Tech Review - the Alex EReader

The Alex eReader from Spring Design is taking a new look at how one views e-book readers. Using not only an innovative design, the Alex eReader gives anyone who is looking for something a bit different in their e-book reader another option to consider. Let's take a look at this new and improved Alex eReader and what it gives the e-book reader:

The Alex eReader offers an Innovative Design
One of the first things you will notice with the Alex eReader is that it is a dual screen design. The e-book reader will find that there is not only an electronic paper display on top, but also a separate LCD screen below as well. Both screens and navigation buttons all fit into a nice compact 4.7 by 8.9 inch system and weighing in at 11 ounces.

Displays on the Alex eReader
The 6-inch top display on the Alex eReader provides the user with a 600 x 800-pixel display in an 8-shade grayscale, E-ink for easy text reading. The bottom 3.5 inch LCD display is home to the Android based system. The 320 x 240 HVGA screen is 16-bit color and is a capacitive touchscreen.

Navigation with the Alex eReader
Most reviewers have stated that the Alex eReader is a build with solid construction and yet is lightweight. The navigation has easy to press buttons throughout with great response and an excellent interface. Buttons surrounding the bottom LCD display help the e-book reader navigate using left, right, power, and synchronization. The Android OS gives the e-book user the opportunity to check e-mail and to view video playback as well.

Power Features with the Alex eReader
Running a 600MHz Marvell CPU, the Alex eReader is a fast unit. The buffer memory will store the current, previous and next pages, thus speeding page turns for the e-book reader. Unlike many e-book readers, the Alex eReader currently does not support 3G wireless. However, the e-book user can plug the Alex eReader into a PC by either a USB connection or wireless networking.

E-Book Support with the Alex eReader
The Alex eReader in its current form is not setup with an integrated bookstore for online shopping, however to compete this system will need that. The Alex eReader does support ePub, PDF, TXT, and HTML text formats. With the Android OS, the Alex eReader also supports JPEG, GIF and BMP graphics along with MP4, 3GP and FLV video.

Conclusions for the Alex eReader
With 2GB of internal memory and the option of using a 2GB SD card to supplement your memory, the Alex eReader gives the casual e-book reader plenty. The innovative design and having many features will appeal to many e-book users. However, for a little more money many e-book customers will be looking at the multifunctional options that the Apple iPad will give them.