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This afternoon’s Samsung news conference was more about TVs (LCDs, LEDs, Plasma, and 3D, oh my!) than netbooks. That’s hardly surprising, since Samsung already introduced its four newest netbook models recently. But the company did have one surprise in the mobile tech space saved up for today: a new line of eBook readers.

The Samsung E6 and E101 will be 6 and 10 inch eBook readers, respectively. They’ll both have ePaper displays and Samsung is partnering with Google to provide access to the million or so digital books available through Google Books.

Here are a few things that set the Samsung E6 and Samsung E101 apart from at least some of their competitors:

• Handwriting recognition capabilities when using a stylus
• Bluetooth and 802.11b/g WiFi support
• A slide-out base with navigation controllers

Samsung says you can get up to 2 weeks of use (depending on how you use the device) by charging the battery for just 4 hours. The eBook readers will be available early this year for $399 and $699, which seems kind of steep compared to the Nook, Kindle, or Sony’s eBook readers.

I’ll get a chance to take a closer look at the eReaders this evening, but if you’re the impatient type, you can hit up Engadget and Gizmodo for some hands-on photos now.

Update: I got a chance to spend a few minutes with a Samung E6. It’s thin and light, has a nice crisp screen, and has one of the fastest page refresh times of any eBook reader I’ve seen to date. I have to admit, I kind of like it. Not enough to plunk down $300 for, but it’s a nice little machine. Samsung will apparently have another model on the show floor tomorrow with an integrated QWERTY keyboard, as well as a 5 inch model. No word on the pricing for the 5 inch version yet.

Photos after the break.