First Color E-Book by Fujitsu: FLEPia
Posted on Monday, May 18th, 2009
The first COLOR e-book reader will come to the market in April. The Fujitsu FLEPia e-paper mobile terminal, (as Fujitsu is referring to it) has an 8-inch XGA screen capable of displaying 260,000 colors.
This impressive device sports many desirable features including: Bluetooth, Wifi, Up to a 4GB SD card, Stereo-speakers, and a USB mini-B connector; all while being less than a half inch thick. It can be operated using the screen with an included stylus or the various function buttons below the screen.
Since the device only uses power when redrawing, Fujitsu says the battery will last up to 40 hours of continuous reading. The most futuristic feature however, is the inclusion of Windows CE 5.0 (Japanese version) which allows the user to access a browser, email and applications, even MS Office. With a software keyboard you could write an email with relative ease. The only major drawback is that the screen takes a full 1.8 secs to redraw. While that may hold you back, Fujitsu is really breaking new ground. With XMDF, .book formats and the capacity of up to 5,000 paper based books (assuming 300 pages at 600kb per book) the FLEPia is a real contender to the Amazon Kindle.
The device can be purchased starting April 20th through Fujitsu’s online store FrontechDirect for a mere $1,010 US (approximately). Full specs can be found on ZDNet. There is no word on whether the FLEPia will be available in any other markets around the world.