Ectaco 5" jetBook eBook Reader with Built-in Translators - Graphite (JB5BK -En)

Pros: This is a great ebook reader for the price. Really great features to compete with the other readers
- Cheaper than competition ($199 at Newegg)
- Display is not eInk so page turning is smooth
- Buttons are laid out well
- mp3 capability for audio books
- can display pictures in several formats
- supported with firmware upgrades
- long battery life
- zoom features

Cons: - Smaller screen than competitors (1" smaller) but big enough for normal ebook reading. I use it for reading technical pdf files so I have to read them in landscape mode so it's not the best for these type of files but adequate.
- Currently only supports txt, pdf, fb2 for ebooks. Supposedly will support .lit, .epub, html, and mobipocket with the next firmware upgrade in 1Q 2009.
- SD card only goes to 2 GB. Currently does not support SDHC for more capacity
- No wireless capability hence the lower price
- No touchscreen hence the lower price

Overall Review: This is my first dedicated eBook reader. I've been using my computer,laptop, pda and now just the iphone for ebook reading. I've been doing a lot of research on these readers so I did my homework before taking the plunge. The lower cost is what sold me on this. So far I've enjoyed reading with this.

Pros: This unit, while it does what it says, is an ok text reader. If you have keen vision. It's battery life is good and the text font is good quality.

Cons: If you have reading glasses, its overall size makes it hard to read. While it handles text ok, PDFs and other formats take a long time to load and don't always look good on the screen. While it says it can handle 2gig SD cards, I had problems with it handling 1 gig SD cards. It would not read one 1-gig card and would lockup using a second type of 1-gig SD card. I finally used an older 265M SD card which seemed to work ok. The unit also had to be re-set on several occasions when I loaded a large PDF file. Regarding PDF files, at times the unit could not display PDF files properly, even if you used the horizontal position vs. the vertical position. Overall, the unit is not really an overall great e-reader. It still needs some work.

Overall Review: None