Pandigital Novel eBook Reader

Pandigital, a company famous in Digital photo-frame making, has finally entered the ebook reader race. The electronic reader Novel is a colour touchscreen that will directly compete with the Apple iPad & many others. Pandigital has already signed a partnership with bookseller Barnes & Noble, which has agreed to integrate its online bookstore into the device.

 The Novel measures at 5.5 x 7.5 x 0.5 inches with 7 inch TFT LCD colour display with a resolution of 800 x 600 pixels and there’s an orientation sensor for page-flips, integrated desk stand and a 2.5mm headphone socket. The device is heavier than any other ebook reader and weighs almost a pound. The full-colour resolution and edge-to-edge glass screen also lets users thoroughly enjoy their digital photos in a virtual album as well as watch video on the go. The touch-screen has an intuitive user interface which makes it easy to navigate & control so moving through applications and web browsing are all pretty straightforward. It also includes Wi-Fi connectivity for buying and downloading books and browsing the Web.

 The Novel can run up to six hours in reading mode and has 1 GB of internal storage that is expandable through the SD/MMC memory card slot. It also features a virtual keyboard, a built-in dictionary, and the ability to display content in either portrait or landscape mode. The processor of the Novel is ARM 11 Mobile that can play music and video and supports PDF, ePub, and HTML formats. It also offers a mini-USB port support for moving files between the device and a PC or Mac. Unlike the Kindle, the Pandigital device includes a built-in e-mail application and can take advantage of Barnes & Noble’s LendMe technology, which lets people borrow e-books from each other for up to 14 days. LendMe will work with B&N’s PC/Mac ereader clients and presumably company’s own Nook eReader.  Meanwhile there’s also multimedia support that includes MP3, AAC and WAV audio, JPEG, BMP, PNG and GIF images and MPEG4 video.

 The Pandigital Novel 7-inch Colour Multimedia eReader (model number PRD07T10WWH7) is priced at a Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price of $199.99 which is less expensive than the Kindle starting at $259 and iPad starting at $499. It is backed by a one year limited warranty and will be available at several national retailers beginning in June.