Some New LCD eReader/Tablets: Pandigital Novel, Eken M003, EB710 no comments
There have been several LCD ereader/tablets in the news recently. Personally I prefer reading on e-ink screens rather than LCD, but some people do not seem to mind.
Pandigital Novel
The Pandigital Novel was announced today and seems perhaps the most promising out of these three devices. For one thing, the Barnes &
Noble eBookstore is integrated. Some of the other features:
- 7-inch color TFT LCD touchscreen; 800 x 600 resolution
- Wi-Fi
- Built-in dictionary, word search
- Note taking with the virtual keyboard
- Highlighting
- Adjustable font size
- 1GB internal memory; SD/MMC memory card slot – supports up to 32GB cards
- Accelerometer for automatic screen orientation
- Night-reading mode
- Formats supported include PDF, EPUB and HTML
- Mini USB port
- Battery life is six hours
- Supports web browsing and video playback
- Menu languages: English, French and Spanish
- Device size: 5.5 x 7.5 x .5 inches; weighs 16 ounces
- Compatible with PC or Mac
The Android-based Pandigital Novel will be priced at $199.99 and will be available “at several national retailers beginning in June.” Pandigital makes digital picture frames and photo scanners which it markets in the Americas and Europe. The video below mentions that the Novel will be able to load “any type” Android app with a future firmware update.
Eken M003 MID Apad
The Eken M003 MID is an Android-based tablet PC powered by a 600 MHz VIA MW8505 2808A processor with 128 MB of RAM. The 8-inch LCD screen has a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels. Connectivity is provided by wired Ethernet 10/100M and Wi-Fi. The M003 comes with 2 or 4 GB of internal memory and accepts 
SD/SDHC cards up to 32GB.
Other features include:
- Audio in/out
- Built-in microphone
- Stereo speaker
- Accelerometer and ambient light sensor
- Support for Word, Excel, PPT and PDF
- Color choice of Black, White or Pink
- Android version 1.5
The M003 is available for order now and is priced as low as $179.99 (or $149.99 if you buy 50). This one is definitely iPad “inspired” – as you can see in the photo.
EB710
Okay, this one was not announced within the last few days. It looks like a 
picture of a prototype has been on the Chinese manufacturer’s website since December, 2009 and has just been discovered and has been making the rounds on the Internet recently. No idea if the EB710 is actually being sold or perhaps has been rebranded and sold under a different name at the present time.
Details of the EB710’s features are pretty sketchy:
- 7-inch TFT LCD display; resolution is 800 x 480 pixels
- Supported music formats: MP3, WMA, APE, FLAC, AAC
- Supported image formats: JPEG, BMP, PNG, GIF
- Video: RM, RMVB, AVI, FLV, 3GP, H.263, H.264
- eBook formats: ASCII, Unicode TXT, DOC, PDB, HTML, PDF, PB2
- Audio recording
- Optional FM radio
- G-sensor
- USB 2.0
- Support for TTS
