Color reading room

It's no secret that many owners with screen readers E-Ink (electronic ink) reacted to the popularization of color TFT-chitalok with a fair degree of skepticism. Indeed, the main advantages of the classic E-Ink-readers - the possibility of a long read without injury to the eye and stand-alone operation for up to a month - with the ordinary reader of TFT-LCD (like netbooks and tablets) are not peculiar. So, the prospect of competition from TFT-reader tablet / smartphones (whose functions for reading and multimedia are not limited to) seemed very vague. And yet, at the end of 2010 the share of non-ferrous chitalok of total sales of e-readers was almost 10 percent. And despite the fact that the first models of these devices were sold only in the second half of the year, and E-Ink'om producers sold the entire year since its inception.

"Swim to the surface" of these devices to help, first of all, price. Earlier we talked about the difference in the cost of the screen, made by technology E-Ink, and conventional TFT-display - that's $ 50 vs. $ 25-30. In this colorful reading room can offer features that are not possible in conventional E-Ink-reader. With regard to competition from TFT-reader tablet, then, of course, to the functional and they do not stand next to - but the most popular features of tablets (even expensive and heaped plates of Apple and Samsung are often purchased just for the sake of reading, watching videos and listening to music) in low-cost TFT reader implemented at a high enough level.

Cheap and sad

However, given the fact that most actively interested in development of new niche Chinese developers (as well as working in partnership with Russian brands), the quality of most readers of color corresponds to all the stereotypes about electronics from the Middle Kingdom. Official statistics on the "battle" of devices that go with pipelines nameless Chinese factories, no. However, you can make its own impression on the reviews on the Web: the dignity of the vast majority of low cost TFT-readers are described in one word ("Cheap!"), And these deficiencies is a very long sheet of text. Among the problems cited most frequently encountered "bad interface design," "a lot of typos in the menu," "touch screen is not enough accurate and sensitive," "build quality - bad," "supported format small", "no normal firmware."

Of course, the representatives of the famous brands that rule does not apply: there is a reader with color LCD displays the model number of Amazon Kindle and Barnes & Noble, also colored readers "A" class are sold under the brand name PocketBook (leader of the Russian market with a share of electronic chitalok 40 %). All these gadgets combines high quality production, the relatively high price and a common platform - Android.

Ebuki and tablets

One relatively recent development of the American company Barnes & Noble (very, very large publishing house) - Model Nook Color - a color touchscreen TFT-LCD with 7-inch. The device running Android. Of course, the developers have created it, with an emphasis on reading, but in fact this product is a real tablet.

In September 2011 came another color reader for one of the largest "chitalochnyh" brands - Amazon Kindle. Powerful 7-inch tablet running Android 2.3 is called the Amazon Kindle Fire. Color eReader truly "burn": a combination of powerful processor and high-quality IPS-display (IPS - is perhaps the most qualitative species TFT-screen) make it suitable for the colorful games, almost all applications and video playback in HD-quality.

Thus the main drawback Readers Amazon Kindle and Barnes & Noble - in Russia, they can only be purchased on a "gray" channels, that is the official sales of these devices is not here and probably will not. The reason for this - the development of piracy in our country: to implement in Russia intended to sell content (electronic books and periodicals) gadgets simply unprofitable.

Among the officially sold in Russia color reader for the Android platform in the lead PocketBook IQ 701. Reader in a bright glossy package has a 7-inch touch screen, can connect to the Internet via Wi-Fi and has a functional full-fledged Tablet Android-secondary level. In fact, some experts believe this model is a Tablet PC, not reader. And according to the analytical group SmartMarketing PocketBook company's second-largest supplier after Apple "tablet" in Russia - just because modeliPocketBook IQ 701, sales of which began in November 2010.

In mid-November 2011 to start selling a new 10-inch multimedia reader (read - almost too full plate) PocketBook A 10''platform Android 2.3.4. Novelty is equipped with a powerful gigahertz processor has access to the Internet and the Web front camera for video calls. Quality devices PocketBook no worse than in the same Kindle and Nook, because their assembly is done at the new plant Taiwanese company Foxconn Electronics - the world's largest contract electronics manufacturer, which produces also the iPhone and iPad for Apple, xBox 360 for Microsoft, and phones for Nokia.

In general, Android-readers have a right to exist - and they are much more interesting than usual chitalok with color TFT-LCD, which does not allow you to download books directly from the Internet, install games and applications.