Thursday, October 11, 2012

Txtr Beagle: An eReader cheaper than eBook


If you think that the $69 Kindle is the cheapest eReader in the planet, then you are wrong. A German company just released an eReader called "Texr Beagle", and the price is incredible $13!

The reason why Txtr Beagle sells with such a low price is that this is truly a "light" gadget, both in weight and specs. There is no WiFi, no 3G, even no built-in battery. It has got a 5-inch e-ink screen with 800 x 600 resolution and certainly without glow light. How will the reading experience satisfy us with the low level configuration is still a mystery.  By the way, Txtr Beagle can only store 5 books.


Also because of the light configuration, the thickness of the body is only 4.8mm, the weight is 128g (including battery). It can stand by for ONE YEAR with only two AAA batteries, which is 6 times long than Kindle's standby time.

I believe you will ask that how can we transfer books into a device without WiFi and 3G connection? The answer is on your hand, the cellphone, bluetooth, and mobile app. You can install an app called "Txtr eBooks" in IOS and Android app stores, you can purchase eBooks with this app on your cellphone or tablet, then transfer them into your Txtr Beagle with bluetooth. You can also directly read Txtr books with the app on your devices.

Txtr.com is an online eBook store just like Amazon, it offers 400,000 kinds of digital editions while Amazon offers over 900,000 kinds. In the aspect of book price, most of popular books are sold with the same price both in Txtr and Amazon, but for some less favored books, Txtr is a bit expensive than Amazon. All in all, as the largest and most successful eBook store in the world, Amazon is hard to beat.  

However, in my private point of view, I love this eReader, it is just an eReader. The tiny size and light weight make it easy to carry, the super long standby time allows me to read the book anytime I want. Even the non-built-in battery is close to my heart, I would rather buy two AAA batteries than always worry about I can't find a place to charge my device. In regard to the storage, I can only say it suits me well, I am the kind of people that only read one book in a period, so 5 books are enough for me to carry out even for a trip.

The only flaw is the transfer method, but for a $13 eReader device, we can't ask it to offer more.

(Demo video for Txtr Beagle)

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