By The number of Android tablets coming to market is growing at an almost ridiculous pace, and though we are still waiting for a high-end bad boy like the Notion Ink Adam to finally come to market, there is a seems to be a limitless supply of cheaper devices to keep us busy. The Cruz Reader is a 7″ tablet from Velocity Micro priced at only $199. It would be preferred to simply be called an eBook reader, but it still gives users access to the same sorts of core Android functions such as web surfing and video playback that would be expected from a tablet. A $400 Cruz Tablet is slated for release, which should hopefully polish up the broader usefullness of the device nicely with 4GB of storage and added memory.
[via Gizmodo]
Hate to say, but it never looks good to struggle with the touch screen in a demo vid.
Probably resistive
Looks like a cool little device.
I love how he says that this is so amazing because it is just “a reader” and has all these extra features–ie everything than any android 1.5 based hardware can do.
why is it laggy. why is android always LAGGY on these sorts of devices. If android runs nice on my EVO, then it should run nice on this. stop CHEAPING OUT on the processor. The Nook, for example, is one of the most frustrating slow android-based devices I’ve ever used. So lame.
uh it just reminds of notion ink. come on notion ink!!
Maybe they wouldn’t CHEAP OUT on the processor if everybody didn’t refuse to even consider a tablet that was more than $200.
Wow. That interface is total rubbish. Reminds me of the shitty Nokia touchscreen products. Grab an iPad. It is light years ahead of this thing in every respect. More expensive? Sure, but the user experience is priceless.
maybe some sort of that china RK2808(or Telechips or another arm11) 100$ rebranded tablet sold by western company for bargain 199$?
You guys complaining about it being under-spec’d are missing the point. It’s pitched against the Kindle and the Nook – not against the iPad.
So judge it on it’s reading capabilities first (for example I wonder about how well the screen reads outdoors? How does the battery life compare to the eInk devices? And can it interface to a book store via 3G?). The other stuff (browsing, media, games) it does are secondary and are just “value add” on top of the core reading experience.
Some folks will prefer a full featured tablet. Others just want an eReader. This is for the latter crowd.
RE: John
Yes but if this would have e-ink display
@fruit: Right, what I’d like to see is a comparison of reading out doors on a sunny day using a Nook vs. using a Cruz. Much is made of how good eInk is (low power, close to paper look) – but if the screen on the Cruz is good enough then I’d choose it over the Nook.
I think my ideal device is a two screen device that opens like a book but can fold all the way round (to end up like a tablet with screens on both sides). eInk on one screen, capacitive hi-res color on the other.
Now, THAT would be cool (IMHO).