The Asus Eee Note EA 800 is one of the few devices of 2010 that aims to carve its own niche. Targeted at a specific reading market comprising of students, writers, and businessmen, the 8-inch monochromatic slate directs its effort at refining one task:  note-taking. It is, is, in essence, a digital notepad.

Deciding to perfect one function is surely wiser than doing half-baked several things at once. What remains to be seen: has Asus succeeded in its aim?

Features – Hardware and Software

The construction of the Asus Eee Note EA 800 feels solid without being bulky. Overall, the device measures 8.8 x 5.5 x 0.43 inches. Relative to its size, it’s hefty; it weighs exactly a pound, the same weight as the 9.7-inch Kindle DX. The top of the device includes a slot for holding the stylus.

The Eee Note EA 800 uses a glass display tempered to 3H pencil hardness to make it extra durable.  However, this caused the display to look matted so it’s terrible for reading. The glass is also covered with an anti-glare coating in order to improve viewing angles (images are viewable from any perspective). Text is sharp; after all, the display comes with 1024 x 768 pixel resolution and 64 grayscales (that’s 4 times more grayscale than the Kindle 3!). What’s lacking is the option to adjust brightness.

The display is highly responsive to pen input, and writing accuracy is one of the best we’ve seen. After all, the device employs a whooping 2450 dpi and it recognizes 256 levels of pen pressure.

The Asus Eee digital notepad and eReader comes with 14 applications, including Camera, Text, and Sudoku. It’s central feature, however, is the Eee Note. This app features a notebook-like page that can be used to write notes on or draw. While you can save your notes on the device, there’s no way you can store them in the cloud. In the event your Eee Notepad goes dead, your notes go with it.

Asus markets the Eee Note EA 800 as a great tool recording lectures or meeting conversations, too, but this is where the device falters.  The microphone’s range is actually limited; what you get is a recording whom quality ranges from poor to slightly incomprehensible.

There’s an experimental web browser and it connects to the Internet over WiFi network. This one needs improvement, too, as appears to be sluggish in loading web pages.

The Asus Eee Note EA 800 uses an unnamed proprietary processor and houses a 4GB internal memory, an SD card slot that can handle up to 16GB cards, 2MP rear-facing camera, and a headphone jack.

The 3700mAh battery lasts up to 13 hours of reading and writing with wireless off and 10 hours with wireless on.

The device natively supports ePub and PDF files only, but a built-in conversion tool allows you to import and read txt, doc, docx, xls, xlsx, ppt, pptx documents, too.

The Bottom Line

As a digital notepad, the Asus Eee Note EA 800 is sure to please digital handwriting enthusiasts. However, if what you’re looking for is a great reading device, well, the $200 Asus Eee Note is no Kindle.

Asus Eee-Reader Overview

The Asus Premium Edition eBook Reader is more than your typical eReader. Is it a laptop with  eReader capabilities or an eReader with features of a laptop? With the Asus Premium Edition eBook Reader, you can make video calls or surf the web. Can the Asus device rely on its netbook-like capabilities to shake-up the Kindle-dominated ereading market?    

Features – Hardware and Software

The Taiwanese firm Asus made a name in the computer industry by offering cheap netbooks, chips, and computer. Apparently following the business model of their netbooks, Asus has promised to bring the cheapest prices to ereaders.

However, Asus plans to win the market not only on price but, more importantly, on features. The move is to bring features to Premium eBook Reader that other readers, including the Kindle and Sony, don’t have. Based on the prototype shown at the 2009 CeBit Expo in March, the Asus Premium Edition eBook Reader will have a 6- or 9-inch dual touch screens connected by a hinge, giving the e-reader the look and feel of a printed book when opened. The Asus Premium Edition eBook Reader will go beyond conventional digital reading and move into the laptop territory. Turn the device sideways and what you have is a netbook. The second panel can be used for browsing a webpage or searching references, and so is built as well with onboard keypad. A portable library that lets you stay connected with friends anywhere you go? –  that’s the Asus promise. The Asus Premium Edition eBook Reader will be rolled out with built-in speaker, microphone, webcam, and videocalling over the Skype network.
The Bottom Line

If you’ve been waiting for an e-reading device with computer capabilities, Times Online reported the first one will be unveiled at the end of 2009. The Asus Premium Edition eBook Reader will let you read books, surf the web, make video calls – what more can you ask from an e-reader?

