Ebooks Reader: Is Bookeen’s Cybook Opus a Kindle Wannabe or a Contender?

 3 May 2010 - By Omar Mariño+
 omar@myddnetwork.com


Amazon’s Kindle Wireless reader really re-energized the e-book industry (and made reading cool again) but since then there’s been a host of “knock-offs” attempting to take a bite out of Amazon’s market share—most of them garbage.  At first glance the newly updated Bookeen Cybook Opus may look just like another pretender but when you get down to brass tacks this little machine really has the chops to be a solid contender.

The first Cybook was a pretty solid machine and really there’s not a whole lot different between this iteration of the Opus and the last.  However, the differences that are there are primarily in the devices functionality not just the snazzy new paint scheme.  The reader has been updated with an instant on fixture (saving you 15 seconds of your life and apparently turning the Opus into “a book” according to one user;) the E Ink display hasn’t gotten any bigger–it’s still only 800×600 pixels—but with 12 fonts sizes and 4 shades of grayscale it delivers a crisp easy read; the new Boo Reader software allows the battery to last up to 15 days (rivaling that of the Kindle’s.)  Overall, Bookeen offers a sort of bare bones alternative to Amazon’s trick out tech.

One of the most impressive specs is the 1GB of internal memory that can hold up to 1,000 titles and the fact that the microSD slot allows for 8,000 more!  And in a world where tech has become the ultimate fashion accessory, how cool is an e-reader that comes in seven hot new shades?

Bookeen Cybook Opus

The Booken Cybook Opus gets 7 new shades

So, when all things are considered, how does the Booken Cybook Opus compare?  If you’re looking for a solid e-reader and don’t need all the bells and whistles the kindle offers, the Cybook Opus is definitely worth the scratch.  And how much is that you ask?  List price at launch (May 7th) is just $199 US.  It’s not that much cheaper than the Kindle at $259 but Bookeen sweetens the deal with 150 books preloaded on their machine.  In the end, the Cybook Opus may just be the more commercially viable (and socially trendy) of the two devices.






Disclaimer - Category: eBook, Gadget