Bokeen's Cybook Opus E-Reader Beats Kindle to a Pocket-Friendly Size

E-reader manufacturer Bookeen recently revealed details on its newest hand-held device. Unlike Amazon, which recently super-sized the Kindle 2 into the larger DX, Bokeen's innovation goes in the other direction: the Cybook Opus fits in a pocket.

Bookeen revealed the device at Digital Book 2009 last week, and its specs make it sound pretty interesting. Largely thanks to its petite size, it weighs a mere 5.3 ounces. According to Bookeen, that makes it the lightest e-reader there is. It's got a 5-inch e-ink screen, with a 600-by-800-pixel resolution, and can display text in 12 different font sizes. It's also designed to be operated with one hand, with shoulder page-changer buttons and a central joystick-like control; has a motion sensor to rotate the display for landscape orientation, and 1GB of on-board storage. In terms of file capabilities, it supports ePub and PDF--but, it seems, not Amazon's proprietary Kindle format.

These specs stand up pretty well with the Kindle 2--the screen resolution is the same for example, and though the Kindle 2 has room for 1,500 books in its 2GB of memory, the 750-odd the Cybook can manage certainly isn't an issue. 

The main thing that makes the Cybook interesting is its size. The Kindle really isn't pocket-friendly, and the bigger DX is designed to please textbook and newspaper readers. Whereas the Cybook is about the same size as a paperback novel, and is literally just as portable. That should earn it a few fans when it launches in June.

[via Mobileread] 

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