Best Reviewed
eBook Readers
- Best e-book reader Amazon Kindle *Est. $110
- Best touchscreen e-book reader Barnes & Noble Nook Simple Touch *Est. $100
- Color e-book reader Barnes & Noble Nook Color *Est. $200
- Tablet computer/e-book reader Apple iPad 2 *Est. $500
- Best iPhone e-reader app Stanza *Est. $0
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- Bright 10.2-inch display
- Outstanding PDF rendering
- Touch-screen navigation
- Extensive document mark-up features
- Large, heavy and awkward to hold
- Poor battery life
- Expensive
- Buggy and unreliable in some tests
Identifying an untapped e-reader market, iRex fashioned their Digital Reader series to meet the needs of business users as opposed to pleasure readers. This choice is reflected in every aspect of the iRex Digital Reader 1000S' design, from the bulky, heavy casing that frames the 10.2-inch display, to a feature set that is ideal for marking up and sharing business documents. Touch-screen navigation makes it easy to mark and add notes to documents, and extensive file format support enables rendering of a wide array of documents. Although the display is monochrome, experts report that it shows charts and graphs beautifully. The Digital Reader is especially praised for its rendering of PDFs in their native size. On the downside, the Digital Reader's battery life is a paltry 10 to 15 hours. Even more concerning are the bugs that several reviewers discovered in their tests. Paired with a hefty $860 price tag, most reviewers end up pointing to Amazon's Kindle 2 (*Est. $260) as a superior ebook reader. For business users, the Amazon Kindle DX (*Est. $380) is optimized for reading newspapers and magazines, but does not have robust file support.
Both Forbes.com and USA Today provide solid, in-depth reviews of the iRex Digital Reader 1000S. TopTenReviews.com is slightly less detailed, but its helpful chart shows how the iRex e-reader stacks up against the competition. Also helpful is David Carnoy's review at CNET, where the iRex ebook reader gets a comprehensive evaluation and an overall rating.
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Our Sources
The iRex Digital Reader 1000S earns fourth place in this comparative roundup. The editors compliment the device's impressive array of features, especially its touch screen and file format support. The editors cite price as the reason why such a richly featured reader landed only a middling place in their chart.
Review: iRex Digital Reader, Brian Thomas
2. Forbes
Andy Greenberg offers a concise commentary on the iRex Digital Reader 1000S vs. Amazon's Kindle, with the goal of determining if the iRex Digital Reader 1000S has the potential to be a "Kindle killer." Although he finds that the Digital Reader is superior to the Kindle in some ways -- namely, rendering business documents -- Greenberg also finds the iRex reader to be clunky and buggy, with multiple incidences of software failure.
Review: IRex Takes On The Kindle, Andy Greenberg, Sept. 23, 2008
USA Today's analysis of the iRex Digital Reader series offers an outstanding overview of the Digital Reader 1000S. Reviewer Edward C. Baig declines to compare the iRex Digital Reader 1000S against competing e-reader models, testing the device solely for functionality and reliability. He determines that the Digital Reader fails on both counts, with slow boot-up times and a lousy user interface.
Review: $749 Electronic Reader by iRex Could Be More User-Friendly, Edward C. Baig, Sept. 25, 2008
4. CNET
Attempting to forge a middle ground in a blog war of words over the iRex Digital Reader series, CNET's David Carnoy offers an explanation of what the iRex readers do and do not do, along with the market they're designed to target. While Carnoy concedes that complaints about iRex Digital Reader 1000S' shortcomings are valid, he points out that the device's intended user base --businesses -- have different needs than the average e-reader consumer and will be well served by what the Digital Reader does well (rendering business documents).
Review: iRex Delivers Next-Generation Electronic Book Reader: Preview of the Next Amazon Kindle?, David Carnoy, Sept. 22, 2008
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