Hardware

At £229 in the UK, it’s too much to expect metal for the BeBook Live’s construction, though the 140 x 202 x 11 mm, 426g plastic slab is at least creak and flex-free. The 7-inch display is the only glossy part of it, too; the back panel is a sensible – if uninspiring – matte finish expanse of black, with only the (poorly) printed logo and an adhesive serial number label to break it up. Most of the controls and ports are around the silver plastic edge, with the power button, recessed soft-reset button, volume keys and a useful screen rotation lock switch on the top, then the mini HDMI, microSD and miniUSB ports along the side. BeBook’s use of a mini rather than microUSB port for charging/syncing is a frustration, as is the fact that there’s no HDMI cable included in the box.

To the left of the display, midway down, is the front-facing 2-megapixel camera; there’s no rear camera on the BeBook Live. While it may have the pixels, the quality is only middling, though 720p HD video recording is supported. On the right, near the top, are three Android buttons for back, menu and home. These are basically cut out of the bezel plastic, but still manage to be clicky enough that you know you’ve hit them.

The touchscreen itself is a 7-inch 800 x 600 panel running at 4:3 aspect, and with a capacitive touch layer and TFT LCD panel underneath. It’s not, frankly, the best display we’ve ever seen on a slate: the resolution falls short of what even Samsung’s aging original Galaxy Tab offers, and viewing angles are poor. In landscape orientation it’s reasonably bright, though the blacks aren’t as rich and deep as the better LCDs of late (never mind what AMOLED can manage) but in portrait orientation it suffers the same washing-out as the Advent Vega demonstrated late last year. Considering the BeBook Live’s ambitions as an ereader, that’s a big problem.

Inside there’s a 1GHz single-core Cortex-A8 processor paired with 512MB of RAM and 4GB of storage. There’s also WiFi b/g/n, Bluetooth, an accelerometer and a pair of speakers, along with a 3.5mm headphone jack on the left edge. No 3G, however, nor GPS.

Software and Performance

While the Android tablet world has moved on to 3.x Honeycomb, the BeBook Live is stuck on an earlier dessert course, namely 2.2.1 Froyo. Intended for smartphones, it obviously lacks the tablet-centric modifications Honeycomb brought. BeBook has left the OS well alone, and you get what amounts to a stock build of 2.2.1; there’s also Android Market access, along with the official Gmail and Google Maps apps, which other budget tablets have launched without in previous months.

BeBook Live demo:

The user experience is basically identical to what you’d get on a Froyo phone, with five homescreens, a pull-down notifications bar (lacking any of the useful shortcuts or toggles we’ve seen other companies like Samsung and HTC add) and various homescreen widgets to choose from. Obviously there’s no phone support, but you can install Skype from the Android Market (or any of the other VoIP apps there), while Fring will handle video calls.

BeBook preinstalls a few non-standard apps, including the Ebuddy multi-service IM client, Tank Hero, Angry Birds and Egg Savior games, Rockplayer, ES explorer and ES taskmanager for handling files, and both FBReader and Aldiko ebook reader. The latter supports titles secured with Adobe’s DRM, though of course you can also download Amazon’s Kindle app or other software if you already have an ebook library you want to access.

Unfortunately, there’s nothing to guide you through the ebook process, or indeed any of the BeBook Live’s talents. The homescreen on our unit lacked any shortcuts or icons bar the Google search bar and the basic Android tips widget, and we can see novice users feeling unclear as to what they should do first. Some well-placed shortcuts would help, or at least a tutorial page. One of the strengths of a dedicated ereader like the Kindle or NOOK is that it’s easily approachable even for those with little technical knowledge, and we wish BeBook had catered for that fact even as it added other functionality.

Performance from the 1Ghz processor is not going to give Tegra 2 any sleepless nights, but it’s sufficient for the BeBook Live’s needs. We were able to play Flash video stutter-free in the browser, while the tablet is also capable of playing locally-stored MPEG4 video clips at up to 1080p HD resolution. Unfortunately it’s fussy about file types: beyond MPEG4 it’s a no-go, at least for the stock media player apps. Playback through the HDMI port works well, mirroring the tablet’s screen, so again it’s a shame BeBook chose to save a few pennies and not bundle the cable.

Battery

Official figures for the BeBook Live’s battery life are conspicuous by their absence. In practice we managed less than a day of use before the tablet expired. Standby times were also marred by an apparent greed even while sleeping; whereas we can leave the original Galaxy Tab, the iPad or the new breed of Honeycomb slates for several days, and have them lose minimal charge, the BeBook sucked down a full battery in only 2.5 days with little use beyond turning the screen on to check the battery status. Returning to full charge took 2-3hrs.

Wrap-Up

As a potential iPad and Kindle rival, the BeBook Live falls short on both fronts. Battery life is weaker than either, while the display is arguable less comfortable for ebook use than an E Ink panel and is generally far less impressive than the IPS LCD screens we’ve seen on recent tablets. Conversely, the browsing, Android Market flexibility, email support and multimedia playback makes for considerably broader flexibility than the Kindle, and the price is nearly half what you’d pay for an entry-level iPad.

Access to the growing catalog of Android apps goes a big way in rescuing the BeBook Live’s honor. Stick to landscape orientation – which the hardware design seems to favor anyway – and the display’s shortcomings are less of an issue too. In fact the biggest threat is probably the WiFi-only Galaxy Tab, currently retailing for just £30 more yet offering dual cameras, a higher resolution screen, four-times the internal storage and stronger battery life. If BeBook can shave away at the price until the BeBook Live slips under the £200 mark then it could stand a chance, but it will face strong competition from the Samsung stalwart as well as Archos’ upcoming 80 G9 with the benefits of Honeycomb.

