Xiaomi eBook Reader
Handy design
For the first time, Xiaomi dares to use an eBook reader with an e-ink display. The MiReader is a compact 6 inch eBook reader that is very similar to Amazon's Kindle in terms of design and functionality. The dimensions of the MiReader are handy 159 x 116 x 8.3 mm, with a weight of 178g.
High-resolution e-ink display
The energy-saving e-ink display achieves a high-resolution 221 PPI and is therefore positioned between a Kindle 2019 (167 PPI) and a Kindle Paperwhite (300 PPI). A special feature of the display is the LED backlight, which can be adjusted in 24 brightness levels. This means that Xiaomi's eBook Reader can also be used at night without an additional light source. Incidentally, the display can also be adjusted according to other preferences. Among other things, the contrast and the font size can be set.
Allwinner B300 system
The Allwinner B300 System-on-Chip, specially developed for eBook readers, works under the hood. The quad-core processor (4x Cortex-A7 1.8 GHz) is supported by 1GB of RAM and 16GB of data storage. In comparison, a Kindle 2019 only has 512MB of RAM and 4GB of data storage. It is not possible to expand the memory using a microSD memory card. However, if you consider that conventional eBooks only take up 3-10MB, 16GB of data storage should be sufficient even with intensive use.
Additional hardware features include support for 2.4 GHz WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0. According to Xiaomi, one charge of the 1800 mAh battery should allow a running time of several weeks. The MiReader is charged via the current USB-C standard.
Android 8.1 with WPS support
On the software side, the MiReader relies on Android 8.1. Even if the reader appears exclusively on the Chinese market, hobby developers will surely find a way to make the MiReader palatable to global users. After all, Android is compatible with all Android apps, regardless of the localization.
For the release, the eBook reader is understood to include books in TXT, EPUB, PDF and MOBI format. The integration of WPS Office is interesting, so that Excel, Word and PowerPoint documents can also be read. Users with WeChat or Xiaomi accounts can synchronize their books and documents directly with the respective cloud offerings.
assessment
The Xiaomi eBook Reader will appear in China for the equivalent of € 77. Despite the better features, the MiReader would even be cheaper than Amazon's current Kindle model. And that even without annoying advertising!
The Android 8.1 operating system is particularly interesting. This not only offers a wide range of uses, but also gives hope that the eBook reader will also appear in a global version in this country. After all, Xiaomi is very interested in conquering the European market! Nevertheless, an import could also be worthwhile. It remains to be seen whether the operating system will offer a purely Chinese or at least English voice output.
As soon as further information follows or a test copy reaches us, follow the info / the test at this point!
