News - txtr Beagle eBook reader is an £8 Kindle killer?

[HEXUS]

Cheapest, lightest and thinnest eBook reader yet is set to launch.

Read more.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

http://forums.hexus.net/general-cons...9-99-euro.html

[bradyjames]

I had to have a double take at the price. It sounds too good to be true. It's really cheap but it will only be good value if it's useable and it's too early to know. It might well tempt people that have never had an e-reader but I doubt if it will be feature rich enough for existing users. I'm a bit sceptical at the moment over usability things such as quality of display, page turning speed, placement of buttons, awkward shape etc...

[scaryjim]

Strikes me as a nice companion to an entry-level smartphone - paired with a basic 3.2" android handset you've got a very cheap entry into "proper" e-reader territory. For anyone with a larger / higher spec smartphone I can't really see the point though: if you've got a 4"+ device already I doubt this would be significantly better for reading on (unless you're one of those people who get a headache from reading on a backlit screen, I guess).

It's obviously intended as a larger companion screen for a smaller device, though.

[FRISH]

Strikes me as a nice companion to an entry-level smartphone - paired with a basic 3.2" android handset you've got a very cheap entry into "proper" e-reader territory. For anyone with a larger / higher spec smartphone I can't really see the point though: if you've got a 4"+ device already I doubt this would be significantly better for reading on (unless you're one of those people who get a headache from reading on a backlit screen, I guess).

It's obviously intended as a larger companion screen for a smaller device, though.

Smartphones are pretty bad to read in sunlight thought, plus there's also the battery life. If it isn't horribly unresponsive/difficult to use then it could be a pretty good buy for only £8. If I wanted to do serious reading i'd prefer an ereader I think. I don't really read minus online articles.

[Funkstar]

I don't get a head ache from reading on a smartphone, but i would still rather read on an e-ink screen than my One X.

Using my phone as an e-book would make it last less than half a day. The "one year" on two AAA batteries on this would probably equate to about 6 months for me, probably less. Yes, I read a lot.

I can see this being £9.99, if that price is at all right. I'd buy one, what is there to loose at that kind of money.

I wonder how they can possibly make something for that low though, Amazon said today that they don't make money on hardware. Is there that much of a difference in hardware between this thing and a basic Kindle to make it a 6th of the price.

[Macadee]

Can't see this being launched at so low a price when the competition is 10+ times that price, feature cut or not.

[spraint]

I can see this launching at £8, with a contract to buy a certain amount of books from the Beagle/whatever store. Manufacturing/shipping costs alone are going to exceed the purported selling price so where is the business case?

[3dcandy]

It's worth a punt at under a tenner surely?

[Golden Dragoon]

I can see this launching at £8, with a contract to buy a certain amount of books from the Beagle/whatever store. Manufacturing/shipping costs alone are going to exceed the purported selling price so where is the business case?

Presumably the only way to load books to the device is via the app they supply, which will likely be locked down to their own bookstore, or whichever one they have a licensing deal with, a classic razor blade strategy really.

[wasabi]

I suspect it'll be heavily locked in. Also how many pages can it hold without the phone being synced up to it?

Given you can get a low end kobo for 50 quid which can read all sorts of formats (epub, pdf etc), I suspect the £8 could be a very poor long term investment. For casual use or as a toy to try to hack onto a raspberry pi or something- interesting.

[Funkstar]

Presumably the only way to load books to the device is via the app they supply, which will likely be locked down to their own bookstore, or whichever one they have a licensing deal with, a classic razor blade strategy really.

I know what you are saying, but hen why this in the specs:

eBook formats: As supported by the smartphone host app (epub, PDF and more)

That makes it sound like you can load books from multiple sources onto the thing through the app. I know the article is missing detail, but if it was heavily locked to one store, I would have thought it would have said something about that.

edit and the thing is, if this does turn out to be this cheap, there will be an army of people working on reversing the communications protocol and the image format sent to the device. Any locked down app will soon be replaced with a completely open version that really will take any ebook format you can think of.

[Lord Midas]

Considering the average price of a paperback book is £7.99, then this is a real bargain, so long as the ebooks are sold to make this worth while. I know there is a cool space saving factor that this would have over normal paper backs, but some people just don't like tech.

I bought a Kindle for the missus. And when we were in the airport for holiday she wanted something to read. The Kindle had the latest books she wanted to read, but instead she went and bought a "real, paper" book instead. You just can't force people to use technology.

Look like I've got myself a Kindle though

[YenRug]

I'm someone who prefers to read physical books, but at the same time I can see the advantage of an ereader when traveling; the problem is, my limited traveling means I can't see the point in forking out for a full-blown Kindle. To me, this sits in the perfect spot, cheap and the limited memory capacity means just enough books to take away with you.

[Unique]

if it's really £10 i'll get one for myself if you can add your own content (ie. pdfs i already have), and maybe a few for xmas gifts. at that price it makes a nice stocking filler