Another Ereader enters the market
By Matt Reed on Wednesday, April 28th, 2010
Yet another entry into what could be called the smart eReader market. The Alex eReader comes loaded with android and makes use of the latest digital paper out there. Its sleek, smooth design and intuitive controls set it apart from some of its competitors. The Alex also incorporates Wi-Fi, allowing users to do a number of things.
The Alex has a very similar design to the Nook, from Barnes & Noble. It has a large ePaper screen and a smaller LCD touch screen at the bottom. Where the Alex stands apart from the Nook is the ease of use. All of the navigation aspects take place on the LCD, where with the Nook the navigation is split between the two screens. This confused first time users and lacked an intuitiveness to use.
Like the Nook, the Alex is run off of android. However, compare to the Nook ,The Alex is a lot more practical. Built into the Alex is a Web browser and a number of other Droid applications. Users of the Alex can also download more apps if they choose to do so, with a micro SD slot that allows users to add up to 32 gigabytes of space. It is hard to see how this eReader will fill up with books and apps alone.
The Alex brags on its ability to stream video from the Internet. It also makes note of the built-in headphone jacks, allowing users to discretely listen to the audio from their favorite videos. The Alex is a much more open and versatile reader when compared to the Nook, and other eReaders found in its class. Though with a price of $399 it falls between the Nook and the iPad. The only real advantage the Alex has over the iPad is the ePaper, which works much better in direct sunlight than LCD screens. It might be too tempting for people to dish out the extra $100 to get an iPad instead of this all-in-one droid run device. How well it does will all depend on whether or not the Alex can live up to expectations.
Cover and story photo from Creative Commons
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