PocketBook 740 Relaunched as the InkPad 3
PocketBook has dashed the hopes of anyone who was hoping for a beautiful new InkPad model; instead this ereader maker has slapped the label on the 740.
Announced last month, the 740 features a 7.8″ Carta E-ink screen. It’s going to be a reasonably powerful ereader when it ships, but it is also missing one of the better features of the InkPad and InkPad 2: it is missing the page turn buttons to one side of the screen.
The new InkPad 3 runs Pocketbook’s own reading software on a dual-core 1GHz CPU with 1GB RAM 1GB RAM, 8GB internal storage, and a microSD card slot.
It does not have Bluetooth or speakers, so far as we know, but it does have Wifi, a headphone jack, and a smartcover. It can play MP3s, and it can convert text into speech.
The InkPad 3 has a 7.8″ Carta E-ink screen with a resolution of 300 ppi (1404 x 1872 pixels) and a capacitive touchscreen and a color-changing frontlight. Weighing only 210 grams, this ereader measures 195 x 136.5 mm and has a thickness of only 8 mm.
The InkPad 3 is already shipping in Russia as the Pocketbook 740, where it costs 14999 rubles, or $266 USD.
That is only slightly more than the $249 price of the new Kindle Oasis, but the Oasis has something the InkPad 3 lacks: well-placed page turn buttons.
I didn’t criticize the 740 on this issue when it launched, but once Pocketbook decided the 740 was also the InkPad 3, that new label brought to mind the best features of the previous InkPad models, which featured a one-handed design with page turn buttons to one side of the screen.
While the new InkPad 3 is a good and powerful ereader, I for one wish the it had kept those page turn buttons. They would have driven me to spend my limited funds on an InkPad 3. It would have had the ebook formatting options I liked in a hardware design I loved.
Oh, well, maybe Kobo will hear my pleading and put out the ereader I want (a fellow can dream).
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