Here it is again, in a new coat, that Chinese ereader is popping up all over the place.
A while ago I wrote a piece about this ereader (rank-arena-ereader-aka-kogan-ereader-aka-seabright-eb-601-ereader-aka/) when it was called the Rank Arena Ereader, in which I pondered how many labels a given ereader could carry, and if in fact it was worth what you would have to pay for it.
Well, I have now found it again, this time it is called the Ematic 7 inch ebook reader (thank God for spelling checkers, I found myself typing “emetic” just then) and it can be bought at Amazon for about $89, so it is still cheap.
Specifications:
Obviously its specifications are the same as the other incarnations of this reader, and here I quote from the description on the Amazon site:
The Ematic E-Book Reader stores up to 2,300 songs, 20 hours of video, or thousands of e-books with 4GB of built-in memory. Plus, with the expandable microSD card slot, it even has the ability to store an entire library of up to 40,000 e-books. You can view the most popular e-book formats, including TXT, EPUB, PDF, and DOC. The built-in MP3 player allows you to complement those e-books with your favorite background music. Also, the Ematic E-Book Reader’s 7″ 800 x 480 pixel color display gives you the clarity you need to read your e-books with ease — not to mention how good it makes your movies and videos look.; 7″ 800 x 480 pixel Color Display allows you to watch videos, movies, view song information and pictures, and browse e-books; 4GB of memory stores up to 2,300 songs, 20 hours of video or thousands of e-books; Supports the most popular e-book formats including TXT, EPUB, FB2, HTML, PDB, PDF and DOC; Expandable microSD card slot holds up to 40,000 e-books (microSD card sold separately); Built-in MP3 player allows you to complement your reading with your favorite background music; supports MP3, WMA, WAV, FLAC, and more; Sync to your Mac or PC, then drag and drop e-books from your computer to your reader in seconds; Photo/Video Player lets you browse photos and watch your favorite videos in stunning color; supports JPG, BMP, AVI, MP4, FLV, and more; Built-in rechargeable battery with extended battery life; Includes wall charger, headphones, leather case, USB cable and user manual.
Is it really so good?
As you will see, it seems to have everything you could want, and actually it is a pretty reasonable device, but you have to know that in spite of implying that you can watch hours of video, or read for as long as you want, being a colour ereader, its battery life is very short, about 7 hours between charges, so no use if you are about to head off on a long trip into the blue somewhere, or want a device that will keep you happy for days on end, as is the case with any “real” dedicated ereader, such as a Kindle or Nook, whose batteries last for weeks rather than hours.
Another likely problem is that the battery may well die in a remarkably short time. This seems to be a standard problem with these Chinese made cheap eareaders, they use very low quality components to keep the price down, so they tend to grind to a complete halt within a matter of months.
As with everything in life, you get what you pay for.
Also, being a back lit computer like screen, it is hopeless in bright light, just as your computer screen is.
Anyhow, here is a short promo video about this particular version of this Chameleon like ereader to give you an idea what it actually delivers.
You can buy it here: http://www.amazon.com/
Share with us:
If you have bought this ereader, in any of its various incarnations, please do let us know how you feel about it.
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July 11th, 2011 at 4:05 pm
Hey Tony,
Just out of curiousity, how long should an ereader last in your opinion? Inside of a year, I’d be pretty ticked. Two years, disappointed.
I have HP calculators. One I bought in the 80′s, still works. Another lasted 10 years before it got buggy. I watched the same TV for 20 years, tube went.
Electronic devices really should last a long time. I think the Voyager 2 space probe still works.
Ereaders seemed to be plagued by battery and poor firmware issues.
I don’t know. I’m just not going to spend $100 to $200 on these things every year or two. I wish the technology would sort itself out and that we could have some standard, reasonable quality from these things.
July 12th, 2011 at 4:41 am
@ Joe,
I share your feelings about how long ereaders should continue to work. My old Sony 505 was still goinig strong after being used daily for three yearsd (I then left it on a plane…damn it!) and I assume my current ereader, a Sony 650 will work for many years yet.
However, anything with a built in rechargable battery has a limited life, as batteries can only be recharged a certain number of times before they die. Ideally all ereaders would come with batteries that are easy to replace, then I imagine they could reasonably be expected to work for many years. After all, you have to replace the battery in your car every three or four years.
