Good news for book lovers with green ethics! For those who love to read online and think should do a bit towards using renewable energy, you have Toshiba and KDDI joining the ranks of LG to provide solar energy powered e-readers.
Biblio Leaf is the solar energy powered new kid in the e-reader block to match LG’s Solar eReader.
Biblio Leaf has a six-inch e-ink display and 2 GB memory that can be enhanced with a microSD card. With 3G & Wi-Fi connectivity, touch pad and buttons to turn pages etc, there is a battery onboard which can be recharged by a solar panel. Once fully charged by solar energy, some 13.000 pages can be read non-stop.
It matches Kindle’s size – but has a 6-inch display size and 800 x 600 pixel resolution and only 295.8g weight. Its solar panel is mounted on the front side and is rather small in size unlike LG’s solar panel which are bigger, on the top and that can be turned over.
Biblio Leaf is to be released only in Japan presently as an add-on with the 3G wireless two-year contract at a $20 monthly cost. The smaller sized solar panel of Biblio Leaf may need more time for recharging as against the 4 hours needed by LG! The reader has to be careful not to cover the solar panel while holding the Biblio Leaf and reading from it.
Solar energy powered E-reader market is still taking just baby steps with LG’s Solar eReader being the first to arrive and now followed by Toshiba’s Biblio Leaf. These e-readers are yet to be available in the stores, but are comparing fairly favourably with each other in looks, display, energy, performance and availability with maybe LG having an edge. No doubt future technology will bring better and still better e-readers more efficiently powered by solar energy!
