Bookeen to Launch 8″ eReader – the Cybook Ocean
The French ereader maker Bookeen is back in the news again today with new details about their next ereaders. In addition to a lower priced Cybook Odyssey, Bookeen also plans to launch a new 8″ ereader.
The new device is going to be called the Cybook Ocean, not the Cybook XL (the name Bookeen teased on their blog some months back). It won’t have the Ultra-HD E-ink screen that I suggested might exist, and in fact it won’t even have an E-ink screen.
Details are still limited on the Cybook Ocean, but I do know that it has an 8″ screen with both a touchscreen and a resolution of 1024×768. My source indicates that this is not an E-ink screen at all, and that suggests that the Cybook Ocean is using a screen from Ganzhou OED technologies.
A similar 8″ screen is being used on the Pyrus Maxi, teXet TB-138, and the Icarus 8. I don’t have any performance details yet, but I can see from the E-ink website that 8″ is not a screen size that E-ink has on hand for sale.
The Cybook Odyssey Ocean will have 4GB Flash storage, Wifi, a touchscreen, and a frontlight. It is expected to ship in November with a retail around 160 euros, and weigh 295 grams.
That retail price is 20 to 30 euros more than the competing 8″ models on the European market, neither of which have a frontlight or a touchscreen.
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In other news, Bookeen is also going to launch a cheaper version of the Cybook Odyssey. This ereader will have 4GB of storage, not 2GB, and it will have a touchscreen and an improved frontlight. But it won’t have the HD- E-ink screen on the current Odyssey. It’s also projected to cost 99 euros.
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