Here’s another cheap ereader hybrid that no one has ever heard of, and is currently on sale for $59 plus shipping ($68.08 total) at Buy.com, the Hip Street 7″ High Definition Multimedia E-Reader.
There aren’t any reviews so it’s hard to tell if it’s any good or not, but it has some inviting features for the price, including a touchscreen, support for Kobo ebooks, and an HD video player.
The specs aren’t very detailed, but here’s what we’ve got:
- 7″ color touchscreen
- 4GB built-in memory
- Micro SD card slot
- Supports DRM, Kobo eBooks
- Play HD videos
- Music player
- Built-in speakers
- Built-in re-chargeable lithium battery
- Weight: 320 grams
If you’ve had you hands on the this particular Hip Street ereader (there’s at least one other model too), let us know what you think of it.
Interesting that they don’t include the word “eReader” in the product name.
Maybe it is buy.com that has the wrong product name:
http://www.hipstreetonline.com/7-wi-fi-touch-screen-hd-media-player/
Now I am confused. Anyway, Here is one from the Dell website with more specs although it may be different device from the one you linked to.
http://accessories.dell.com/sna/products/e_readers_pdas_handheld_gadgets/productdetail.aspx?c=ca&l=en&s=dhs&cs=cadhs1&sku=a4912937
Yeah, that’s the other model. It has some extra buttons. Here’s this one: http://www.hipstreetonline.com/7-high-definition-media-player/
Wal-Mart in Canada had these on for $78.00, reduced to $58.00 and then to $48.00 so bought one for my husband and one for me. Have had a Sony 650 since May but liked the idea of colour and all its other features.
Only drawback is that it doesn’t remember where you left off reading or the font size you set. You need to set a bookmark, recall it and re-set the font. Not too good in bright light.
I find that the contrast is better than the Sony and it is back light so you don’t need other lighting. Page turning is by flick or switch which I find important. Had a Pandigital that froze on me and had to return it.
My husband has watched some movies on it and liked that too.
For the price – great whatever they want to call it!
Thanks for the info! Not bad for $48. They really need to fix the last page read and font bugs, though.
I’ve had one of these for about 5 months now ( 78$ walmart).
Handy little reader, audio is fine (records voice messages)Fair picture quality on the video/images. It is quite dark.
as an ereader ( i use it for this 99% of the time) its pretty good, but in bright daylight, you should not use it. inside it works fairly well. Decent battery life ( 2-4 hours). It is not very responsive, can not multitask ( listin to music while readin) and lacks alot of standard features ( have to page through a book one page at a time) I just broke mine this morning, in my pocket and the edge caught a door, cracked the glass, but its still works.
Will consider getting another if its in the 50$ range.
Update to my Sept. 28th review.
Can listen to music while reading – just start the music first (after loading it, of course).
Discovered that it will keep track of where you left off reading, not just with setting a book mark. Touching he “browser history” block on the opening screen will take you to the page you left in the books you’ve opened.
Using the second one I bought as a photo album to show pictures of a recent cruise.
Still liking it.
Thanks for sharing. I saw it on sale again the other day for $60. Sounds like its worth it for that.
I absolutely hate this product…have bought 4 so far. Big problem is the screen is so weak that just dropping it on the rug breaks the screen and nothing will work again. 4 times I have had problems with this product. Hip Street…not too Hip.
The external speaker stopped working the 2nd time I used it but other than that I like the ereader.
Bought one for my daughter and the screen got cracked when she accidently dropped it. It had a cover on it and everything. We contacted Hip Street to ask if we could purchase a replacement screen as she had only had it a month and they said go to your local electronics repair. Really who fixes these? I was willing to buy replacement screen and we would do it ourselves.
Other than that she really liked it.
What is wrong with people ? Why blame the product when you drop it? Do you call the cup company when you drop your coffee cup and it breaks. They act like it should be bullet proof. This works fine if you treat it like you are an adult and not some six year old at the play ground. I got mine on EBAY for 22 dollars.
i have not used my reader yet as it is a christmas present for my younger daughter. I wanted to know where everyone is going to get the ebooks for this model?
try chapters if you are canadian or kobo.
font size wat to small to reed so changed font size to bigger now wont fit the page now we have to scrool side to side on every sentence witch realy sucks.tryed customer support never returned my call and now the screen is not responding something to do with calibration i guess.
John, your problem with font size happened with us as well when we were using a PDF file. So I downloaded the book in EPUB and then changing the font worked really well. In fact I didn’t even have to change it anymore because in EPUB the set-up of each page was automatically bigger.
bought one for my 12 year old and it was great until 2 days ago when all of a sudden we can get to the books. the touch screen stopped working and we can get to book menu but that is all by using buttons on bottom. trying to drain battery and start again – has anyone else had problems? we bought books from the chapters / kobo website. that was tricky too to download.
Bought one for my mother for Christmas. Downloads books into library just fine. Downloaded one in pdf, and one in txt. Bringing book in from library, off the menu page, book will start to load, loading icon then starts to fade away. Unit then turns off, and restarts, coming back to menu page. Book cannot be recalled. Tech services had so much background noise and so hard to understand that I am taking the unit back and getting one that is more user friendly and intuitive. Tech service also has lousy hours.
“book will start to load, loading icon then starts to fade away. Unit then turns off, and restarts, coming back to menu page.”
I am having the same issues…i hadn’t used it for a while. It was christmas gift as well, and I used it for about a week put it into storage while I was busy with other books. I pulled it out and this is what happened.
Yes, the same thing happened to me, but I can watch videos on it still. But I want it for ‘reading’.
Ever find a fix for this? Same thing here with a DRM pdf.
I have had my 2nd unit for almost a year; great little thing but [1] first one was two days old when it fell from 6inch height; screen shattered. [2] #2 still going strong, but I cannot remember how to load ebooks onto it. Not the easiest thing in the world; have wasted over 4hrs trying; no support from website or Google
KOBO is looking more and more user friendly
I Really Want This I Have Herd It Cracks Really Fast But I’m Buying It No Doubt!
Screen breaks waaaay to easy! It was only 2 or 3 days old when my screen cracked and I have no idea how. I never dropped it or banged it. also…I find it ridiculous that it doesn’t automatically return to where you were last reading when you turn it back on; but I’m glad someone mentioned using ‘browser history. Now I can’t turn the pages by screen swipe and the icons aren’t working. Support from Hipstreet said I have to recalibrate the icons. Cool. How do I do that??