Asus Working on a 6-inch Color OLED E-book Reader

Posted 01/17/2010 at 1:20pm | by Justin Kerr

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Asus announced a ton of new laptops at CES 2010, but many were surprised to find things pretty quiet on the e-book reader front, especially with all the rumors of a multi-display touch enabled device that was expected in late 2009. Interestingly enough, those rumors were started by the Times Online UK, and the same publication is now claiming Asus has tipped them off with details of their new DR-570 planned for release later this year.

Assuming the Times Online has the straight goods this time, the DR-570 will sport a 6-inch OLED color display, along with Wi-Fi and 3G connections. Of course, a 6-inch OLED display would be wasted on books alone, so Asus is reportedly working on flash support, along with over 122 hours of battery life in "real world conditions". Asus has a pretty solid reputation as a budget electronics maker, but it will still be very interesting to see how this unit will be priced. Sony charges as much as $2,000 for an 11" OLED TV, so clearly the screen is going to be a pretty significant cost in the manufacturing of the device.

The DR-570 isn't expected until later in the year, so perhaps Asus is hoping prices will drop between now and the end of 2010. If they do pull it off however, it could end up being as game changing to the e-book reader market as the EEE PC was to the netbook market. Would you buy an OLED color e-book reader? And more importantly, what would you be willing to pay?