklin HAVE come up with more affordable options to the Kindle, Sony Reader and Italian $600+ counterparts. They are garbage.

[Greg @ Nov 4th 2008 3:55PM]

solarpos, while I'd agree that the Franklin book readers are garbage, they haven't made an ebook specific device in years, let alone one made with modern, color LCD screens. That's like comparing the iPhone with a first generation RIO mp3 player.

Speaking of which, many folks think the iPhone/iPod Touch is a decent reader, despite the small(ish) size. Why not a similar 6" device for those that would like to scroll less frequently?

[Plothole @ Nov 5th 2008 6:32AM]

The benefit of eInk is not simply in it's readability. There's also battery life. Because it's bistable... it consumes zero energy when not refreshing... it uses far less power than an LCD. Especially a color LCD, which are hogs compared to the older monochrome ones.

[Stan Winsome @ Nov 4th 2008 2:47PM]

I'll be into it when it's paper-thin and in full color. Until then it makes no sense when the real thing i.e. printed matter is still far superior.

[Phil @ Nov 4th 2008 3:38PM]

Do any of these things support Plucker (.pdb) yet? That's my current favorite format for getting ebooks from Gutenberg.org and other sites.

[TavisJohn @ Nov 4th 2008 3:57PM]

Damn soo close to what I want....

This is nearly it, just bump the screen size to 8.5x11. (Screen size, not device size)
But keep it under $300.00
I could care less about WiFi, Internet access, MP3 playback, or any other extras. I want an e-book reader that just reads e-books!

[Plothole @ Nov 5th 2008 6:34AM]

Considering the primary cost factor right now seems to be the eInk screens, I doubt a 300 Dollar 8.5x11 model would be possible at present.

[TavisJohn @ Nov 5th 2008 12:33PM]

I unerstand that. It is just that I see little to no point for an e-book reader to have MP3 playback or some of the other extra features.

I could almost understand WiFi support... And a browser might make sense with color e-paper...

But really all I want is a basic e-book reader with a full page screen for easy reading.

[Plothole @ Nov 5th 2008 8:03PM]

I understand what you're getting at. However most of the features don't really add all that much to the cost of the unit.

[TavisJohn @ Nov 5th 2008 8:28PM]

However the more they cram into something, the less stable it becomes.
I thought that in order to have MP3 support you had to pay for a license?
So that would add to the cost, wouldn't they?

[Plothole @ Nov 6th 2008 4:06AM]

Yes, but still it only contributes a small portion to the total MSRP.

[sam @ Nov 4th 2008 7:10PM]

Why are you comparing it to the 'thin'-ness of paper? Unless the longest thing you ever read is a leaflet, you should be comparing it to the thin-ness of a book; it wins. And why the insistence on colour? Most books (talking about novels here) are black-and-white so no problem there either...

Price is not really a major problem either. These devices aren't aimed at morons who barely ever read beyond the symbols on their TV remote (and yes they will need to drop a lot in price before that happens). For a serious reader, $300 in exchange for not having to find shelf space for all those books is an astonishing bargain. Put another way, it's around the same cost as a game console, and the software is one hell of a lot cheaper...

So: have you actually seen an ebook reader? Lack of colour and thickness aren't the problems: update speed is. I'm also not sure whether content availability is really a solved problem yet, either. And though the screens look great already, an even higher resolution wouldn't hurt (but not just by making the same-resolution screen smaller please).

As for this device, 'less fugly than Kindle' is not really a challenge is it? And it's still at least in the region of fugly. The newest Sony is still small enough and looks really classy, and would be a near-perfect device if it just had wi-fi support so you could buy books directly on it. Oh, and full Mac support. (No need for fancy and expensive mobile phone network connection, really.)

[nxp3 @ Nov 4th 2008 8:03PM]

The only reason this product fails is the screen size. Come on guys...if you plan to beat someone, you don't make it smaller!!! You make it bigger and better! Geez...how stupid.

[nxp3 @ Nov 4th 2008 8:20PM]

Wow your reason was going great until the end there. Wifi? Come on guy, the purpose of an ebook is to last a long time hence the e-ink. You are going to ruin the battery life with wifi? How often do you need to purchase books? I mean all you have to do is buy books on the computer sync it to your device. Not like you can't put a lot of books on there, so do you need to buy a book while sitting at starbucks? A big screen would really help though since a lot of 8.5x11 scanned docs would look pretty damn small on a 5 or 6 inch screen without zooming and scrolling around. I'd say it don't have to be 8.5x11 but should atleast be 8 inches to be able to read comfortably and higher resolution. If this thing was 8 inch I'd buy it. I've seriously consider the PRS-700, but at 400 is just a tad bit expensive.

[Loonyx @ Nov 5th 2008 11:54AM]

Chinese people are small. So using small things like 9" netbooks and 5" ebook readers ain't such a bad thing for their small fingers. the visibility of the screen is actually due to their slanty eyes which prevent readability in most modern day electronicas.

DRM FREE WOOHOO!

[Loralyn @ Nov 24th 2008 9:15PM]

If I am going to pay $295 for an ebook reader, I want one with a built-in Dictionary. I understand the difficulty of a Dictionary on an e-ink device. But I'm still holding out until that problem is overcome. (Which may never come as no one else seems the least bit concerned about this issue.)