Bookeen had their latest ebook reader, the Cybook Ocean, on display last weekend at the Paris Book Fair. The device showed up in a few YouTube videos and on some European blogs for the first time since it was announced last year.
The release of the Cybook Ocean has been delayed over the past few months, and now Bookeen is proud to show it off. And you can see why with its super-thin design and generous 8-inch display.
Bookeen set a tentative release date of sometime between mid-May and mid-June. The Ocean will sell for 179 euros. Like other Cybook ereaders, it will likely only be available for purchase in Europe. But you never know, it could be available for import in other parts of the world at some point.
According to Bookeen’s Blog, the Cybook Ocean will be available for pre-order within a few weeks on their website. Here’s the link to the product page.
What makes the Cybook Ocean interesting is the 8-inch 1024 x 768 resolution screen. Most ebook readers have 6″ screens, and even the slightly-larger Kobo Aura HD only has a 6.8″ screen. Devices with 8″ screens are much less common, even among tablets. There are a few ebook readers with 8-inch screens (a long time ago I reviewed the iRex DR-800 with the same size and resolution screen as the Cybook Ocean and the larger size was quite nice).
The second thing that makes the Cybook Ocean stand out it is how thin Bookeen managed to make it. The device is only 7mm thick, which is just over a quarter inch. That’s impressive. Even with the cover on it looks incredibly thin in the video below.
The Cybook Ocean has some other interesting features too, including a frontlight, memory card slot, and WiFi. Here’s the entire list of specs and features for the Cybook Ocean, followed by a couple of YouTube videos in French:
Cybook Ocean Specs and Features
- 8″ E-Paper Screen
- Resolution: 768 x 1024 px
- DPI: 160
- 16 greyscale levels
- Touchscreen: capacitive multi-touch
- CPU: Cortex A8 TIOMAP3611 (800 MHz)
- RAM: 128 Mo LP DDR
- Invisible light guide film
- Anti-glare treatment
- Touch & Frontlight interface management
- Battery: 2100 mAh
- Week of battery life (depends on Wi-Fi & FrontLight usage)
- “Flatview” design
- Dimensions: 196 mm x 150 mm x 7 mm.
- Weight: 300 g.
- Capacitive buttons for turning page & menu/FrontLight
- Storage: 4 Go iNAND approx 4000 ebooks
- Expansion slot: MicroSDHC up to 32 approx 32,000 eBooks
- MicroUSB 2.0 for transferring file and charging
- User interface available in 24 languages
- Web Browser WebKit Based
- OS: Linux 2.6.31
- Software features: Notes / search / bookmarks / highlights / line spacing / margin / dictionaries (depends on languages) / 20 font sizes / personalization screensaver mode / PDF management tool / classification folder and collection / over a hundred of books
- High Speed Ink System (HSIS)
- Wi-Fi (802.11b/g/n)
- Supported ebook formats: ePub, PDF Adobe DRM, HTML, Txt, FB2, DJVU
- Picture formats: JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP, ICO, TIF, PSD
Hi Nathan,
Firstly, I have to say that I love your site!
I would highly appreciate your opinion regarding choosing an e-reader. Let me say that that I already have a kindle paperwhite and a tablet (7 inches screen) for reading pdfs but I need a new one for the following reasons:
1) I am reading mostly pdfs and epub
2) 6-inch screen is difficult with pdfs, so 7 or 8 would be more useful
3) Since I am reading mostly greek books I need to have on-line access to local greek bookstores, meaning that buying from kindle or kobo is not an option
4) Price ~ 200 euros
5) Support ebooks with Adobe DRM
6) Operating systems as Android would be more than welcome for downloading apps however if the already installed apps work great with pdfs or epubs, I am ok.
I am between Onyx Boox T68, Cybook Ocean and PocketBook InkPad. To tell you the truth my first choice is Onyx but it is out of stock (they said that they are waiting for a re-stock till the end of March but nothing yet…) and I know that you have not reviewed Cybook and Pocketbook but a rough comparison would be great. Meaning I do not know if Pocketbook has android, if you can download apps with Pocketbook – Cybook, if it is easy to access other bookstores, if pdf reflow or autocrop are options.
So, if you can give me an advice, it would be great or even suggest another one.
For the future, a comparative table would be great as the one you already have, is not up-to-date with the new models.
Highly appreciate your help!
To be honest, I don’t really think 7 or 8 inch screens are much better than 6-inch screens for PDFs. Most PDF users prefer a 9.7-inch or 13.3-inch screen.
Neither PocketBook or Cybook run Android. PocketBook has different reader apps. Beyond that I can’t offer much advice. They are both available in very limited markets, and both garner little interest online, so I don’t follow either brand very closely anymore. I reviewed some PocketBooks in the past. They have some good readers, but the software tends to feel half-finished. I’ve never touched a Cybook. There’s just never been enough interest in them to justify spending a few hundred dollars to import one to the U.S. to review.
thank you!