It looks like there’s a new E Ink slate with support for handwritten notes and drawings. It’s called the MobiScribe and it’s a device with a 6.8 inch E Ink display and support for both finger and pen input.

You can use your fingers to flip pages while reading eBooks or to navigate the user interface. But you can also use a Wacom pen with support for 4096 levels of pressure sensitivity for writing or drawing.

It’s not the first device in this category, but it’s one of the most affordable… at least during a crowdfunding campaign. The MobiScribe is expected to have a retail price of $339 when it ships in February, but it’s currently going for as little as $199 during an Indiegogo campaign.

That price includes a MobiScribe, pen, and cover — but it’s only good for the first 150 backers. After that the price goes up to $214.

A few things to keep in mind before placing an order:

  • This device has a relatively old (and not super-speedy) i.MX6 ARM Cortex-A9 processor and just 512MB 1Gb of RAM, so don’t expect amazing performance.
  • It’s also running an operating system based on Android 4.4, which is a little long in the tooth at this point.
  • I’ve never heard of MobiScribe, have you?

The product seems to come from a company called TeamUC, which has a listing for an eReader with similar specs, but a slightly different looking design on its website. But the MobiScribe crowdfunding campaign creator is simply listed as “Michael H,” of San Jose California, and it’s a campaign with “flexible funding,” which means that even if the campaign didn’t meet its $30,000 goal (which it already has), the campaign would have been funded.

So… proceed with caution, I guess? Or you could wait for one of the new Onyx E Ink slates to hit the market.

Update: Apparently there was a typo on the crowdfunding page, and the MobiScribe will actually have 1GB of RAM, not 512MB.

That said, $199 seems like a decent price for a reading & writing slate with a 6.8 inch, 1440 x 1080 pixel E Ink Carta display, 8GB of eMMC storage, a microSD card reader (up to 32GB), and a 1,500 mAh battery.

Other features include 802.11b/g/n WiFi and a micro USB port.

The device measures 6.9″ x 5.2″ x 0.4″ and weighs about 8 ounces.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3pdJgH9028

via The eBook Reader

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 9,545 other subscribers

8 replies on “MobiScribe 6.8 inch E Ink slate + stylus hits Indiegogo for $199 and up”

  1. Where can we get a full list of specs & a complete list of features and functionality? Mobiscribe promises to be a great tool, and a viable competitor to ReMarkable, if its functionality is better for a cheaper price.

  2. Hello, there is a bit of a misunderstanding as the most the device will run for the rest of the campaign is $214, not MRSP. Please let me know if you’ve further questions.

    1. Hi Some of the facts above aren’t entirely accurate so to clarify:
      Our early bird price has ended and we are now at a subsidized price of 214 until the end of the campaign. We are nearly out of our initial batch of 490 devices, and will continue to ship more in perhaps 3 months lead time.

      The consistent build of android is necessary to minimize complications for open development environment.

      There was a typo in the original spec and the available ram is, in fact 1GB, and the specs overall are competitive to the reMarkable if you were to draw a side by side comparison.

      Best,
      Roger W

  3. hard to recommend at any price point given not just the cpu, but the version of android is not going to work well. Android 4.4 is REALLY out of date. the remarkable reader is..ok because at least they have a linux version they work on. They can’t do much with that old a version of android and that cpu. I think of my tragic experience with the 13.3 inch e-reader device –old cpu and trying to use old android build is unlikely to work.

  4. I would love this sort of thing so I can finally banish post-its and other small notes from my life.

    Also:
    “The MobiScribe is expected to have a retail price of $339 when it ships in February, but it’s currently going for as little as $199 during an Indiegogo campaign.

    “That price includes a MobiScribe, pen, and cover — but it’s only good for the first 150 backers. After that the price goes up to 4214.”

    That’s a HUGE price spike!

Comments are closed.