Friday, March 05, 2010

enTourage eDGe Dualbook Reviewed: Half eReader, Half Netbook Not Quite There Yet [Tablets]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/956nVl2cuBI/entourage-edge-dualbook-reviewed-half-ereader-half-netbook-not-quite-there-yet

The innovative, if slightly bonkers, enTourage eDGe has been reviewed by Laptop, and as I suspected they had a few issues with the design. They found the half ereader, half netbook too heavy, with the number of options overwhelming.

Part of the lure to a dualbook like the eDGe is that it's got so many features—but it sounds like enTourage has been too generous here, with Laptop pointing out that "it's overkill for consumers mainly interested in surfing the Web, or simply reading eBooks."

There are only 200,000 titles in enTourage's ebook store, with only around half of them being best-sellers. It does have access to over 1 million of the Google Books, but there are no newspapers or magazines available just yet either.

Ultimately, Laptop seemed pleased with the dualbook, awarding it three out of five stars, but slight issues with the resistive touchscreen, fast-draining battery, and limited app store options made them conclude it's probably best to wait until the next version—or at least until enTourage has a more polished offering. [Laptop]