Kindle Review – Kindle Fire Review, Kindle 4 Review

Hearst has revealed the details of its Skiff Reader and a quick review of the Skiff is in order (thanks to Damaso for the tip).

Skiff Reader – Review of the killer features

Hearst help us out by spelling out the main selling points on the main page itself. Skiff’s killer features are -

1. The largest eReader display – The screen is 11.5 inches diagonal (that’s 29.21 cm) and considerably bigger than the 9.7″ Kindle DX screen. It’s also bigger than the screen of the Plastic Logic Que. 
2. The thinnest eReader – An impressive 0.27 inches (0.68 cm).  
3. Extremely durable – There’s a metal foil backplane for the eInk which means no cracking or shattering. The housing is magnesium adding to the sturdiness. 
4. Very high screen resolution – Hearst claim the screen has 4 times as many pixels as most ebook readers. It’s 1200 by 1600 pixels which is really good and there are 174 pixels per inch. 
5. Full touch screen - Supports both finger and stylus operation. 
6. Long battery life – 1 week battery life. They do say that this assumes periodic wireless use and that the recharging time is 2-3 hours.

For some reason they don’t mention that Skiff Reader supports both 3G and WiFi on the main page – it’s a pretty important feature. The other good, solid feature is excellent capacity including extensibility – 4 GB memory with 3 GB available for content and an SD card slot.

Which Skiff Reader features really stand out?

The 4 features that really are killer features, in my opinion, are -

1. The large 11.5 ” screen with the impressive 1200 by 1600 resolution. It’s the biggest screen so far and quite appropriate for a device targeted at magazine and newspaper readers.
2. The flexible, shatter-proof, crack-proof metal foil ePaper display developed by LG Display. The epaper display uses a thin, flexible sheet of stainless steel foil as the backplane and this eliminates the fragility of a glass backplane. The addition of magnesium housing is a good step too.
3. The touch screen and its support for both finger and stylus operation.
4. Both 3G and WiFi support – Hopefully there’s a browser included to take advantage of this. The 3G connectivity is via a multi-year agreement with Sprint.

Sprint will also be selling the Skiff at over 1,000 Sprint retail outlets and this is a killer feature in terms of helping increase awareness and sales.

Skiff – Review of the downsides

There are some obvious questions that come up -

1. What’s the price going to be? The screen is gigantic, the housing is magnesium, there’s a new flexible, unbreakable screen - Certainly seems like the price will be high. 
2. What about portability? While the weight (17.56 oz) and dimensions (9″ by 11″ by .27″) are reasonable for a screen this big the Skiff is still quite a bit heavier and bigger than the typical 6″ screen eReader.
3. Will LG get things right? This is one of the first instances of LG making an eReader screen and we don’t really know what we’ll get. 

Perhaps the biggest question has to do with the motivation for creating the Skiff Reader. 

Who is the Skiff Reader really built for?

There are two things that make you wonder.

1. The first is the focus on advertising i.e. a lot of the screenshots (including the one on the main page) show readers clicking on an ad.
2. The second is how the Skiff seems to be based on magazine companies’ perceptions of what an eReader should be i.e.
   

   Newspaper and magazine content delivered by Skiff will feature visually appealing layouts, high-resolution graphics, rich typography and dynamic updates, supporting key design qualities that help publications differentiate themselves and attract subscribers and advertisers.

The Skiff seems to revolve around advertising and magazine companies’ perceptions of what a magazine ereader should look like.

What about magazine readers - Were no magazine readers hurt  consulted during the testing of the Skiff?

Skiff Reader Technical Specifications, Thoughts

Here are the complete list of specifications -

Device Dimensions: 9 inches (228.6 mm) by 11 inches (279.4 mm) by 0.268 inches (6.8 mm).
Weight: 17-9/16 oz (498 grams). Magnesium housing.

Display Size: 11.5 inches (292.1 mm) measured diagonally.
Display Resolution: 1200 x 1600 pixels with 174 ppi.
Rugged Metal-Foil e-Paper Display: Silicon thin-film-transistors (TFT) on flexible stainless-steel substrate. Shatter-proof, crack-proof.

Battery Life: One week of average life (thousands of page turns with periodic wireless use). Rechargeable high-capacity Lithium Ion battery.

Wireless: 3G, WiFi.
USB: USB 2.0 via mini-USB port.

Memory: Internal Memory of 4 GB (3+ GB available for content) and SDHC 2.0 standard compliant SD-card slot.
Audio: Built-in speaker, 3.5 mm standard audio jack.

Hearst haven’t yet added what file formats they’ll support though ePub, PDF and Adobe Digital Editions DRM will probably be included.

Skiff Reader – Review of Skiff’s Prospects and Closing Thoughts

This is a pretty impressive device with -

1. Significant strengths – Large screen size, touch screen, support for both 3G and WiFi, and a flexible, unbreakable screen.
2. Significant weaknesses – Lack of portability, high price (almost certainly), first version of the device. 
3. Several unknowns – Range of available content, pricing of available content, format support and openness.

Price is going to be the second biggest factor in determining how successful this is.

The biggest will be the Skiff Reader release date.

Much like B&N, Hearst are making the critical mistake of showing their hand too far in advance. It gives its competitors, including Plastic Logic Que, the Kindle DX, and the Apple iSlate, too much time to figure out how to respond.

Skiff Reader’s prospects are bright if the price is reasonable and the release date is within the next 2 months. If it messes up on price it’ll end up competing with the Apple iSlate and if it releases in 6-7 months it’ll have much stronger eInk based competitors.

Filed under: eBook Reader Devices Tagged: | skiff ereader, skiff reader