Asus DR900 ebook-reader announced – photos and details

Asus keeps going on the e-reader road and after we had the Eee Note announced a short time ago, now we have the brand new DR900, the world’s first 9 inch e-book reader.

Alltouchtablet.com reports that this new device can also ad notes via a virtual keyboard to different e-books and other text thanks to a capacitive touchscreen placed on top of a awesome named SiPix electrophoretic display. The technology behind this display mimics the way light reflects on the screen, being very close to the way light reflects on a normal printed book page.

So basically in comparison with the Eee Note you get the capacitive screen and the SiPix technology, making the DR900 an easier to use device with a more comfortable to read display. Not bad. Battery wise, it should hold for 4 hours on a charge with WiFi on and for about two weeks with it off. You get an initial 2GB of internal storage (that’s about 5.000 books, good luck with that), but you can expand it using the SD slot. The SiPix technology is also the reason for the device’s ultra low power consumption, as it needs power only to change the page, and not maintain it.

There’s also text to speech support and you can convert e-books from 23 languages in audio books. The capacitive touchscreen can be used also for taking handwritten notes or sketching; the DR900 seems fun to have around as you can read, write and draw with it. Sure, it doesn’t have multimedia features, but the ones it pack can compensate for not watching Vimeo clips and playing mini games.

Asus DR900

For buying books online there’s a built in webkit that will connect by WiFi or optional 3G. The DR900 weights only 440 grams and as Asus claims  is “no thicker than a pencil”, the dimensions being 221 x 191 x 9.7mm. There’s no word on the price of this e-reader, but the smart move would be to keep it in the same range as the Eee Note, meaning around $250.

Tags: Asus, ebook reader

Last updated: March 27, 2012 | Published: December 2nd, 2010 | Add the first comment!