At CES 2011, Aluratek unveiled a new ebook reader called the Libre Air and an Android tablet called Cinepad, both due to arrive in February.
There’s a third new device from Aluratek too, one that’s already on the market. It’s called the Libre Color. It has a color screen, as the name would lead you to believe, that measures 7-inches diagonally. The display technology is TFT-LCD and the pixel resolution is 800 x 480.
Like other color ereaders, the Libre Color can play videos, music, and display photos in addition to reading ebooks. It does not have any Wi-Fi or wireless to download ebooks and browse the web, however; ebooks have to be loaded onto the device or memory card with a computer.
For tech specs, the Libre Color comes with 2GB of internal memory and has an SD card slot for cards up to 16GB. It has a built in speaker, 3.5mm headphone jack, and a rechargeable battery that lasts approximately 6 hours per charge.
For ebooks the Libre Color supports Adobe DRM for EPUB and PDF, as well as DRM free EPUB, PDF, TXT, and FB2 formats. For audio it supports MP3, AAC, WMA, OGG, and WAV. It can display JPG, BMP, GIF, and PNG images. And can play these video formats up to HD 1080p resolution: wmv, flv, rm/rmvb, mov, avi, mpeg 1, mpeg 2, mpeg 4, xvid, divx, h.263, h.264.
For features, there are 5 different font sizes, image zoom, bookmarks, go to page, auto page turning, auto screen rotation, 2 page landscape mode, and the font color, background color, and brightness can be adjusted.
What’s odd about the Libre Color is that Aluratek doesn’t appear to be putting much effort into marketing it. The Libre Pro sells from a large number of retailers online and in stores, but the Libre Color is only selling from a couple of websites.
It sells from Aluratek’s website for way too much for its capabilities ($199). Currently it is $129 at Buy.com (they mistakenly have it listed as 5″) and $140 at Amazon, but neither have any reviews yet. What about you? Have you had your hands on one of these yet? If so, let us know how well it works, and if you thinks it’s worth buying.
Source: Aluratek
I purchased this device from a Dell sale for $99. It’s a serviceable device for e-reading. My requirements were 7″ and LCD (to read in low light conditions). Video is not good. It’s too grainy for a device of this size. Battery life is the biggest drawback. Not sure I have made it to 6 hours.
It supports epub but I have had some files that load but show only 100 pages. Pdf is supported and is ok.
It has some oddities, like not remembered settings and shutting down randomly.
I wouldn’t recommend purchasing it with options like nook color around. It also doesn’t inspire much confidence in future Aluratek devices.
I purchased the same product from dell.ca for xmas in Dec.The reader is nice to use,good light control,fonts are easy to change.The reader is everything i would want BUT i am having trouble using epub formats with the book reader,I am sending the reader back for that reason. $99.95 at dell.ca in Dec. Phillip
Video Review for those who want to see it in action:
No problems with DRM epub from library for me. Only issue with shutdown was Device Standby default is set to one minute. I can’t read that fast, so set it to 5 minutes and no other problems with shut downs. Mine has no trouble remembering where it was in multiple books or in videos. Haven’t tried firmware upgrade yet, and may not as it’s working fine as is and I don’t need chinese character support. Got 12 to 14 hours at 20% brightness while reading. Suspect video watching would max out at 3 to 4 hours. Not an iPad, for sure, but at 1/4 the cost, it sure does a lot. Video can be grainy if taken from YouTube, but HD file I played seems OK to me. Again, cost-quality analysis.
Thanks, Chris. Excellent video! I should hire you as a freelancer and start sending you devices for video reviews ;). The Libre definitely looks interesting for the price. I’ve actually seen it as low as $113 recently at Amazon. That’s some really good battery life at 20% brightness. Surprising.
I just saw this reader for sale at Menard’s (a big-box hardware store, like Home Depot) for $69.99.
I have this Aluratek and the problem everyone has with default is true but only if you shut off completley if you hald down shut off for a second it goes into sleep mode and then your settings are the same but if you shut it off then you have to reset your settings or it will shut itself off, if anyone is having trouble with it turning off by itself that is why! Also I have to turn off the automatic adjuster so that if I get up my page does not switch direction.. Other than that I have loved this reader, I use it every single day and have bought as well as downloaded free ebooks, audiobooks, I also store family pictures in there I have not watched any video yet, but I think most ereaders only do reading and for the price ( I paid 149.99 ) I think its a great deal, I recently saw an Andriod for 129.00 that did all that plus could use wifi so that is the only other comparable to me, I also find it baffeling that Aluratek does not promote this better when you compare what it can do, nook and all those can only read if they promoted they would sell more
Do not buy this. Menards (a Midwestern Home Depot-like chain) had these for $69 and I bought one and it just stopped working….almost like it overheats… The ones sold in Menards must be defective as the replacement they gave me was buggy too! And no, they were not returned products being resold.
Bought it and loved it from the start. Till I did my first charge. Now I can’t get more than 5 1/2 hours charge. It also tends to lose some time while shut off. (the proper way as I was told to do) Sent it too tech support who told me there was no problem and it was completely charged. Got it back and when I checked, it was still at about 5 1/2 hours.
Three e-mails sent since last December are still unanswered. The reader might be good otherwise, but all tech support did was play me for a fool.
I purchased one of these from geeks.com for $37.99+shipping.It is refurbished but works great.No problems at all.They still have it as of 8-5-2012.I love this thing even though I bought it for the Mrs……I gotta get me one,now LOL
I bought mine last year, at about this time, and I loved it. I read hundreds of books over the past year and had no problems with battery life. After the first month, when I played around with the video and photo features, I forgot all about them and used it only for reading.
Two days ago my libre color wouldn’t connect to the computer. I kept getting a windows message saying the device had failed. I couldn’t connect it to power either, to charge the battery. It still worked, for reading, but after the battery drained it closed down. I bought a new USB to mini USB thinking maybe that was the problem, but it didn’t help. The battery mysteriously recharged itself up to 5 hours without being plugged in…I have no idea how. I’m really going to miss this device after the battery drains again…unless it mysteriously recharges itself again, that is, lol.