Tired of wasting paper every time you print a set of directions, a news article, or a presentation you’re only going to use once? A German company has a greener solution: An eReader which is being market as an ePaper printer.

Here’s the idea, plug the EnerGenie ePP2 into your PC and it will register itself as a printer. Then you can “print” documents straight to the eReader, much the way you would use a virtual printer to save a document as a PDF on your desktop.

energenie epp2

The ePP2 also has a screen that’s pretty well suited for viewing those documents, since it’s larger than your typical Kindle or NOOK. It has a 9.7 inch, 1600 x 1200 pixel E Ink screen.

There’s also a touchscreen and stylus which you can use to add notes, signatures, or doodles to documents.

The device has an 800 MHz processor, 256MB of RAM, 4GB of storage, a microSD card slot, and a 2350mAh battery. It runs an Android 2.3 Gingerbread-based operating system, weighs 1.3 pounds, and it’s expected to sell for 399 to 499 Euros, which is about $530 to $660.

It’s not easy being green.

via The Digital Reader and MobileRead

Support Liliputing

Liliputing's primary sources of revenue are advertising and affiliate links (if you click the "Shop" button at the top of the page and buy something on Amazon, for example, we'll get a small commission).

But there are several ways you can support the site directly even if you're using an ad blocker* and hate online shopping.

Contribute to our Patreon campaign

or...

Contribute via PayPal

* If you are using an ad blocker like uBlock Origin and seeing a pop-up message at the bottom of the screen, we have a guide that may help you disable it.

Subscribe to Liliputing via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 9,547 other subscribers

16 replies on “EnerGenie ePP2 is a 9.7 inch eReader that’s positioned as an ePaper printer”

  1. Not a bad idea really. The problem is getting the price down in a ruggedized package tolerant of falls and spills. Bluetooth HCRP probably makes more sense than USB, but then it might have to come with a dongle for most desktop users. I’d be more likely to drag this onto a sunlit roof or into a flooding basement than a latop or tablet.

    1. Why not just get a ruggedized tablet? Looking at the current price, it’ll probably cost as much as a ruggedized version of the EnerGenie.

  2. Is it possible that this relies on a physical connection and doesn’t work as a wifi network printer?

  3. I’d just rather print to PDF and read it on any other eBook, tablet, notebook, etc.

  4. Ok, so for the cost of how many BOXES of paper you can buy a device that can display a document at a quality somewhere between a normal and fine mode fax.

    Compare to a decent office quality laser printer (b&w as is this product) that can print at about $0.025/page all costs other than the printer itself factored in; you will have to have the printer anyway after all so this is fair. So if you think you will actually use this thing enough to avoid going through four cases of printer paper you might hit break even. Or there had better be a LOT of convenience factor to make up the slack. But considering the crappy useability most ereaders exhibit on PDF type content I’m doubting it.

    Give it the ability to display a letter page at 300dpi (matching the output quality of the original Apple LaserWriter), turn pages at a moderate rate and price it cheaper than a full laptop computer and I’ll want to look at it.

    1. Right now the pricing is more like the earliest hybrid cars. For early adopters and environmentally concerned people rather than mainstream.

      You’ll never recoup the price delta.

      Until they can get the price way down, dead trees and rugged tablets make more economic sense for the rest of us. Problem is, the price won’t come way down unless enough people start buying it at these premium prices.

      1. Interestingly, this is analogous to the argument that countries like China and India are making to avoid signing things like the Kyoto protocol to reduce their pollution. They can’t afford reducing their pollution output. And blame the west (the US has been the biggest polluter historically) for creating most of the pollution that’s now present.

        Trouble is, all of us are breathing the stuff. Something’s gotta give. I’m just a bit glad I probably won’t be alive when the stuff hits the fan. Oh, and by the way, most coastlines will be under water by that time.

      2. This is a bit of green gospel that need a debunking. Doing uneconomical things in the hope that enough cowbell will do the trick is usually delusion. ePaper needs to get better, not just cheaper. And these niche green uses aren’t going to make the difference in volume to drive the R&D to make them more useful. Amazon, B&N and Kobo are driving a lot more volume than this frankentoy and guess what; they all want better cheaper screens.

        Same with buying impractical green electric cars. Their problem is battery tech isn’t there yet. And the puny volume of electric car sales isn’t enough to make much difference in raising that R&D money to get those useful batteries either. A lot of people are doing it because they are being deceived by green conmen. Others don’t care, they buy them for social status amongst their other smug friends.

        1. Why so angry? I have one of these. Much easier accessing my papers than having piles of physical paper to carry around. I am sure that your suburban can do that easily, but my prius is a bit cramped. Much more pleasant to read than a computer screen. Mine is doing just fine with pdf’s. Maybe you should try before criticizing. And don’t get angry with people who are ready to spend a few extra bucks for the sake of environment. Think of it like you buying a truck with a V8 engine instead of a V6. Does the same thing, spends more gas, but you cannot resist the “rumble” under the hood…

  5. This has applications in the legal space for sure. Adobe has had digital signatures fully baked since 2005. Odd that nobody glued a virtual printer and ebook together till now.

    1. Yeah, good luck scoring a batch of 1600 by 1200 pixels 9,7 inches E-Ink screens for cheap.
      It’s the screen which makes this device expensive.

      1. That might make this a not so good business idea. It’s possible that the unit cost is higher than it’s market value.

  6. BlackBerry has had Print To Go for quite sometime fyi. Works great. Not only that but all tablets have apps available from their stores to “print” (should say “print to PDF”).

Comments are closed.