Devices with 7.8 inch color E Ink displays are officially a thing. This month Chinese company Bigme introduced the Bigme S3 with a 7.8 inch E Ink Kaleido display, and now a second model is on the way, this time from a company that has a history of selling its products globally.

The PocketBook 740 Color is an eBook reader with a 7.8 inch, 1404 x 1872 pixel E Ink Kaleido display capable of displaying 4096 colors. It should be available for pre-order in Russia soon for about $300 and the eReader is expected to ship in March.

Update: PocketBook has launched a version of the eReader for the US market, where it’s called the PocketBook InkPad Color. It’s available from Amazon and Newegg for $329. 

That makes PocketBook’s first 7.8 inch color eReader substantially cheaper than the Bigme S3, which sells for $540. But it’s also a substantially less powerful device.

PocketBook’s model has a 1 GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, and a custom operating system while Bigme’s device is basically an E Ink Android 8.1 tablet with a 1.8 GHz octa-core CPU, 2GB of RAM and 32GB of storage.

Here’s a run-down of specs for the PocketBook Color 740:

Display7.8 inch E Ink Kaleido
1404 x 1872
4096 colors (100 ppi)
16 shades of grey (300 ppi)
Front-light
Capacitive touch
CPU1 GHz dual-core
RAM1GB
Storage16GB
microSD card reader (up to 32GB)
PortsUSB Type-C
Audio outputvia USB or Bluetooth
WirelessWiFi 4
Bluetooth
Battery2900 mAh
MaterialsPlastic (body)
Glass (screen)
Dimensions195 x 136.5 x 8mm
Weight225 grams

PocketBook says the eReader supports a wide range of document formats including EPUB, PDF, ACSM, MOBI, RTF, TXT, HTML, and FB2 for text documents, CBR and CBZ for digital comics, JPG, BMP, PNG, and TIF for images, and MP3, M4A, and OGG for audio files.

The device also supports cloud services including Dropbox and PocketBook Cloud and runs a handful of apps for note-taking, web browsing, and reading RSS feeds. There are also a few basic games including Chess and Soduku.

PocketBook also offers a non-color version of the eReader called the PocketBook 740 Pro. That model, which has been around for a few years, sells for about $200 and features a similar design and specs to the new color model. But it has an E Ink Carta grayscale display, a 1,900 mAh battery, a micro USB port. On the up side, the black and white version features an IPX8 rating for protection from water.

This article was originally published February 8, 2021 and last updated February 15, 2021. 

via The Digital Reader and MobileRead

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8 replies on “PocketBook 740 Color is a 7.8 inch E Ink color eReader coming in March for $300”

  1. I think that is really neat. I think it would be great for graphic novels, photo books and e-books with illustrations, and magazines.

    I like using ebook readers. I have two of them from two different ebook sellers. their batteries last a long time.

  2. Interesting; would be interested at this price unless the panel is complete garbage (super slow refresh, lower than average for the type of panel color reproduction). Does anyone know if e-readers from these guys have any history of alternative open source firmwares?

  3. Sorry for double posting but there’s no exit…

    Does the bigme s3 have GPS? I don’t see much advantage in it being a full android tablet other ebook store apps (kindle, Kobo, etc.) Or possibly GPS.

    If it has GPS (am energy efficient one) it could be great as an offline map device for tourists/hikers (people on foot where a slow refresh rate wouldn’t be an issue).

    Actually, if they had a custom maps app that could have an adjustable refresh rate it’s be great. Just refresh every five or ten seconds, maybe your market a bit faster but only move the map when you’re getting relatively close to the edges.

    I would have loved something like this when I was traveling in Spain. And if I ever get back to hiking it’s be great for that too.

  4. The PR photos you show have much better colour than what we’ve seen so far. It’ll be interesting to see what real life photos compare to pocketbook’s marketing material. To be fair, the 10.3 demo from some fair back in 2019 showed better colours, probably due to screen choices (glass or not, matte, layers, etc.

  5. Honestly I kinda feel better about it running a limited custom OS that does almost nothing except load, render, and display static files. It may be proprietary, but I don’t need to give it WAN access. At this price point and size it’s almost tempting to get it and hang it on the wall where it’ll display random images I’ve collected over the years (and maybe keep actual books on it too, if I just wanted a photo frame I’d prefer 10″ and it’s lighter than two physical books if you’re out on a hike.)
    I guess I’ll wait for a review first.

  6. “microSD card reader (up to 16GB)”

    WTF? So they decided to go through the trouble of adding a microSD slot, but only for cards that are 10 years old??? Even the super cheapo cards these days basically start at 32GB. And anyone that wants extra storage (comic collection anyone?) will want at least 64GB.

Comments are closed.