ASUS DR-570 e-reader to sport 6-inch OLED color screen, 122 hours of battery life
By Paul Miller 
posted January 17th 2010 1:54PM
posted January 17th 2010 1:54PM
Well, isn't this a doozy. ASUS was a bit of a no-show in the e-reader arena at CES, but has dropped some knowledge on the Times Online's InGear: it's building a 6-inch color OLED e-reader, which flies in the face of previous rumors about an ASUS e-reader entry. The device, currently dubbed the DR-570 and pictured to the left, will play back Flash video, includes WiFi and 3G, and supposedly can last for 122 hours on one charge under "real world conditions." It's supposed to be released by the end of the year, and while from anybody else we'd assume this would cost an arm and a leg, the ASUS brand gives us some hope that we might actually be able to afford one when it hits.[Thanks, Ian S.]
I did... lol
@PATRICKmcnicholl Me too
@mikethebigo
I clicked because anything that sports the OLED acronym is like fly paper to me.
How do I change the image that displays when I comment????
I was stunned to learn that Engadget is "owned" by AOL. Hopefully you guys are going to spin-off, lest you go down with overly inflated humongous sinking ship that is AOL. After all --> AOL is the Monster Cable of the Internets!
OLED? It's going to be murder on your eyes unless they reformat everything to be white-on-black. Otherwise, as with LCDs, it'll be like staring at a lamp for all those 122 hours.
@sockatume exactly. OLEDs have no persistence (unlike LCD and CRTs), so there is always some level of flicker. Plus, a white background would kill the battery life.
@morcheeba
news to me, about OLED always having some level of flicker. Please explain, as that would probably make it absolute rubbish as a TV.
@morcheeba
OLED does not have any flicker, response times are just about instant. Unlike LCDs or CRTs.
@fel yes it does. just because you can't see it doesn't mean it is not straining your eyes. this is not the same as reading paper and OLED is not the saviour of everything display related.
The photo that appeared in the print version of this article appeared to show what looked to be Android running on it.
I like the idea that this thing is an e-reader/tablet rather than a PC/tablet. It just makes more sense to me that this form factor would have its own OS, rather than just putting touch capabilities on Win 7. This is why I think this might possibly be the best of these types of devices so far. Despite the Kindle's success (and despite the fact that I REALLY want a Kindle), I don't see magazines taking off on these devices until colour e-ink becomes the norm. Until then, I think we'll see a few really interesting "experiments" that use OLED screens and it won't be a huge deal. We already surf blogs and work on our computers all day. People are acting as if computer displays are now disgusting and they'll burn your eyes out after 2 hours.
Finally!, I am starting to get into this e-reader hype.
Jessica Alba Loves the 6-Inch....
Wasn't it the purpose of e-ink to make things easier on the eyes, regardless of light conditions (though they are going to be easier to read in bright sunlight that an OLED screen for certain). However I'm sure many people will go for this over e-ink, after all half of all people go for gadgets that attract the envy of others and clearly don't give a damn about practicality!
It won't fix the eyestrain issue with any LCD or OLED type device. That's the benefit of e-ink vs. reading it on a tablet PC or on a desktop monitor.
The lack of color, and to some degree touchscreen, is causing some people concern with Kindle devices and the like; however, those concerns seem to be put in the back burner once they realize the lack of eyestrain.
I would love to see color e-ink someday. It's a real pain to host any type of picture on the device. I'm doing a research project on the e-ink devices in classrooms ans so far it seems they're best suited for texts that are 99% text and made for pure reading. In other words, anything requiring picture or color to look attractive doesn't come out nice.
If its an OLED screen, doesn't it defeat the purpose of an "e-reader"? Since e-readers use a display thats not you know...OLED?
My electronic reader is my Droid running Aldiko.
I don't see what the problem is.
Jessica Alba, you so sexy!
What is the point if there is no eInk? I'd rather have an OLED laptop or even an OLED lap dance.
Include:
-Minimum of an SD card slot, preferably Memory Stick and Compact Flash as well
-USB port for data transfer and charging (no other AC port)
-Picture support (JPEG/BMP/PNG/GIF)
-Web browser, PDF, TXT, and a few MS office file formats
-email, notepad, calendar, contact list, etc
-Open SDK so we can develop apps for it
-A bar to show the date/time, power/network/etc status icons, open apps, etc
-The ability to remotely log in to it, delete/upload/download files to/from it and lock it down completely in the event that it's stolen to make it unusable until it's returned
And I'll buy one
@Extinction So u want an iPod withSD slot and USB ports
Competition is good. It drives technology forward and brings prices down. Well, unless you're Apple. Hehe.
Uh. Their number is probably a mistake. First of all, 122 hours is way too specific for any pre-announcement marketing tidbit, and too specific for marketing in general. Further, there's no reason to expect such a huge increase in battery life compared to virtually everything else. 12 hours is a very reasonable/respectable usage time benchmark for a light emissive-display-equipped tablet.
Can Asus do no wrong? Seriously, everything they touch just turns to gold.
I like big boarders and I can not lye you other brotha can't deny. I can go on here.
No really what's with these thick boarders eh?
My price estimate: $799.-
I'm assuming there that is has a usable resolution.
the end of the year? tech years are like dog years at the end of the year everybosy else will have the same shit
122 hours with a screen that's continuously drawing power? Just how big is the battery?
bye bye e-ink
still prefer e-ink
there is always somebody whining about not being able to read outdoors
@dez "honestly, why does everyone care about reading outdoors? Read indoors like a good bookworm!"
Because the next time you're at Waikiki beach, you can credibly pretend to read "War and Peace" on your brand new Apple tablet device when in fact you're actually shooting video of girls slathering themselves with Hawaiian Tropic Deep Tanning Crème Lotion. Next question.
Glad to see Engadget ditched their style guidelines as it relates to ASUS. The whole notion of referring to them as Asustek was really frustrating.
Jessica Alba deserves more than 6 inches.
Is there anyone has idea on who is supplying the display?