A couple weeks ago PocketBook announced the upcoming release of a second generation InkPad Color with a 7.8-inch color E Ink screen.
The InkPad Color 2 has a revised design and several upgrades over the first gen InkPad Color that was released over 2 years ago. They claim the screen has an improved color filter array for better color, but the weird thing is it’s still using a Kaleido Plus screen like the first gen model instead of the newer Kaleido 3 screens that were released a year ago, so that doesn’t make much sense.
But at least PocketBook has finally upgraded the CPU to a quad-core chip, so hopefully the overall performance will improve, and maybe PocketBooks will no longer be the slowest ereaders on the market now.
They also added a warm frontlight (the first gen model had a cool light only), and they added waterproofing (it’s now IPX8-rated).
It appears to have a flush front screen now instead of an indented screen like the previous model, and the physical buttons have been moved down to the very bottom edge. Update: It still has an indented screen, unlike the InkPad 4, which shares the same design.
Here’s the list of improvements:
List of Upgrades
Improved color screen.
Frontlight with adjustable color temperature.
Upgraded quad-core CPU (the original InkPad Color has a dual-core 1GHz CPU).
Speaker added.
Waterproof.
32GB of storage instead of 16GB, but it appears that they removed the memory card slot.
It’s hard telling when the InkPad Color 2 will actually get released. PocketBook announced the PocketBook InkPad 4 back in March and it’s still not available to purchase anywhere, at least not anywhere I can find. They announced the PocketBook Viva like 6 months ago and it’s still not available either, and seems to have been abandoned. Who knows what PocketBook is doing at this point. I don’t know why they keep announcing new products that you can’t actually buy anywhere.
These inconvenient buttons on the edge of the bottom. Why?
It’s doesn’t look like they’d be comfortable to use that far down, but I guess they’re better than nothing. Most devices with this type of symmetrical flush front design don’t have any at all.
I used a Pocketbook Inkpad 3 for a while. The buttons on the bottom were better than nothing (I pretty much insist on buttons) but the problem was that it was too tall to actually hold by the bottom, and the whole thing had a tendency to fall over forwards when you would shift your grip down to change the page. Anyway I eventually quit using it and sold it.
Some people read in landscape mode so the bottom becomes the side for the page turn buttons.
Pocketbook’s website has the viva launching in a few days.. Not sure about pocketbook being the slowest. My onyx nova pro is a snail compared to my touch hd 3
It’s not on Pocketbook’s official website; if you’re seeing it for sale somewhere it’s a scam, and to be fair the Nova Pro is from 2019 and Onyx has released like 5 newer versions since then.
Update: According to a note on PocketBook’s German website, the Viva has been postponed until further notice.
Amazon released the Scriba and Kobo Elipsa 2. I wonder whether Pocketbook will release an updates Inkpad X with more powerful processor.
There’s an FCC filing for an InkPad X Pro so it looks like they’ve got something new up their sleeves, and the picture says it’s powered by Android and has a Mobius screen so that’s a plus.
Great! How many months until its launching?
Who knows. Maybe 4th quarter? I’m highly suspect of it running Android though. Most companies aren’t willing to put in enough time to optimize Android for E Ink, so it ends up being half-baked with lots bugs and ghosting issues. A first gen Android ereader is likely to have all kinds of software problems and limitations.
Working Android EInk drivers have existed for some time
Dissapointing. With new processor, flexible screen and running Linux, it would have been a good reader.
Het duurt zo ontzettend lang voordat een aangekondigde ereader op de markt komt. Ik baal daar enorm van. Kondig hem dan ook later aan!!! De Viva is al in december aangekondigd. Maar nog steeds niet te koop.