ASUS Announces Two New E-Readers, One with Color Screen

One of the biggest impressions coming away from CES 2010 was that there are a lot more e-book readers out there than we thought there were. And now that ASUS has announced its own set of e-readers, there are two more to add to the list.

While a new e-reader isn't necessarily exciting, ASUS has managed to put an interesting spin on one of the devices. The DR-570 has a standard-sized screen, 6 inches diagonally, but instead of the monochrome e-ink screen common to e-readers, it sports an OLED (organic light emitting diode) screen. That means a number of things, like color images, much faster page turns (0.03 seconds according to the specs) and possibly even video playback. None of those features are available in other e-readers.

The consequence of not using e-ink screens is that the battery won't last as long. Even though OLED screens are much more energy efficient than other screen technologies, they don't come close to the power-saving properties of e-ink. ASUS has said the DR-570 will enjoy 122 hours of battery life in "real world conditions," which should still be enough to satisfy any avid reader.

Other specs include 768×1024 screen resolution, 4GB of flash storage, 412MB of RAM, a 1530mAh battery and an SD/SDHC card slot, and it weighs just 200g.

ASUS' other e-reader, the DR-950, is much more standard, and thus much less interesting. That's not to say it doesn't have some good features. The design alone looks clean and inviting. The screen is touchscreen e-ink, 9 inches diagonally, 1,024 x 768 pixel resolution and it supports 16-level grayscale. The DR-950 also comes with text-to-speech in case you want it to read your books to you, and comes with Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity. If it's anything like the Kindle, it won't be your primary connected device because it will be slow and unresponsive due to the e-ink screen. Still, it has a dedicated web browser, which will help things along.

Other specs include, 3.5-mm headphone jack and stereo speakers, 4GB of internal memory and SD Card expansion. These e-readers will support PDF, TXT, Audible, MP3, and unprotected ePub formats.