TeXet TB-578 8″ in Russia
With price tags around $250, the Pocketbook InkPad and the Onyx Boox i86 are two very expensive options should you want an ereader with a plus-sized screen, but they’re not the only options on the market. The Russian gadget maker Alkotel has unveiled the teXet TB-578 in Russia. This 8″ ereader only costs about half as much as the Inkpad or the i86, but it is also only half as good.
The teXet TB-578 runs a proprietary firmware on an unknown CPU with 4GB storage and a microSD card slot, and it sports a lower resolution "knockoff" epaper screen from E-ink’s Chinese competitor Ghanzhou. That display has a screen resolution of 1024 x by 768, far lower than the InkPad’s screen (1,600 x 1,200).
The TB-578 is also lacking a frontlight or touchscreen (one was specifically left out; the other is simply not mentioned) and there’s no mention in the press release of Wifi.
But the TB-578 does make up for the hardware limitations. It launched today in Russia with a price tag of 7490 rubles, or about $128. So while it might not be able to do much, it also doesn’t cost much, either.
The TB-578 is the 3rd 8 inch ereader from Alkotel; they’re only available in Russia (which is why I forget to mention them when writing about the 8″ ereaders available in Europe or the US).
If I could get it, I would not. The screen resolution is not high enough, the software too limited, and I’ve heard that the knockoff screens are lower in quality than E-ink’s own screens.
But it is cheaper.
Specs
- Screen: 8″ epaper display
- Resolution: 768 x 1024, 16 shades of gray
- Storage: 4GB internal, microSD card slot
- No Touchscreen or Frontlight
- Support text formats: DOC, DJVU, TXT, PDF, EPUB, PDB, FB2, HTML, RTF, MOBI, CHM, PRC
- Dimensions: 211 x 152 x 9 mm
- Weight: 265g
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