The email fingers June 21 as the official launch date in the UK with a RRP of £229. There is no mention of the official launch date for the Live in the US noted in the message, but it would be safe to assume the US launch would be the same day or shortly thereafter. If you have missed the other coverage of this tablet, I will run down the specs for you. The tablet reminds me more than a little of the Nook Color and should prove to be similarly hackable.

The tablet runs Android 2.2 and has a 7-inch multitouch screen with 800 x 600 resolution. It packs in 512MB of SDRAM and has 4GB of storage. That storage can be expanded using microSD cards up to 32GB. Other features include a front webcam for video chatting and HDMI output. The tablet will support eBooks and games. The processor is a 1GHz Samsung Cortex. What do you think are you interested in this as an entry-level tablet?

[via Android Community]

The Nexus S 4G smartphone hit Sprint and Best Buy stores yesterday, looking very round, and running Gingerbread.

Some new HP notebooks are here, for both business and consumers, the HP ProBook 5330m and the EliteBook 2560p and 2570p, plus the HP Mini 210.

Moar tablets! That’s what we say. Here are two: The BeBook Live is an affordable Android option, coming this summer, and the Fujitsu Stylistic Q550 is running Windows and channeling a netbook.

The HTC Salsa and ChaCha Facebook phones dance in for pre-order.

That’s it for our Morning Wrap-Up, stay tuned as the day goes on for more news and analysis.

The processor is a 1GHz Cortex from Samsung. The screen is a 7-inch multi-touch unit with a resolution of 800 x 600. It has 512MB of SDRAM and 4GB of internal flash storage for your files and content. Like most Android tablets, the little machine will also have a microSD card slot to up that storage capacity further. The microSD card slot will support cards up to 32GB. Other features include a 1MP front camera for video conferencing and a mini HDMI port.

Other features of the tablet include support for Adobe DRM for publishing PDF files and it will allows the user to read all sorts of magazines and other content. It will ship with pre-installed apps including EBuddy, Rockplayer, and a game called Tank Hero. You can see the tablet in action in the video below. The exact launch date is unknown.

[via Android Community]

In fact punch in your location and BeBook’s UI will automatically show you what ebook retailers are offering their wares.  There’s also Wikipedia and Google access, together with a sketchpad app (albeit monochrome), and the Neo will display ePub, PDF (DRM/non-DRM), TXT and various picture formats.

The battery is tipped to last up to 7,000 page turns and BeBook reckon their Freescale processor makes the Neo 2.5x as fast as rival ereaders.  There’s 512MB of onboard storage, an SD slot (happy with cards up to 16GB) and USB connectivity, along with a 3.5mm headphone socket.  Preorders are being taken now for £279.99 ($453), with general availability expected in February 2010.

Press Release:

BeBook’s Neo is world’s first touchpad WiFi eReader with access to eBook stores worldwide

Endless Ideas, specialists in eReader technology, today launches its exciting new eBook reader the BeBook Neo. Following the success of the BeBook One and Mini, the Neo includes WiFi technology to allow users to find eBook retailers wherever they are in the world, download an eBook and even surf Google and Wikipedia whilst on the move. The Neo is available for pre order and will be available to buy in the second half of February.
The Neo provides users with a unique and extremely easy way of locating and purchasing eBooks. The eBook portal shows a world map and users click on their country of choice for a clear overview of third party eBook retailers. As the Neo supports all the most popular file formats, including ePub, pdf and even JPEG, the user can make sure they get the best deals on their eBooks.

There are several new attractive features available with the Neo, for instance, it has a powerful battery, supporting up to 7,000 page turns. The Freescale processor makes it currently the fastest eReader on the market, offering up to 2.5 times quicker browsing and operating speeds. The Neo also features the latest WACOM touch panel technology, which allows users to sketch, mark up and annotate text.

The open architecture of the BeBook Neo makes it possible to expand its capabilities. Keep an eye on www.mybebook.com for firmware updates.

Popular file formats

Just like the previous models, most popular file formats can be read, including ‘ePub’ and ‘PDF’ (both with and without Adobe DRM), txt and even popular picture file formats, like JPG, are included.

Additional information

The BeBook Neo is available for pre order and will be available second half of February.
More information can be found at the new website: www.mybebook.com

Video after the cut

Also revealed was that the current BeBook models already have hardware support for WiFi SD cards, and that the company will release software to take advantage of that in the summer.  The BeBook 2 will have 3G and WiFi built in, with a user-accessible SIM card slot for the 3G modem.

Unfortunately the video is in Dutch (unfortunate, that is, unless you only speak Dutch, in which case hurrah, it’s in Dutch!) but it’s still useful to get a hands-on impression of the Mini.  The BeBook Mini is expected to be priced at around €199 ($271) while the BeBook 2 is expected to come in at between €350 and €400 ($476-544).

[via MobileRead]

The BeBook Mini e-book reader features a 5-inch screen. We don’t really know much more about it than that. However, the photo does show the device in both black and white versions on either side of the BeBook 1.0 for a size comparison.

There are a few other details floating around, however like the fact that the BeBook Mini will sport a faster processor, an SD memory card slot and a USB port. Pricing should be around $200 once released, however, the date is not yet known.

There’s also been a major change in case design.  Gone is the hard-edged, regimented style of the first reader, replaced with new Kindle-like side large page-turn buttons (on both the left and right edges) and fewer front-panel keys.  The headphone and mini-USB ports are now uncovered, which should make them easier to access.

SlashGear just reviewed the Pixelar E-Reader, which is a rebadged version of the original BeBook reader.  From the look of these hardware changes, it seems the company has addressed most of our complaints; now it remains to be seen how pricing is affected.

[via Mobile Read]