Samsung has teamed up with UK book, stationery, magazine and newspaper retailer WH Smith to promote its new S60 ebook reader.
With a clunky, slide-out design reminiscent of Nokia’s 2006 N95 smartphone, the S60 packs a 6-inch, eight level greyscale screen supporting 600 x 800 pixels resolution and comes with 2GB of internal memory, expandable to 16GB via the SD memory card slot.
Features
It’s a fairly pocketable number, measuring 119.5 x 171 x 16.3mm and weighing only 315g, and comes with a built in Organiser (Datebook + Notebook + Diary) and support for ePub, PDF, TXT formats, plus stereo MP3 playback and text-to-speech as well.
There’s also built in wi-fi for accessing publications in the WHSmith ebook-store, and battery life is pegged at a rather average 20 hours reading time, 5 hours writing time, or 10 hours listening time.
Graham Long, VP of Samsung’s IT business division, turned on the spinner and enthused:
Samsung’s arrival in to the eBook Reader market is significant as we are bringing unique functionality to this emerging market
The addition of Wi-Fi and accurate handwriting functionality to eBook Readers will take the user-experience to a new level and ensure eBook Readers continue to grow in popularity.
Toby Keir from WHSmith was also keen to try and get us excited:
The new Samsung eBook Reader is very impressive and we think it will prove popular with our customers. The ease of use combined with the sleek design and Wi-Fi functionality offer customers a unique product in this market and we’re confident it’ll be a great success with book fans.
To be honest, there’s not a lot we’re warming to here, but we are intrigued by the bounded electromagnetic resonance (EMR) stylus pen which lets users make notes and annotations on the ‘paper-like texture protective sheet’ covering the screen.
It’s too expensive
Priced at a unpleasantly high £199.99 (supposedly reduced from £299.99 for a ‘limited time’) we can’t see many people being tempted over from the Kindle eReader, which offers a slicker looking package for £90 less (or £50 less if you go for the 3G version).
In fact, WH Snith’s own store is full of more tempting alternatives, including the more stylish Sony eBook Reader Pocket for £99 and the Sony eBook Reader Touch for £149.99.
If you’re undaunted by the high price and crave those old school silver Nokia looks, the S60 can be purchased from WH Smiths’ website here.
Oh dear. That looks awful. They should stick to making TVs really.
My Samsung e reader has frozen. How do I correct this?