14 DAY TRIAL // You might not remember, but last year PocketBook, in collaboration with E Ink, announced that it planned to bring on the market a 13.3-inch Android E Ink reader called PocketBook CAD Reader, a device designed to answer the needs of professionals working in the engineering and construction fields.
Back then, E Ink said that the device would be taking advantage of a new screen technology called Fina. But as the first reviews of the device start being published (this one is on MobileRead), we learn that E Ink has opted against the Fina display and bundled the device with an E Ink Mobius display. The same that can be found on the Sony DPT-S1 PDF Reader.
Mobius displays usually bring about certain benefits, like the fact they are more durable because they use plastic backing and not glass.
On the other hand, the advantages of the Fina display would have revolved around the device being lighter and more efficient. This would have been achieved by virtue of a very thin glass substrate, much more subtle than normal glass.
But, as it turns out, larger glass-based displays are increasingly showing to be too fragile, so E Ink appears to have abandoned the concept altogether. Fina is not even listed on the company’s website.
Thus, the 13.3-inch PocketBook CAD reader will be the second device to take advantage of the Mobius screen. Sadly, it is said that the device’s release date has now been set for January 2015, but we still don’t know the pricing.