Icarus Illumina XL 8-inch Android eReader Now on Amazon for $199

The Icarus Illumina XL first started shipping last month to customers that pre-ordered one or backed Icarus’s crowdfunding campaign they launched back in November.

Now the Illumina XL is available to order from Amazon.com for $199.

There’s also a bundle package that comes with a cover for $20 more.

Icarus is a company that is based in the Netherlands so being able to order the device from Amazon makes it a lot easier (and cheaper) to get one outside of Europe.

The Illumina XL is one of just a handful of 8-inch E Ink ebook readers to ever be released. Most dedicated ereaders have smaller 6-inch displays, and a lot of folks have been asking for ereaders with larger screens for years, so it’s good to see Icarus providing an option.

The device doesn’t have any reviews yet at Amazon. There are a few user reviews at MobileRead in the Illumina XL thread.

I thought about ordering one to review but I decided against it. I’m kind of burned out on reviewing Android ereaders, to be honest. They all have software that is 95% the same going back over the past couple years. The Illumina XL runs Android 4.2 and was made by the same company as the inkBook Obsidian that I just reviewed, so the software is virtually identical aside from a few tweaks here and there.

The 8-inch screen is the one thing that makes this ereader unique. Since they are so rare, I’ve only ever reviewed one 8-inch E Ink ereader, the iRex DR-800, and it was way back in 2010. It was a really cool ereader that was ahead of its time. The problem was it sold for $399 and only like 3 people bought one before the company went bankrupt and pulled them from the shelves.

Hopefully the 8-inch size catches on and other companies like Amazon and Kobo start giving customers more ereader sizes. I could never understand why tablets and phones come in twenty different sizes but ebook readers only come in one or two.