- PocketBook has launched the InkPad One
- It's a Linux-powered ereader with stylus support and a large 10.3-inch screen
- It's not yet widely available, but that might change
Kindle and Kobo might be the main ereader brands, but there are all sorts of interesting alternatives popping up, one of which being PocketBook, which has just launched a new device called the InkPad One.
This is a 10.3-inch ereader with a grayscale E Ink Mobius display that has 226 pixels per inch. It has a front light that adapts to the environment, a 3,700mAh battery promising up to two months of life, 32GB of storage, 2GB of RAM, and a 1.8GHz quad-core chipset. It’s also slim and light, at 5.15mm thick and 400g.
Interestingly, it runs Linux rather than Android or a proprietary operating system, so you’re not locked in to a specific ecosystem, and it supports 21 book formats, including AZW, EPUB, PDF, MOBI, and many more.
Plus, it includes access to a Libby-powered app for borrowing books from libraries, and in the UK it gives you "the world’s most comprehensive English-language UK digital eBook library, with user-friendly LCP DRM-protected content of 4.5 million eBooks and 90,000 audiobooks".
It also supports stylus input (and comes with a stylus), making this a less locked-down alternative to the likes of the Kindle Scribe.
It also has broadly comparable specs to the Kindle Scribe, including a similar size screen, and an actually slightly thinner and lighter build – though its display is a little lower-resolution.
Not yet widely available
Still, if you don’t want to be locked into Amazon's ecosystem, or stuck with an arguably even more limited ecosystem like that of the reMarkable Paper Pro, then the PocketBook InkPad One could be a tempting choice.
However, we’d suggest caution, as we only gave the company’s InkPad Eo a two-star review, noting that it was expensive and clunky – although that tablet was based on Android 11, not Linux.
If you do like the sound of the InkPad One you might have to wait a bit, as right now it’s only available in Germany, but the company has revealed that it will be coming to the US and the UK, priced at $360 and around £270 respectively.
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