🆕 blog! “Whatever happened to cheap eReaders?”
Way back in 2012, The Guardian reviewed an eInk reader which cost a mere £8.
The txtr beagle was designed to be a stripped-down and simplified eReader.
As far as I can tell, it never shipped. There were a few review units sent out but I can't find any evidence of consumers getting their hands on one. Also, that £8 price was t…
👀 Read more: https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/whatever-happened-to-cheap-ereaders/
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#ebooks #eink #reading
@Edent
I don't feel e-readers are all that expensive; I don't think that's the main reason their impact has been limited.
I think it's mostly the walled garden aspect of books. You really can't get a book "wherever you buy books", but are locked into a silo. Kobo is better than kindle in that respect but that's still damning with faint praise. I can't give a book to my wife or a friend when I'm done with it. I certainly can't buy a second hand copy.
@Edent I wonder if the "strength" of the prices of eReaders is related to the level of ebook piracy. Sellers hoping to recoup profits lost on an ebook reader sold at a loss by selling ebooks at greater markup may have been undone by #booktok and its promotion of certain sites and the expectation that books should not be paid for. I wonder what the percentage of ebook readers paying for the books they read is - it sometimes feels that paying readers of ebooks are a niche of a niche of a niche.
@Edent As an aside, I'm also a retro-ereader user - Sony PR-505 inspired by a post from @ifixcoinops I think. With the last available firmware it manages ePubs OK so long as the embedded graphics aren't so big they exceed the available memory.
I think that £8 device was more of a e-ink photo frame wasn't it? The ebook library was on the phone which converted them to graphic images and sent them over bluetooth - seems inefficient just to keep the device cost down.
@Edent that’s interesting! Didn’t know they were ever advertised so low! I’m looking at buying one for closer to $600 usd, but it’s also a tablet designed for distraction free note taking and organizing.
@Edent Seems to me, the tech has stagnated when it comes to new, good, & polished features.
And the company which owns the patents is merely milking the technology for all its worth.
Color E-ink is slowly becoming viable... But I don't think prices will drop any time soon.
Interesting article, though Android isn't needed, especially for something as limited in scope as an ereader. Most ereaders don't use Android. Sony switched to Android for T1, T2 & short-lived T3, with no advantage to them or the users. The T2 is no better to use than PRSx50 range and the T1 was worse.
It was fantasy, like a free iPhone – a mobile operator practice that should be illegal because it increases waste, limits diverse supply & puts up the cost of Mobile.
Cheap is Pearl. :(
@Edent interesting read, thanks. If you go to a bootsale there’s nearly always e-readers for sale at very reasonable prices.
@Edent Amazon UK has the 10.1" Kindle Scribe, 2022 edition for £230, albeit with only 16GB of storage (I have about 63GB of de-DRMed eBooks, but graphic novels inflate that).
I doubt this is old-new-stock with an old firmware that can be rooted and replaced with KOReader, although I suppose I could get one, check the firmware version and if it's newer than 5.16.2.1.1, just return it.
That said, John Lewis has the 11" Google Pixel Tablet with 256GB of storage for $399, and that model is compatible with GrapheneOS for a degoogled and more secure Android experience. I am perfectly happy with reading on LCDs/OLEDs so there's not much point apart from the battery life and not having to worry about recharging more than once a week/month.
Of the back of this post, someone has linked me to a Taobao page which claims to have dozens of unsold txtr beagle units (the mythical £10 ereader).
I'm trying to see if they actually exist, are in stock, and can ship to the UK.
A couple more photos. Found by someone who can ship to Bangladesh, so now I'm trying to see if they can get them to the UK.
If you are a "shut up and take my money" sort, hold your horses. These may not exists, I might not be able to import them, and reselling some old (and possibly broken) hardware may be logistically complex.
But I'll do my best!
@Edent wow wow wow!!! I would love one! 😍 keep us posted
"Brand new unopened inventory, stored for a long time, may be slightly aged inside and out, some double-sided tape on the inner box may stick to the machine, 2 AA batteries are bad.
"The machine is a contract machine launched by German e-book developer Txtr. It has expired warranty and no official software support. It is treated as a non-functional device and sold cheaply. Please purchase with caution."
Ah, looks like it is out of stock. If anyone fancies contacting the Taobao seller to see if they have any, go ahead. I don't think I'll go any further.
Shop link: https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=714458573527
Mobile link with photos: https://m.intl.taobao.com/detail/detail.html?id=714458573527
@fazalmajid hi Fazal. I'm always trying to improve the quality of my writing.
I was talking about *cheap* eReaders - those in the sub-£100 range.
How could I have made my blog post more clear to you?
@Edent I was reacting more to the other commenters, but point taken. You do articulate well the market forces precluding e-readers the price of a hardcover book any time soon, so those of us with some disposable income have to consider the available options.
@fernby are you sure? Resolutions are getting better, flexible displays are becoming available, higher refresh rates are making laptop displays viable. There's an amazing amount of innovation.
@Edent There's certainly innovation when it comes to software handling of E-ink displays.
But I haven't seen much innovation from a hardware perspective.
Hadn't heard about the flexible displays yet! Good to know 😁
Maybe I've just not had the right social feed to see news on the innovations. 😅
@fernby perhaps don't comment on things you don't have experience of?
