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Deal: The $20 eReader is Here

eReaders, even ones with epaper screens, are getting cheaper and cheaper. There’s at least one model with a 4.3″ E-ink screen which is going to sell for $64 in Europe, but that’s not the cheapest one I have found.

No, that honor belongs to a refurbished Pandigital Novel eReader. This device has a Sipix screen, Wifi, 2GB of storage and card slot, and today you can find it for $20 on 1SaleaDay.

Pandigital is probably regretting having ever released this ereader, but their loss is your gain.

This device launched back in 2010 with a retail of over $100 when new. I didn’t think it was a good value then due to the poor quality screen (grayer than the original Kindle) and otherwise unremarkable features, but now I think it’s great value.

I’m tempted to buy a dozen just to use them as coasters. Or I might give them away to hackers in order to encourage them to come up with clever ways to use them.

In any case, I think this is a great value. Go buy a couple for your kids.

1SaleaDay

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Comments


Mike Cane October 27, 2012 um 12:43 pm

I wouldn’t recommend them even for $20. How sure are you they won’t drop dead within a month? Being aggravated like that is worth more than $20 to me. Stop buying cheap shit you’ll only soon regret.


cookie October 27, 2012 um 1:08 pm

I remember buing it when you announced it for $60 I think. I eneded up selling it on ebay for a loss a couple weeks later.


Kevin Short October 27, 2012 um 1:17 pm

It’s tempting to get one just for hacking purposes. But I’m planning on getting a Glo or a Paperwhite for hacking, and they blow this out of the water. But then, it’d be cool to have multiple e-ink displays to play with…

It would be pretty neat to have an e-ink display by my computer, maybe displaying CPU and RAM usage, hard drive space, etc.


Thomas October 27, 2012 um 1:30 pm

This claims battery life of "up to 6 hours on a charge". Does this mean e-paper screens use power at all times, or just when turning pages like e-ink? Six hours is pretty pathetic for an e-reader.

Kevin Short October 27, 2012 um 2:08 pm

The screen on this works basically the same as e-ink. It only uses power when changing pages. This device just has a poorer battery than most e-readers.

It’s a myth that e-ink devices use no power except to change the page. True, the screen only uses power when changing pages, but the device itself is always using a small amount of power when it’s not turned off. It has to be ready and waiting for user input, as well as keeping the current book in memory.


Anne October 27, 2012 um 3:25 pm

My kids would not want one of those. They like tablets.


Stephen October 27, 2012 um 9:37 pm

IIRC, it is Linux based rather than Android, if that makes a difference to anyone looking to hack it.

If I were looking for a new eReader this is not a bad deal, IMO.


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