Here’s something that I should have noticed sooner. The three new ereaders that were just released from Energy Sistem are available for purchase from Amazon.com.
I don’t recall the Energy eReaders selling in the US from Amazon before, so I didn’t think to check. The company is based in Spain and sells their ereaders on Amazon UK; it’s good to see them expanding their market, especially since we have so few dedicated ereaders to choose from here in the US anymore thanks to the Kindle’s dominance.
Two of the new Energy ereaders are basic models without touchscreens, one has a frontlight and the other does not, and the third, the Energy eReader Pro HD, is a more advanced ereader with open Android and Google Play onboard for installing apps.
All three support ePub and PDF, including books with Adobe DRM. The Pro HD is the only one open to install Android apps (obviously without touchscreens the other two would not fair well using apps).
All three are branded as “HD” models even though calling them that doesn’t make much sense. They have 6-inch E Ink Carta screens with a resolution of 1024 x 758 (212 ppi).
The Energy eReader Pro HD is definitely the pick of the litter. It’s essentially the exact same as the Inkbook Obsidian that I reviewed last month, except with a slightly different casing design.
The prices are pretty good, except there’s an extra $20 added for shipping.
Energy eReader Pro HD – $130.69
Energy eReader Screenlight HD – $96.15
Energy eReader Slim HD – $75.88
I don’t mind the 212ppi, but 6″ is an automatic no go for me. They can release the best eReader in the world with the most amazing specs and software but if it still 6 inches its still a no go. I’m absolutely done with 6 inches eReaders.
Still looking for a 7-8 inch reader with high resolution and e-ink carta. No company seems to make such a device.
Does the Energy eReader Pro HD have the same problem with the physical buttons as the Inkbook Obsidian? I.e. only supported in certain apps, or can it emulate the volume buttons, like the older Boyues?
Losing the audio is a bit of a turn off. It means it’s not clearly better than the older Boyue based models – just better in some ways, and worse in others. I wish they’d get it together and make the decision to buy a bit easier.
I have no way of knowing but it’s probably the exact same so yeah that’s still going to be a problem without audio support. I thought they would’ve updated the inkBook by now but nobody software side cares apparently. Arta Tech has never been very good about updates anyway so maybe some other company like Energy Sistem will get it worked out. They seem to be a little more software savy, like including Google Play onboard.
Frontlight touch with flush glass PLUS 8GB PLUS an sd-card slot PLUS OTG PLUS 3rd-party reading software and all which that entails — including user control over typography AND easy organization of collections into folders — for $130?
Sounds pretty great to me. 212 dpi? No problem. I’ve got mine ordered, in fact. Not sure why they bothered with the non-touch unit for $100, though since non-touch is hugely PITA.
I wouldn’t be so sure about OTG. That usually never works with E Ink ereaders. In fact I just tried to connect a keyboard to the Inkbook Obsidian and nothing…
None of your Amazon links work 🙁
That’s because they stopped selling them on Amazon for some reason. I’ll leave the links up in case they come back but once the page is gone that’s usually not a good sign.