Trekstor Liro Color Android Tablet Launched at Frankfurt BookFair
This week the hardware news has been coming well, I’d like to say fast and furious but it’s really coming at a trickle. A second ebook reader has launched at the Frankfurt Book Fair. This time around it’s the Liro Color, a 7″ Android tablet/ereader from Trekstor.
The Liro Color is running Android v2.1 on a 7″ screen with Wifi, a microSD card slot, and 2 GB Flash storage. There aren’t a lot of details available yet, but this ereader reportedly has 7 hours of battery life, can play MP3s, and it supports an integrated ebookstore. It’s due to ship soon with a retail of 99 euros.
Unfortunately, it looks like you won’t be able to buy it directly from anyone just yet. It’s actually part of an ebookstore platform that MVB are promoting at the Frankfurt Book Fair.
MVB are a rather interesting company. They’re a subsidiary of the German Booksellers and Publishers Association. The platform they’re pitching would work something like the IndieCommerce Program that is offered by the American Bookseller’s Association. Booksellers can slap their own label on a stock ebookstore and sell ebooks (and ereaders) to their customers.
In any case, I’ve already had my hands on the hardware. I reviewed it a few months back as the Aluratek Libre Touch. It was an okay ebook reader back then, with a nice screen, good balance, and a responsive touchscreen. I reviewed it strictly as an ereader becuase it was running an old version of Android. Luckily the Liri Color is using a newer firmware than the one I reviewed, so it will likely have an even better performance.
As a tablet, the Liri Color is probably a nice deal. It doesn’t have Android Market, but there are enough third part app sources that it shouldn’t be a problem. It’s also priced about the same as the European price of the new Kindle, so you could get this instead and load the Kindle Android app.
This is definitely a budget tablet that I’d want to get my hands on.
No Comments