Asus is set to bring not just one impressive option to the Kindle, but two. Coming in with a monochromatic SiPix screen display and a model name of DR-950 and, the e-reader is a gray foil to the DR-570.  Though the DR-950 may not be arriving with colors, it is nevertheless set to get miles ahead of current e-readers. Will extra wide screen, low price, and better readability give the Asus DR-950 its needed bolster?

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Features – Hardware and Software

Asus is not pushing for colored technology with the DR-950 as it plans to do with the 570 model. Still, Asus is ditching the e-ink tradition as it aims to improve overall reading experience and to lower e-reader cost at the same time. With a new display technology from SiPix, the Asus device will raise new bars in page turn speed and panel display flexibility. If you are getting tired of slow page turns, the Asus DR-590 can turn pages at thrice the rate of current e-readers, making 1-second page turns a thing of the past.   

With more display space, the DR-950’s 9-inch touchscreen panel can layout magazines and newspapers the way they were intended to be. 768 x 1024 pixel resolution and 16 shades of gray approximates page look of real books.  Also, you can browse and read e-books and web pages in portrait or landscape mode. Those with visual challenges or want to rest their eyes from reading, the device’s Text-to-Speech (powered by Svox engine) is a great help. It can read out non-English texts, too!

The device will house 2 or 4GB storage plus an expansion slot for SD cards and a USB port if you want to side-load content. You can connect to bookstores and browse web pages from internet hotspots (via WiFi) or from anywhere (via 3.5G/HSPDA network).

If preferred, users can add WiMax to their device. The DR-950 can handle various forms of text and images, including PDF, TXT, ePub, HTML, RSS, BMP, PNG, and JPEG. Those who want to listen to AUDIBLE or MP3 music, there’s a stereo and a headphone jack for listening.

The Asus e-reader is packed in 8.74 x 6.34 x .35 inch form factor. No physical QWERTY keyboard for the DR-590 – just a D-pad on the bottom right of the screen, a virtual keyboard, and a touch-responsive panel with handwriting recognition. 

The Bottom Line

No word on pricing and release date yet, but those looking for instant access to bookstores and newsstands, the wide-screened Asus DR-950 promises to be both a portable content source and content storage. Now, if it can only get itself released.    

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Asus DR750 Reader Overview

In 2009, Asus gripped the reading public’s imagination when it showed a prototype of dual-screen, netboo-like ereader. We are yet to see the “eee” reader, but already Asus is showing what promises to be one more groundbreaking multimedia contraption. Named the Asus DR-570, it’s another showcase of Asus unwillingness to go with convention.

According to the Times Online report, the DR-570 will move away from the gray e-ink screens dominating current ereaders. While EPD is extremely battery thrifty, it has one glaring lack: it can only display black and white or grayscale imagery. E-ink makers have yet to produce a colored screen that is also capable of displaying video. Fujitsu has rushed ahead with its FlePia colored device, but its price tag (three times more than the Kindle) has put it out of touch of average buyers.        

Now Asus is placing a stake again in the digital reading world with OLED technology. OLED screen panels are based on a film of organic components. Like EPDs, they require no backlight and can emit their own light. They are thinner, more flexible, produce brighter images, and cost less than LCDs. The 5.7-inch OLED colored screen panel may just be what Asus needs to keep competition out of the curb.
 

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Features – Hardware and Software

Thanks to OLED technology, users can enjoy up to 122 hours of use per charge. Page turns are lightning quick – supposedly, 23 times faster than EPDs. Improved refresh rate gives way to faster streaming of flash online videos, which Sony hinted will be available via Amazon video. 

4GB onboard storage – twice that of the Kindle – lets you store thousands of files into your device, but expansion slots for SDHC cards let you grow your virtual library to limitless size. With integrated web browser, WiFi and 3G, your DR-570 is not just a virtual library, it’s your one-stop shopping for e-books, videos, and music, too!

While the Asus DR-570 is smaller in body built than the Asus “eee” readers, measuring 124 x 170 x 8.8 mm, it is packed with competitive features. Asus 570 will bring its own RSS reader and text-to-speech engine (presumably the Svox software).  The DR-570 is expected to support multiple text, audio, and video formats including ePub, PDF, MP4, and AVI formats.
 

The Bottom Line

No price available yet, and release date for retail is a tentative “end of the year.” What’s clear at the moment, the Asus DR-570 is for those who want their e-reader to get them fast across pages, allow them to browse online sites, and watch YouTube videos. With its capability to display color, the Asus DR-570 is what you need to enjoy your Frank Miller series and Times magazine.
 

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