Last month Pocketbook announced they would be releasing a new 7″ Era Lite ereader with a 300ppi black-and-white Carta 1300 E Ink screen, and now it’s available to purchase directly from PocketBook’s Amazon Store.
The price is surprisingly reasonable at $199 with free shipping. That’s only $20 higher than the Libra 2 sold for 5 years ago when it first came out (then Kobo raised the price to $189 in 2023), and the Era Lite is an upgrade over it in some ways.
The shipping date is still pretty far off, but it’s probably just a temporary placeholder; I highly doubt it will take 2 months to ship.
The Pocketbook Era Lite shares the same design as the original Era and Era Color, with physical page buttons on the handle side of the screen (along with power and menu buttons). It does have a lower waterproof rating (IPX4 instead of IPX8) and less storage space (16GB instead of 32GB), but most of the other specs are the same.
It’s one of Pocketbook’s Linux-based models so the hardware is pretty unimpressive. It has a dual-core 1GHz CPU with 1GB of RAM, and unlike some models, it does not have a microSD card slot. It has a USB-C port, a frontlight with adjustable color temperature, a rotation sensor, a cover sensor, and it supports 2.4 GHz WiFi, Bluetooth, and it has a 1700 mAh battery.
On the software side, the Pocketbook Era lite supports all the most common ebook formats, including ebooks with Adobe DRM and LCP DRM. It also comes with a new Libby App for borrowing library ebooks directly on the device. It supports audio files as well, including audiobooks, and it can read ebooks aloud using text-to-speech.
The Pocketbook Era Lite looks like it could be one of the best ereaders released this year, especially for those that still value a crisp black and white screen for reading. I’m going to order one to review so stay tuned if you’re interested in learning more about it. I was really disappointed with the 1st gen Era’s cloudy flush screen, but it looks like they fixed that with an indented screen on this one.
Update: Soon after posting this article the listing changed and it’s showing a higher price from a different seller now, but Pocketbook’s listing will probably come back soon. Make sure the seller is Pocketbook International when ordering from Amazon; that’s their official store and not some iffy 3rd-party seller.
Where are you seeing the price at $199? When clicking on the link it only shows 3rd party sellers, which have it listed at $282 and $297, which is still down from their original asking price when it first went up a few days ago of $340 to $350.
I’m really interested in this so I’ve been keeping an eye on it waiting for it to actually be available directly from PocketBook / Amazon without the 3rd party markup.
Once it actually becomes available for $199 I’ll probably go ahead and order it.
That’s why I added the update, but it’s back at $199 from Pocketbook Int this morning.
Awesome, thanks – just ordered it!
This will be my first PocketBook device and I’m really hoping it’s a good experience. Since I use Calibre to manage my ebook library and just sideload them on to whatever device I’m using (primarily a Kobo Clara BW or B&N Nook Glowlight 4+), it should work really well.
How is that Glowlight for you? I keep considering it—I have the original Nook and rooted it. The rubberized parts have gotten tacky, and the button coverings have disintegrated but I liked it when it was in use.
I’m now looking for the best combination of least expensive and sufficiently functional 7 or 8 inch ereader.
I really like it. The screen, while nice, isn’t as sharp as the Kobo, and the UI is pretty basic (and a little slow to move around through). But the actual reading experience is great, and I love the form factor. If you can get it on sale, it’s definitely worth a look.
Bear in mind though that there are reports B&N will be releasing new readers at some point this year so it might be best to wait and see what, if anything, they come out with.
I use a Glowlight 4 for reading in bed and it’s great. Small and light with comfortable buttons on the side of the bezel. I’ve never bothered to root it as I didn’t want anything complicated to use. Stock Nook reading software is good enough for me. Looking up words is no issue and highlights are just as finicky as the other ereaders I own. My only issue is that it sometimes takes a few different taps to bookmark a page.
If you want something that more closely resembles the Nook you have, the Glowlight 3 is what you’re after. It looks like your old nook but it’s not covered in that rubbery material. Button placement is the same and the light is said to be a bit more orange than on my Glowlight 4.
I really like the Glowlight 4+. The screen isn’t quite as good as the one on my Kobo Clara BW, and the software is pretty basic and slow, but actually reading on it is no problem and I love the form factor. Having the symmetrical design with buttons on both sides is just really nice. If you can get it for a good price, it might be worth the investment.
Be aware though that B&N is reportedly releasing new e-readers this year so if you don’t need one right away it may be better to wait and see what, if anything, they come out with.