The Cheapest eBook Reader In The Market

With Kindle running low on supply to accommodate the orders for the holidays and Sony's reader being quite expensive, some companies have launched their own versions of the eBook reader. Some have called them ugly... yes, but they're dirt cheap and sometimes when the economy is this difficult practicality will have to matter more. Function over form I say!



From Foxit, the company that has brought us that light-weight PDF reader, Foxit is set to launch eSlick. Foxit's eSlick will cost $230 (rising to $260 after the initial promotion) and seems to get the basics right: It has a screen similar to that of the Kindle (6-inch, 600-by-800-pixels) and with it the monster battery life of e-ink displays (Foxit claims 8,000 page turns). The reader also comes with an MP3 player, 128MB internal memory and a 2GB SD card in the box.

You can also play MP3s on the eSlick; it has a headphones port and ships with a set of headphones. Foxit says it anticipates adding wireless, an even better screen, and/or perhaps content syncing in a manner similar to AvantGo at some point in the future.

It's almost the same in most ways only that it has no wireless connection. This is still the edge of Kindle, being connected to Amazon and all. eSlick will need to be docked like an iPod.



Another competitor is MiBook (pronounced "my book"), a book-sized white slab with a 7-inch color screen. Its "books" are memory chips with instructional videos. The MiBook, from Ohio-based startup Photoco Inc., is also considerably cheaper than Amazon.com Inc.'s Kindle or Sony Inc.'s Reader, which start at $300.

The list price for the MiBook is $120, but it's available for as little as $75 online, including two books. Extra books are $20 each. It uses a very conventional liquid-crystal display. Since it uses much more power than electronic ink, the MiBook is designed to be used at home, connected to a power supply. It has a fold-out stand, so it can be placed upright on a kitchen counter, and comes with a small remote. But it also has a rechargeable battery, so it can be used untethered.