September 10th, 2011 at 8:30 am
i bought the ematic e reader and i do like it BUT the radio feature doesn’t work and alot of people are aggravated by this, i was looking forward to listening to my morning show but i guess thats out of the question so i must admit i am a bit disappointed,i don’t suppose you know WHY it doesnt work?
September 10th, 2011 at 11:34 am
@ Ava,
I am afraid I dont know the answer to your problem, but as you will probably already have noticed, I have sent you an email with a link that might help.
Good luck
September 30th, 2011 at 9:30 am
ok well i bought the ematic ereader back in june and i still have yet to be able to download anything to the reader. i have tried to contact the business and never got a straight answer. now i have spent almost a 100.00 on something that is totally worthless to me because the only book i can read on it is alice in wonderland which was preloaded when i bought it. i now have kindle on my cell phone and i have no problems getting books for it. the ereader was a total waste of money to me. if anyone has any idea of how to get books and where to get them i would great appreciate it. ive tried to get books and keep buying books that i cannot seem to get off my computer and into my reader, thank you for your time with my problem. sincerlly a VERY VERY DISAPPOINTED CUSTOMER!!!!!!!!
September 30th, 2011 at 12:37 pm
@M
I sympathise with your problem and am also rather surprised about it. I can only suggest that perhaps you are trying to install ebooks you bought from Amazon (in Kindle format) on your ereader. This wont work, as it doesnt support the Kindle ebook format.
You could try downloadiing Calibre ( link on the right in my blog roll) and changing the format of the ebooks you have bought to ePub, and then try again to get them onto your ereader, that might do it.
You could also try asking for help from this rather long link, they claim to be a help desk for ematic:-
http://www.justanswer.com/sip/ematic?r=ppc|ga|1|HI+%2D+Electronics+%2D+2|Ematic&JPKW=ematic%20manual&JPDC=S&JPST=&JPAD=8216618043&JPAF=txt&JPCD=20110908&JPRC=1&JPMT=b&JPNW=g&JPOP=TransWillD1&gclid=CPnrlbyQxKsCFahS4godUlqV0w
I hope one or other of these might help you, good luck, Tony
September 30th, 2011 at 11:04 pm
thank you for your help. i havent downloaded books for amazon except for the ones on my phone. but i have checked on with the format is on the ones that i have downloaded on my computer that ive tried to put on my reader and they show that they r in the epub format. i just dont know if or what im doing wrong, but i will check out your links maybe i can figure out something. thank you again for your help
December 28th, 2011 at 11:33 pm
I bought the ematic ereader 2.3 for my daughter for Christmas. I wasn’t looking to spend a lot of money, so this one fit the bill and since she is only 12, it does what she wants it to with one exception.We can’t add music to it from our computer. When I plug the USB in, it can’t find the necessary drivers (Android MID) and if I try to bypass this step, my computer freezes up. She has downloaded several books and is able to read those, no problem. She has even downloaded a few games that she plays on there. Can you suggest what to do as far as the music issue? We have not tried video, yet!
Thanks!
January 3rd, 2012 at 1:37 pm
Have 3 new ematic E101b ereaders for my girls. I have bought one ebook (epub) and downloaded it to my desktop (via Sony ereader library). I plug in the ereader with the USB and nothing shows up on the desktop or the “library.” I am supposed to look for a driver or some icon that shows that the Mac has noticed the ereader plugged in but nothing shows so there is no option for a drag and drop. I am getting quite frustrated with this. I have looked all over the place and everyone says just connect the ereader with the USB and drag and drop. Well I do that and nothing shows up and so I can’t drag and drop anywhere. Thoughts
January 29th, 2012 at 1:40 am
The ereader certainly isn’t perfect, but I have no complaints – I bought it for $60.
Everything works pretty well. I am just wondering if it’s possible to put more games on it. I bought it mainly for my 8 year old and he’s been bugging me to try to put a chess game on it for him.
Also – is it just me, or is the speaker basically useless? I watched a movie and needed headphones.
March 14th, 2012 at 12:00 am
hello, i am having a hard time with my books. Its very heavy. Does anyone have some old ebook that you can donate? please do share it with me. thank you.