Readius Cell Phone Rolls Out an E-Reader Display

Readius Cell Phone Rolls Out an E-Reader Display

There is a new cell phone and e-reader on the horizon. The exciting news is that they are one in the same. The Readius (by Philips subsidiary Polymer Vision) has a 5 inch display. That in itself is amazing but wouldn't that make a cell phone rather large? Well, for an e-reader a 5 inch display would be a good thing - Right?

This truly amazing device will definitely draw attention to itself. Unique features will stand apart from any other cell phone or any other e-reader.

• The 5 inch display actually wraps around the cell phone. This is the first in cell phone history that has a rollable display.
• The display uses E Ink much like the Sony Reader.
• There will be 4GB of built in memory - plenty for storing e-book, emails and PDF files.
• USB port is incorporated to make good use of the GPRS/EDGE so that data can be downloaded wirelessly.
• A MicroSDHC (Micro SD High Capacity) memory card slot
• Audio Playback
• MP3 Player
• The Readius also uses the DVB-H network which allow for mobile TV to be displayed.
• Includes Wi-Fi
• 10 days of battery life is amazing! No need to take out time in the best part of your book to recharge because even with continuous reading it should stay charged for up to 30 hours.
• Oh yea, it is a 3G cell phone.

The Readius cell phone functions well as a PDA. Although the display is not colorful it is plenty good to read data on. Its contrast ratio is 10:1 and can easily be seen in full daylight. This 5 inch display should be great to read emails and websites on.

This new cell phone has been a long time coming. Its latest prototype was the PV-QML5 in 2005. Before that was a prototype from 2004. CES 2008 was its debut and it may be available for some anxious users by mid 2008. Pricing is still unknown but it is expected to be much the same as most any Smartphone. It does have a ways to go before it is ready for primetime however. There are no keys to enter phone numbers or data. In the future the Readius is expected to sport speech-to-text software.

The iPhone has glitz and the Kindle is really cool - but I believe that the Readius will have appeal to a large group of techies including myself.

I look forward to what the future holds for this technology.