The BeBook eBook Reader is a great device

I enjoy reading books when ever I can and like many others, I had begun to bring them along with me in electronic form on my PDA so that I always had something to read.

My eBook reader for the past year or more has been my trusty Palm IIIxe which was given a new lease on life thanks to great eBook reading software like Plucker and Weasel Reader.

However, There are obvious down-sides to reading eBooks on the IIIxe's small display and I decided that it was time to look around for a dedicated eBook reader. I wanted something that was not loaded with DRM, had support for a wide variety of formats, and looked reasonably decent.

During my search I ended up discovering the BeBook eBook Reader, a re-branded Hanlin eReader V3, that is being sold by a company called Endless Ideas BV.

The price is close to many of its competitors, it supports everything I would ever want to throw on it and even has an built-in audio player although there is unfortunately no support for Ogg Vorbis.

The only thing that had me initially worried about purchasing the BeBook eBook Reader was the fact that the company's website only accepts Paypal. However, after doing a bit more research I hit the purchase button with my credit card selected as the payment source within Paypal just in case (you can never be too careful these days) and after a slight delay while they did a firmware update it arrived at my door.

I immediately started using it as soon as it was fully charged and the first book that I read was Rick Dakan's Geek Mafia. It fits comfortably in my hand, is relatively easy to navigate, the text on the E-Ink powered display is crystal clear, and as I soon found out even manga / comic books look great on the device as well which is a definite plus.

Overall, I am really pleased with the device and to be honest I have not found anything to really complain about as of this writing. Although, I do recommend that you use an SD card for your storage if you plan on doing a lot of adding and removing since working with the internal memory can be a bit on the slow side.

Quick specs overview:

  • Supports pdf, mobi, prc, epub, lit, txt, fb2, doc, html, rtf, djvu, wol, ppt, mbp, chm, bmp, jpg, png, gif, tif, rar, zip, and mp3 formats.
  • Open software standard with free lifetime firmware updates.
  • Linux 2.6.11.7
  • Multilingual interface
  • 184mm x 120mm x 10mm with a weight of 220gr.
  • 6-inch 600*800 ePaper display.
  • 512MB of internal flash memory that is 'expandable' thanks to the inclusion of an SD card slot.
  • A USB 1.1 Port.
  • 3.5mm audio jack.

Some Pictures:

The last two pictures are slightly blurry and don't do the BeBook justice in regards to the clarity of the displayed text.

The BeBook eBook Reader Packaging
The BeBook eBook Reader Package Contents
The BeBook displaying 1984
The BeBook displaying a page from a Manga

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