Skip The Cybook eBook, Buy A Pocket PC

We've yet to get our hands on the Bookeen Cybook, so we can't compare its display to the E Inkscreen on Sony's LIBRIe. What we can tell you about this ebook reader, is that it's going to offer a much more open platform for content that Sony's.

The Cybook is also going offer a lot less battery life (3-5 hours on a single charge of its Lithium Ion battery vs. 10,000 pages for 4 AAA batteries in the LIBRIe), a considerably heavier package (The LIBRIe weighs in at 10 ounces, the Cybook tips the scale at 35 ounces!), the same screen resolution, 800x600, along with a somewhat heftier price, $738 to the Sony product's $489.

Bookeen flat out says that the "Cybook is the world's first true open multi-format e-book reader; it supports many e-book formats like PRC, PDB, HTML, RTF and TXT. No more printing, with the Cybook you can read all the digital documents you want."

Sure it's open. It's a Windows CE 3.0 device with a 10 inch color screen. And onboard USB, InfraRed. And a modem. And a PCMCIA slot you might want to use for memory, since the Cybook packs 16 MB of ROM and 32 MB of RAM. On second thought, that's probably more than enough storage for couple of novels

That said, beyond the name and the software bundle, which includes a couple of ebook reading applications, along with ActiveSync, Pocket Word, Pocket Inbox, an audio player, PTab SpreadSheet, MailBox and Internet Explorer, we're not really sure what makes this an ebook.

And for the $738 the Cybook costs, we could buy a lot of ebooks, along with a more powerful Pocket PC. Sure, the screen would be smaller. But we'd actually be able carry a Pocket PC without straining a muscle or four.

And we'd still have an open platform for content.

For more on the Cybook ebook, click here.

Copyright © 2004 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. Originally appearing in ExtremeTech.