The Elonex 710EB eBook with full color screen first outed in April this year has now reached pre-order status with a UK availability date of July 31. The 7-inch e-Reader uses an LED backlit LCD display rather than e-Ink, benefits from wireless connectivity, will double up as a photo viewer or media player and has an 8 hour battery life.
When contacted, Elonex said that the final technical specifications are still in a state of flux prior to an end of the month UK availability slot but the 710EB eBook is known to sport a 7-inch LED backlit LCD touchscreen display at 800 x 480 resolution. The current configuration shows an M10 processor with integrated graphics processor, 802.11b/g wireless connectivity and micro-USB and HDMI wired connectivity.
The 7.67 x 4.72 x 0.66 inch 710EB eBook's easy to use touch controlled interface runs on the Android operating system with proprietary Elonex overlay. At the time of writing there's 128MB of system memory and a gigabyte of onboard storage which is expandable via microSD slot to accommodate around 60,000 color eBooks, digital magazines, newspapers, interactive books, comics, cooking books, travel guides and so on. The device supports a number of reader formats including ePub and PDF, benefits from adjustable font sizes for reading comfort and will auto-rotate when appropriate.
The company states that the device "doesn't replace a physical book but offers users an experience that a book cannot offer." It will come pre-loaded with 100 titles to start users off as well as access to wireless download of a huge number of titles. As well as a color e-Reader, the 710EB can also be used to view photos, play music and enjoy video content. There's a built-in speaker and a headphone jack to share the MP3 and audio book content with friends and family or enjoy in private.
It's expected that users will be able to accessorize with a multitude of colorful pop-covers to choose from and although less functional than a tablet computer, at the current pre-order price of GBP119.99 (about US$181), the 710EB eBook is much, much cheaper.