The 5″ eReader Isn’t Dead
Smaller ereaders like the Kobo Mini may have been relegated by many as collectibles or hacking projects, but they haven't completely vanished from the retail market.
A post on MobileRead brought a "new" 5" ereader to my attention.
The Wizlib 5 is the smallest of three ereaders offered by the Philippines-based Redfox.
Even though this company has been selling ereaders since 2010, it's still hard to find info on Redfox hardware online but according to a deals site the Wizlib 5 has a keyboard, 2GB internal storage, a g-sensor, and a radio of some kind (FM, to be exact).
Its 5" E-ink screen has a screen resolution of 600 x 800, and it does not have a touchscreen. But it does have that keyboard, although since we know nothing about the software we don't know what it's good for.
All in all this is a cheap ereader, and the deals site listed it for a cheap price: 1,500 PHP, or about $32. (The site also claimed that the regular retail was around $257, but these sites usually lie about that detail.)
So if you want a 5" ereader, an option does still exist. But it's going to be rather hard to buy outside of the Philippines; I can't even find a local retailer who carries it, much less one which will ship internationally.
If you do find a way to get a WizLib 5 shipped, or if you have one yourself, please let me know. I'd like to know more about it.
Edit: A reader has told me that when this ereader was released five years ago, it really did cost that much. He also said that it supported mp3s, but had a non-standard headphone jack. And as you might suspect, it is a rebranded Chinese ereader, the Sibrary.
The most important question is: Does it have a lit screen?
Your most important question is irrelevant. The most important question is availability. It doesn’t matter if it has a front light if you can’t even buy it.
I never understand the obsession that some have with the front light. I know that you own lamps. There is no way that you simply did not read before the invention of the ereader.
I don’t think it’s actually available, no. I heard back from the original source on MobileRead and he said it was discontinued. (So this post was a goof.)
That’s too bad. I can fit a six inch ereader in my pocket but I can fit a five inch one even better. Perfect for traveling, especially when I want long battery life which my phone can’t provide.
Have you looked at the 5″ Kobo Mini?
@Anne: it has not been in production in years. I have one and battery is bad due to age and it’s just clunky and slow. I love the Kobo Glo HD and Aura H2O but the Kobo Mini is terrible.
I only got into e-reading once they had a built-in light, which was the first Paperwhite in 2012. It is very important to me that the device has its own light, rather than having to use a outside source.
It is not an obsession. I have read paper books before e-books. *Lots* of them. Then I started using various old notebooks and obsolete PDAs(*), later I started to use the first generation of e-ink readers. Each of those were highly usable. Yet each new generation was an improvement. I only use front-light on my e-ink reader at the lowest levels. But when I switch the light completely off when reading in less than ideal conditions I see a significant difference.
(*) Old LCD screens shining light into my eyes were definitely not an improvement in terms of readability or reading comfort, but with e-books I suddenly had an over-abundance of high quality reading material in English. I live in a non-English speaking country and prefer to read in English.
I don’t think E-ink ever made a 5″ screen with a frontlight.
4.3″ Onyx Boox Inkphone does have a frontlight. Very lousy one, but it has.
So I can hope that somebody, someday will produce a front-lit 5″ e-ink reader with a small bezel that fits into the pocket like PB360 did.
Yes. I think the 4.7″ E-ink screens used for smartphones also has a frontlight.
The Onyx iself is lousy 😉 (in terms of speed and useability of its Android system) but the frontlight is actually quite great in my opinion. Sometimes they are still being offered on ebay…