Sony DPT-S1

When Sony released their 13.3″ epaper writing slate in Japan in November, there was no indication that this 98,000 yen white elephant would ever see a wider release. Sony is well-known for releasing a product in single market, so I was surprised today when I learned that Sony had found a reseller partner who plans to release the Digital Paper DPT-S1 in the US later this year.

Worldox, a legal and financial document management company based in New Jersey, announced yesterday that they will be distributing the Sony Digital Paper DPT-S1 in North America in May. Worldox isn’t a retail distributor, so this device is unlikely to show up in stores, but business and institutional customers will be able to buy it direct from Worldox.

Assuming, that is, that they would want to waste $1,100 on a device which only supports PDFs and cannot be used for any related office tasks.

The DPT-S1 has simply amazing hardware, including a flexible screen which is to die for, but it’s severely hindered by the limited software running on it.

In addition to Wifi, a touchscreen, stylus, 2.8GB Flash storage, and a microSD card slot, the DPT-S1 has a 13.3″ Mobius screen, with a screen resolution of 1,600 x 1,200. E-ink announced this flexible plastic-backed screen tech last year, and while it has shown up on a couple smartwatches and smartphone cases, the DPT-S1 is the first product to use the screen (the Earl back country tablet should ship with a 6″ version later this year).

Thanks to the new screen tech, the DPT-S1 is both lighter and more durable than most of its brethren. It weighs in at 358 grams, less than many tablets. This writing slate also has 2 touchscreens, one (optical) designed to work with touch and the other (active digitizer) intended to work with the stylus.

That is an amazing screen and touchscreen, but I can’t make similar statements about the software. According to the English-language product page, the DPT-S1 is just as limited as it was when it shipped in November. It only supports viewing, editing, and managing PDFs, but no other formats.

Just to give you an idea of how limited it is, the DPT-S1 doesn’t even have an email client. And no, you can’t install apps and add abilities.

With that in mind, I predict that Worldox isn’t going to sell very many, and that’s probably a good thing. Buying $1,100 worth of tablets presents a much better return on your money.

But oh, how I want one.

Sony

Worldox

source

If you happen to have 98,000 yen lying around and have a hankering to buy one of the most expensive ereader on the market then I have some good news for you.

Sony is going to be shipping their 13.3″ E-ink writing slate next month in Japan. This device had originally been announced back in May, and it has spent the past 5 months in beta tests at several Japanese universities, collecting user feedback.

The DPT -S1, which in the past has been nicknamed the Mobius eReader, has a 13.3″ screen with a resolution of 1,200 × 1,600. It comes with a dual touchscreen (optical and active digitizer). One can operate this ereader either by touching it with your fingers or by using the included stylus.

According to the specs posted by Sony, it also has Wifi, a microSD card slot, 2.8GB of Flash storage, and weighs about 358 grams.

The DPT -S1 is equipped with an entirely new E-ink screen. The Mobius screen tech is the result of 3 plus years of screen tech research by Sony which resulted in a plastic-backed E-ink screen which was  flexible and more durable than most commercially available screens. From time to time Sony has dropped hints about the screen tech, even going so far as to show off a flexible color screen in 2011.

Sony had always conceived of this device as a writing slate for business professionals, and not an ereader. That explains the price and the stylus, and it also explains the format support. The DPT-S1 only supports PDF. It doesn’t even support Epub, much less Epub3 like Sony’s reading apps.

That’s going to radically limit the usefulness of the DPT -S1, IMO, and it doesn’t help that the 2.8GB of storage can hold 3 or 4 average sized PDFs.

Sony has further limited its usefulness by leaving out most apps and features. The DPT -S1 has a web browser but I don’t see any mention in Sony’s announcement of an email client or other useful apps which might have helped to justify the high price.

But on the plus side this writing slate also has support for an online backup of a user’s notes and annotations. There is also mentions of collaboration and conferencing features, but since I am using Google I am not sure how much detail is being translated properly.

found via MobileRead